Salma Har

Tom Rossi | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 22, 2004)
• Original Release Date: September 22, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ajna Music
• ASIN: B00064NOGM
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #252,035 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

African, South American, Middle Eastern, and Caribbean sounds unite in a celebration of rhythm, harmony, and tradition on Tom Rossi's debut, Salma Har. Influenced by everything from West African voodoo ceremonies and master percussive teachings in Ghana, to expeditions throughout Brazil, Cuba, and Turkey, Rossi skillfully uses a wide array of global instruments to showcase his absorption of international music.

Recorded in his Brooklyn basement studio, Rossi plays more than 20 instruments including the kalimba, flutes, percussion, piano, and various guitars while receiving help from specialists on the kora, bolon, and cello. The sounds oscillate between poignant wind tones, silky vocals, gentle raindrop rhythms, and addictive beats. Subtly invigorating, Salma Har opens like the dawning day with progressive hip-shaking tribal beats on "Oiseau," the first track, and slowly reaches peaceful twilight with the hypnotic closing tracks, "Resolutions" and "D Meditation." --Yoga Journal - by Stephanie Benson

Product Description

Dear fans, PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS CD FROM AMAZON. If you want a physical CD of this record, SALMA HAR, please contact me from my website contact page: Tom Rossi dot com. I ask this because Amazon Advantage makes it extremely difficult to find and confirm your sale and your order will most likely be cancelled due to the inefficiency of their website for the seller's account portion. I will be happy to mail you a physical CD myself. Thank you! Tom

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music to Stir the Heart & Soothe the Soul, December 17, 2004

By 

Skate Guru (N.Y.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salma Har (Audio CD)

Unique & versatile -this album can serve as soothing meditation music or good listening that reaches out to touch your soul. The blend of harmonics & rhythmics is a result of the melding of the essences of the music of many cultures skillfully woven into an original art form that is uniquely Rossi's.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting, and growing on me by leaps and bounds, October 23, 2005

By 

Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Salma Har (Audio CD)

This is music I really wanted to like a lot. And initially, I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed--I was only going to give it three stars. But the more I've listened to it, the more I'm becoming a fan: the sheer beauty and breadth of vision, not to mention attention to the tiniest sonic details, make this a very special disc.

Tom Rossi certainly has what it takes to pull something like this off--world travel to places like Togo, Ghana, Turkey, Cuba, Salvador, Bahia, and Brazil; proficiency on a wide ranges of instruments, including piano, guitar, various flutes, bass, clarinet, kalimba, and about a dozen different percussion instruments; study under such masters as Mustapha Tetty Addy, Giovanni Hildago, and Papa Ladji Camara; not to mention study at Berklee, scoring films and composing for theatrical and dance productions, and accompanying a wide variety of world-music ensembles in and around New York.

And, truth be told, there's really not anything quite like it out there. This is certainly one of the most eclectic discs ever recorded, blending everything from exotic world-percussion to ravishing wordless SoCal harmonies to lap steel guitar stylings to Malian kora to bata drumming to dreamy faux Middle Eastern musings.

Once you get on board with the vibe--for me, after an initial response of being somewhat skeptical that it was all too poppish/New Agey--it generally works quite marvelously. If there is the occasional lapse into sentimentality and cheese, Rossi can be forgiven for the conceptual scope and the generally pulled off uniquely beautiful soundscape.

About the only criticism I have is that it sometimes sounds a little too slick. I believe this could be corrected if he actually recorded with a working band, because the tracks most prominently featuring a number of different players work best. Yes, he plays enough instruments to be a one-man band, but nothing beats actual interaction with fellow players in real time.

In any case, this is a really good first recording. The aesthetic reminds me of Fraser Fifield's great disc, Honest Water, even though it sounds little like that album. Interestingly Fifield, another hugely talented multi-instrumentalist, has been gigging with his own band for about the last year or so, and has a new recording (not yet heard by me) with that new group.

I'm anxiously looking forward to the next offering by Tom Rossi.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best album of the year!, December 30, 2004

By 

Tim Rossi "Tim Rossi" (Wilmington NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Salma Har (Audio CD)

From start to finsh this album is full of great relaxing and inspirational music. I think that Tom Rossi simply out did himself. I extremly recomend this album to anyone interested in experiancing a new cultural experiance.