Light Music

Gone are the days when easy listening was understood as the opposite of high culture. What in this programme counts as “easy listening” is the mastery of exceptional artists, not only brilliantly exhibiting their skills but also seducing with a deep passion and joy of living.

So it might be Maria João’s mellifluously seductive voice whispering her bittersweet melange from folk, modern jazz and world music into the microphone that makes your hair stand on end. Or your face may flush with warmth when the musicians from Tango Crash celebrate their furious decomposition and reinterpretation of Tango Argentino by combining it with jazz and electronics.

A perfect dream: Lura’s cheerful sensual tribute to the country of her ancestors, the Cape Verde Islands, where African rhythms, the Caribbean joie de vivre and Portuguese melancholy merge. Liberty and coolness breathe through guitarist Bill Frisell’s emotional and acoustic worlds. His American ancestry seeps from every pore of his music, oscillating between blues, folk, jazz, country and electronics.