In his liner notes, producer-arranger Bob Belden calls this meeting of Miles Davis alumni and Indian musicians “a grand gesture at reconciliation between disparate cultures bound together by a universal truth. Music.” That word “reconciliation” is a bit off, since Indian music has influenced everyone from the Beatles to Zappa.…

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As a foot soldier and prisoner in Word War II, Kurt Vonnegut experienced pointless cruelties and the absurdities of military life. This posthumous collection contains 11 never-before-published short pieces on war as well as his last written speech delivered by his son on April 27, 2007, two weeks after his…

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John Zorn’s interest in film music flickers through all his recordings. His latest project seems a soundtrack for a spaghetti western too twisted to be shot, all sauce and corkscrew pasta (reference his 1985 collection of Enrico Morricone movie music The Big Gundown). Varied and accessible like his 2001 release…

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The last conversation I had with my grandfather was about train hopping. By then, he’d decided I was a shiftless, long-haired hippie of dubious political beliefs and used silence to show disapproval. But driving back down from Lake Arrowhead to Riverside after a family outing in search of snow we began—I don’t remember how—talking about his experience riding the rails.

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