twenty haiku recently won the Audio/Spoken-word award at the DIY Festival in Hollywood, CA. The DIY Festival celebrates independently released literature, music, and film. twenty haiku is also on the the Grammy ballot for Best Spoken Word Album; NARAS voters will now whittle the entries down to the few official nominees. twenty haiku features haiku written and recited by muñoz, coupled with improvised accompaniment by musicians such as jazz drumming great Scott Amendola, electronic music wiz bLevin bLectum, Anthony Brown of the acclaimed Asian-American Orchestra, and many more. Exclusive artwork for each haiku in the collection can be viewed online. Visit twentyhaiku.com/ for the online experience, collaborator info, and more.
Derek Lassiter's Witness is a breath of fresh air for modern soul music: earthy, percussion-driven, spiritual and sensual. From the opening rocker "Hunger" to the jazzy workout "I'll Grow", Lassiter's poetic songs explore the deep roots of Africa and Africa-America, powered by the sound of the drum. Featuring special guest musicians Tom Freund (fresh off of a tour with his longtime songwriting partner, Ben Harper), Louisiana Blues legend Lady Mem'is, and San Francisco guitar phenom Marc Weibel. Produced by pc muñoz.
pc muñoz launched Verse-Chorus-Verse,
an online, bi-monthly column
dedicated to great songs, in 2005. Each entry focuses on one song, drawing
from a wide range of artists and traditions. Since its launch, the V-C-V
column has been attracting readers from all over the world, from voracious
music-lovers to critics to the profiled artists themselves!
"It's a way of acknowledging and celebrating the great songwriters and songs that have moved me, influenced me, or simply made me smile," muñoz says.
Entries concentrate both on songs that were early, formative influences on pc's songwriting, and "unsung" songs (great songs that pc feels have gone undetected by both critics and public) and songs from the contemporary scene.
"There are so many great songs out there," pc notes. "There's no chance of running out of material for this column!"