Welcome to March. Here in Portland the flowers are starting to bloom and windows are open. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for friends in Minneapolis.

We are so excited about the sunshine that we want to give away music for the whole month. For the month of March Echolocations will mail two past CDs to everyone that signs up. Bringing the total to 8 CDs for 30 dollars, which by our standards is a pretty good deal. So sign up now and receive 2 CDs within a week.

Echolocations is happy to release 'Flood Pt. 1'. Clear Tigers, Cryptacize, Throw Me The Statue, Prairie Cat, Marla Hansen and Bon Iver all offer tracks from debut releases on 5.5. Just as exciting are the two artists on 5.5 that have been around for much longer:


Leonardo Paniagua plays a captivating and melancholy Bachata song on 5.5. Bachata began with the death of a dictator, wrestled with social stigma, and wound up with international fame thanks to an electric guitar advent. But before bachateros plugged in, they performed acoustic guitar music at rural dance parties and in urban cabarets of ill repute. Marginalized by the Dominican elite, it became the wildly popular soundtrack of the street. The assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1961 led to a minor explosion in guitar music recordrings. During his regime, Trujillo had favored accordion-based Merengue over other guitar-driven genres, which were associated with the lower-class and rural communities that Trujillo despised. Subsequently, Bachata records were sold through mom-and-pop shops. Only one national radio station, Radio Guarachita, regularly aired Bachata, part of the station’s unique role as a bridge between rural and urban Dominicans. After several break through electric hits in the late 1980s, however, the older rootsier Bachata fell by the wayside. Thanks to producer Benjamin de Menil and iASO records for releasing ‘Bachata Roja’ and allowing this historic, acoustic, and catchy sound to be heard by international ears for the first time.

Steve Reid gives Echolocations one of few Jazz pieces ever featured. Bronx-born drummer Steve Reid has been journeying through the inner and outer reaches of the rhythmic universe for an unbelievable five decades. Reid grew up in the middle of the black renaissance in New York where he lived across the street from Thelonius Monk. Later when his family moved to Queens his new neighbor was John Coltrane, with whom, for a period he visited and played with everyday. Reid got his first gig at 17 when the drummer for Martha and the Vandellas didn’t show up for a gig at his school. She ended up keeping him on for tours and a few recordings. Reid was also a member of the Black Panther party. In the late ‘60s he ‘reversed the slave trip’ by taking a 17 day cargo ship back to Africa, where he lived for three years, playing with Fela Kuti and the Sierra Leone Refugee all-stars. Shortly upon his return Reid was thrown into jail for resisting the Vietnam draft. There he taught black history and music to his fellow inmates. Upon his release Reid began to play more avant-garde drum rhythms starting with Sun Ra and Charles Tyler and then with his own ensemble. Fast forward a few decades and many musical accomplishments later Steve Reid and Kieran Hebder traveled to Senegal to record ‘Daxaar’. Reid’s goal is that ‘bringing music to the people’ can help solve the world’s problems. All he wants is people to dance to Jazz again.

One last note on Free Music Friday: Antha from Jackson Heights, NY is the winner of the amazing Bon Iver CD and Michael from Salem, Virginia gets the also great Throw Me The Statue CD. Thanks for all who emailed.

My good friend Perry came to visit last weekend and she insisted that I needed to have a facebook group for Echolocations subscribers. She went ahead and put that together for me so now all of you out there that are on facebook, and perry has guaranteed me that many of you are, please join the group Echolocations Subscribers, to discuss compilations, tracks, and meet fellow music lovers. Echolocations on Facebook

Also, a few more days to win the free CDs from Bon Iver and Throw Me The Statue. Email: info@echolocations.com if interested.