Henry Kaiser has long found spiritual fulfillment playing music informed by the ancient songs of Korean Shamanism. This time he finds further fulfillment in the comradery of musicians who like him understand the power of the mudang.

Rez Abbasi and his potent Invocation band have demonstrated with ‘Unfiltered Universe’ that creativity and originality is more than just ideas and knowledge, it’s about vision.

Hiromi and Edmar Castaneda’s ‘Live in Montreal’ is a revelation about the enchantment that can come from combining world-class piano with an unconventionally inventive harp.

Jazz Dispensary reissues two early 70s documents of explorative jazz: Gary Bartz NTU Troop – ‘Harlem Bush Music – Uhuru’ (1971) and Joe Henderson feat Alice Coltrane – ‘The Elements’ (1973)

Through death comes transformation. Gato Libre is a band whose body has changed, but its original heart perseveres.

Even without the benefit of no expectations this time around, Julia Úlehla and Aram Bajakian’s ‘The Book of Transfigurations’ manages to captivate like that first Dálava album.

With such an impressive assemblage of talent pushing out the frontiers of world music, this could have easily been a scholarly affair, but then that wouldn’t be an Adam Rudolph-led record. ‘Glare Of The Tiger’ is spontaneous, instinctual, colorful, danceable and…most importantly…a hell of an enjoyable listen.

When great musicians from different bands and projects get together for the express purpose of making music without the restrictions they usually face elsewhere, it should bring out the best in all of them. That’s just what happened with the guys in Modus Factor on their inaugural effort ‘The Picasso Zone.’

Ian East’s ‘Inner Paths’ is an ethnic fusion album that’s fun to listen to now and will be fun to listen to a hundred plays from now. Getting a world music education can hardly be more enjoyable than listening to this.

The spiritually soothing music of Sameer Gupta and Ross Hammond’s “Upward” is a simple pleasure in any culture.