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People's Picks: Kishi Bashi

People's Picks: Kishi Bashi
People's Picks: Kishi Bashi | Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

I discovered Smithsonian Folkways when I was a young songwriter, as “the label that Woody Guthrie was on.” In his biography, Bob Dylan wrote relentlessly about Woody's influence, and Woody's recordings, alongside blues (I love Lead Belly!) and untouched traditional music from around the world, were an intro to me into the cultural and archival work of Moses Asch, Ralph Rinzler, and their successors. Pulling 31 songs from over 60,000 recordings spanning several decades, this playlist only scratches the surface of an incredible audio legacy.

Kishi Bashi (Kaoru Ishibashi) is a composer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and performance artist with eclectic musical roots. His latest album, Kantos, moves fluidly between Brazilian jazz, ’70s funk, orchestral rock, and city pop, and draws on influences ranging from the cult-classic sci-fi novel series Hyperion Cantos to the writings of 18th century enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kantos is out on August 23 on Joyful Noise.
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Listen on Pandora here