RajMan Recommended Playlist: Summers Singers, by Andy Summers

This playlist features my favorite collaborations between Andy Summers and various singers, including Najma Akhtar, Sting, Deborah Harry, Q-Tip, Fernanda Takai, and Rob Giles. The tracks are taken from the following albums: The Golden Wire (1989), Green Chimneys (1999), Peggy’s Blue Skylight (2000), Fundamental (2012), and Circus Hero by Circa Zero (2014).

Piya Tose * Round Midnight * Weird Nightmare * Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/Where Can a Man Find Peace? * No Mesmo Lugar (Here I Am Again) * You Light My Dark * Smile and Blue Sky Me * Underground * Gamma Ray * Whenever You Hear the Rain

--Raj Manoharan

RajMan Recommended Playlist: Metal Luminescence, by Andy Summers

This playlist combines my top five picks from each of Andy Summers’ last two albums, Metal Dog (2015) and Triboluminescence (2017), for an intriguing exploration of dark, eclectic fusion.

Metal Dog * Animal Chatter * Ishango Bone * Vortex Street * Harmonograph * If Anything * Elephant Bird * Gigantopithecus * Ricochet * Help from Jupiter

--Raj Manoharan

Blues for Tony (2010), by Allan Holdsworth, Alan Pasqua, Jimmy Haslip, and Chad Wackerman

The last album released during Allan Holdsworth’s lifetime with his name on the cover documents the fusion guitar master and his frequent collaborator, keyboardist Alan Pasqua, in a live 2007 tribute to their 1970s bandleader, the late, legendary jazz drummer Tony Williams.

The dueling tones of Holdsworth’s six strings and Pasqua’s 88 keys are sometimes nearly indistinguishable as they take alternately fiery and facile turns, with Yellow Jackets bass player Jimmy Haslip and drummer Chad Wackerman keeping the rhythms and beats grooving along while also showing off their musical might.

The last three tracks of the two-CD set – “San Michele,” “Protocosmos,” and “Red Alert” – propel the album towards a powerful, impactful conclusion.

And so, with the final official recording of his life, Holdsworth ends on a high note.

--Raj Manoharan

The Things You See (1980, 2007), by Allan Holdsworth and Gordon Beck

Unlike their luminescent and timeless sequel eight years later, Allan Holdsworth and Gordon Beck’s first collaborative album finds them more down to earth and at odds with each other.

Holdsworth, in his pre-synthaxe period, sticks to acoustic and electric guitars, violin, and, for the first time since his ‘Igginbottom days, vocals (on one track), and Beck handles the keys on acoustic and electric pianos.

Whereas on the follow-up the duo is very much in harmonious sync, this debut outing has them trading off passages in counterpoint to each other, almost like a cat-and-mouse game of musical oneupmanship, an artistic conversation of which we are mere observers rather than partakers.

From that intellectual vantage point, this album provides fascinating insight into each musician’s mastery of his instrument, but the real harvest of their creative partnership would come into full bloom nearly a decade later.

--Raj Manoharan

Propensity (2009), by Danny Thompson, Allan Holdsworth, and John Stevens

They say good things come to those who wait. In this case, with the album produced in 1978, mixed in 1997, and made commercially available in 2009, the total wait was 31 years from recording to release.

Was the wait worth it? Even if you’re an Allan Holdsworth fan, it’s a 50/50 proposition.

Technically, the performances and recording quality are top-notch and superb. The musicians (Danny Thompson on bass, Allan Holdsworth on acoustic 12-string guitar and electric guitar, and John Stevens on drums) are at the top of their game, and the album sounds like it was recorded today.

Musically, it’s a challenging listen. This is really out-there, pure improvisational jazz, almost like stream of consciousness on the part of the players. There are no concise compositions or structures or hooks or riffs, but rather quite a bit of dissonance and atonality.

As sonic art, it soars. The work required to engage with it is its own reward.

--Raj Manoharan

Black Panther Original Score (2018), by Ludwig Goransson

Black Panther is one of the absolute best Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and certainly the most unique, and its corresponding soundtrack is definitely the best of the bunch.

Ludwig Goransson has created music that is every bit as remarkable as the movie it underscores, especially in its visceral, life-affirming revelry of African sounds and rhythms.

Based on his personal, firsthand research into and study of African musical traditions, Goransson structured his compositions around indigenous vocals, tribal chants, and exotic ethnic instruments, especially drums and percussion (Police drummer Stewart Copeland employed a similar process for his groundbreaking 1985 Afro-pop/rock album The Rhythmatist).

The result is an incredible, epic work of Afrocentric world music fused with hip techno and electronica and rousing, soaring symphony orchestra.

"Wakanda," "Warrior Falls," and the last four tracks of the album are excellent, perfectly capturing the film’s interwoven themes of family, honor, and heroism.

The Black Panther score is not only the cream of the crop of Marvel and superhero movie soundtracks, but it also ranks among the most memorable film music of all time.

--Raj Manoharan