Ranging from high-school students, to NMC students to college staff members to local businesspeople to retirees. Some volunteers drive in from Beulah, Elk Rapids, Kalkaska, or Suttons Bay. Some live on campus. Some of our volunteers were born (rare thing!) right here in Traverse City. Some hail from Detroit, Chicago or Harare.
The volunteer staff of WNMC represents a broad & varied slice of our northern Michigan community.
Favorite Artists
Frankie Newton
For one tune: the excellent "Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave to Me." Sometimes one musical statement, if poignant enough, justifies an entire career.
Randy Newman
He's a great and brave songwriter. Not always at the top of his game, but he ventures for more than most, so is bound to fail sometimes. But when he succeeds! Check out Sail Away.
Duke Ellington
Somebody to come back to again and again. Increadible musical sophistication and richness, and so many great sidemen, so many of whom found their musical souls in the confines of Duke's orchestras.
Favorite Albums
Ry Cooder
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Into the Purple Valley
A great coming together of elements from the American musical traditions: bits of jazz, hokum, blues and pop. The resulting gumbo is both more and less than the some of its parts, as it ought to be.
Franco
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Azda
But not for the much vaunted title track. On Mabele, Franco lays it down: this is what Central Africal rumba is all about: the spice of latin music with the drive of african xylophone music and the sweetness of singers like Sam Mangwana. Lovely
Duke Ellington
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Take the A Train
1941 radio transcriptions from LA. Great band, some schmaltz here and there, but interesting schmaltz. Some of the best music America ever produced with better remastering than RCA has generally managed with the recording studio versions.
Barbarito Torres
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Havana Cafe
I really love the combination of Torres old-fashioned laud (lute) and somewhat modernized son sounds. Great versions of some old classics, and some new ones too.
Townes Van Zandt
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High, Low and In Between
Reissued in combo with "The Late Great Townes Van Zandt." Great songwriting. Van Zandt might put some in mind of Bob Dylan, but these songs put Bob Dylan's obscurantist hits to shame.
Cool Links
The Atlantic
A very fine magazine with plenty of fine articles about music
