Manolo says, here are three more recommendations from the Manolo to help those who must find the gifts of the last minute.

Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet

On the face, the concept it is most simple: the minimalist composer Gavin Bryars found the audio loop of homeless street person singing the repetative jingle and to this he added the music. But this description, in no way does it fully convey the emotional power of this composition. It is, in the opinion of the Manolo, perhaps the single most affecting piece of music composed in the past fifty years.

The Next Hundred Years

The Ted Hawkins, he is the absolutely best soul singer of whom you have never heard. His voice, it is so good, so very good. so soulful, so very soulful.

Very Best Of

Simply Masterful!

(If you do not believe the Manolo you must read the Amazon reviews, they are unanimous in their fulsome praise of this majesterial body of work.)

Manolo says, here are four more recommendation from the music files of the Manolo, perfect for giving to those you love.

Tanto Tempo

The Babel, she has such the lovely voice, and the rhythms they are so smooth and warm, like the pieces of polished tropical wood. It is in the humble opinion of the Manolo the perfect Bossa Nova, something that would allow you to sit back, close your eyes, and pretend that you are elsewhere.

Continental Drifter

Every since he first heard the Stand Back, many of the years ago, the Manolo he has been the devotee of the Charlie Musselwhite, the powerful bluesman and blower of the harp from the Chicago. So, you can imagine the joy of the Manolo when he heard that the Charlie he had recorded the album with the Eliades Ochoa and his band, Cuarteto Patria. The Manolo he loves this record so much that he has had to buy the second copy, so that he is never far from it. Sabroso!

dwightyoakamacoustic.net

This it is just the Dwight Yoakam, the acoustic guitar, and his masterful songbook. It is really how this music it was meant to be heard. Quiet, and yet it is also intensely personal and powerful.

19 Dias Y 500 Noches

If you not heard the odd, harsh, gravelly, eccentrically beautiful, chain-smoker’s voice of the Joaquin Sabina, you have not heard one of the treasures of the Spanish pop music. If you have not listened to the funny, rude, ridiculous, sublime lyrics of the songs of the Jaoquin Sabina you have not encountered one of the treasures of the modern Spanish poetry.

Manolo says, the secret to giving the good music is to give something unexpected, something unusual, something astounding, but also something that you know the recepient cannot but love. Here are four albums that the Manolo believes meets these standards.

Facing Future

The late Israel Kamakawiwo’ole he had the voice of the angels, and when you hear him, with only the ukulele for the accompaniment , you will never hear the Hawai’ian music the same way. There is the sweetness and honesty to the voice that not the thousand Don Hos can replicate.

Tholonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

Here is the newly discovered classic, one that the Manolo immediately added to his collection.

Ayre

This it is so wonderfully exotic, and yet so familiar at the same time that the Manolo he is entranced by this work, and listens to it more frequently than is probably healthful.

The Wild Tchoupitoulas

This it is the real New Orleans music, the Meters and the Nevilles getting together to stomp out the most danceable music the Manolo has ever heard. In the year with the New Orleans was greviously injured, what better way is there to celebrate the beating heart that survives at the center of the great city than by dancing?