Not your usual French music.

Yannick Noah was first well known as a top-10 tennis player. Sandrine Kiberlain was (and still is) a well-known French actress.  Both of them have smooth voices, know how to choose songs that fit their voices, and surround themselves with tasteful and appropriate musicians. Both have released very popular, enjoyable, and listenable CDs--whether you speak a word of French or not.

Today's show is a sampling from both artists.

Sandrine's voice is soft and airy--not in the French chanteuse style of Edith Grande Dame Piaf or Celine Neon Dion. Hers is simple, clean and very feminine. So are the songs.

Yannick's sound is also smooth. He surrounds his voice with a Caribbean-influenced band, and keeps the sound plain and clean.

It's time to explore what I consider to be the height of creativity, power, virtuosity, and style: Jazz-Rock fusion. (if you miss Thursday morning's show, be sure to get up early and catch in Sunday morning at 8:00 am)

I'm not talking about the elevator music that frequently comes to mind when people now mention that phrase. That's watered down cold fusion, and not the dynamic interplay between progressive jazz and boundless rock that is truly deserving of the name.

This week wraps up my very brief overview of the music of 1970. I didn't want to repeat artists or albums that produced several creative, long-lasting songs. Artists like Neil Young, Led Zepellin, The Beach Boys, Three Dog Night, Wishbone Ash, Procul Harum, Cat Stevens, Paul McCartney, Van Morrison, and John Lennon, all released incredibly brilliant albums with songs that are still being sung today. This show features classics you know well, like Edwin Starr's "War" and Santana's "Samba pa it," as well as songs you've never heard before (or maybe forgotten), like Wishbone Ash's "Phoenix" and Todd Rundgren's "Birthday song." 

I may conduct a contest in the near future for listeners to vote on the most creative year in music. It's safe to say that 1970 would be in the top 3, and quite possibly should wind up #1.

The house rhythms roll, as a number of creative artists and producers made standout original and repackaged music in 2005.

One of my favorite producers /arrangers/writers/musicians is Japanese-American DJ Satoshi Tomiie. He flies a little bit below the radar on alot of people's DJ lists, but he can create a spacey rhythmic trip better than anyone. This week's show features two of his remixes: The Music's "Breakin'" and Slok's "Lonely Guy." Both tracks are usually part of an hour or so of an extended dance/house mix. Satoshi takes house out of the house and into space.

Adding to the beats is Daft Punk, Gorillaz, and Shpongle, while Bob SinclairMcCartney (this song is a good as most things he did with his original band) keep the rhythm going but provide alternatives. By the way, if you don't know Shpongle, Sunday would be a good day to hear them: they're funny and creative, and they truly live up to their name. (incredibly inspiring and unifying) and

My song of the show: the haunting "The Song" by Kirpi.

Beautiful moment of the show: the mysterious final chords of Goldfrapp’s “Let it take you.”

Some unusual and creative voices emerged in 1999. Perhaps the album and band that made the biggest impact was The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication"--a new direction for the band (previously known mostly for wildness) that reflected their cleaner living, spiritual insights, beautiful melodies, and more laid back musicianship. This album bridged alot of gaps. They're now on a permanent hiatus from playing together, and we can only hope they'll reunite reinvigorated.

Sigur Ros began their promising career and Propellerheads ended theirs, while Carlos Santana extended his.

One-hit wonder Bree Sharp still makes me laugh out loud with "David Duchovny." You don't have to be an X-Files fan to appreciate:

Without waiting for the year to finish I want to share some of the creative music being made as we speak. This week's show features 2 tracks from Tosca's "No Hassle"--a creative gem from the Austrian duo Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber. Their style might be categorized as chillout grooves, but that might also be too limiting. "Fascinating" certainly covers it.

I'll also play two tracks from Muse's "The Resistance"--a less-inspired, but occasionally brilliant album of political and social defiance--and anthems by Black Eyed Peas and Rascal Flats.

My favorite live band Umphrey's McGee released a creative studio album in 2009. This was a welcome release because their live vocals are so pathetically lame as to be virtually unlistenable (their fabulous musicianship and improvisational creativity more than make up for it).

Thursday 9:00 AM and Sunday 8:00 AM

Today's music is for deep, soul satisfying relaxation: music with some silence in or between the notes. The musicians stir the silence; the listener has it enlivened.

But this is no mood-making show.

The British electronic duo Kinobe get the bliss flowing with "Slip Into Something More Comfortable"--a song that you swear you've heard before. Something that sounds familiar and at the same time creatively unique.

Ambient electronica isn't the only genre represented today. Johann S. Bach, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Faure, and Aaron Copland all have created some brilliant and beautiful silence in their music, as have Donovan and Enya.

This week (Thursday 9:00 AM, and Sunday 8:00 AM) it's time to focus on just a part of music: the guitarists. The styles are different but the skill is consistent. These are some of the best in the world.

Going alphabetically, I begin the show this week with Jan Akkerman, lead guitarist for the Dutch band Focus. The thing I like about him best is that he plays with great humor and freedom. Very flexible and fun, and still going strong.

Roy Buchanan began playing the blues in the 1960s, and did until his death in the late 80s.

Umphrey's McGee's frontman, Jake Cinninger is the youngest guitarist on today's show. And one of the few modern, young guitarists who can improvise with the best of them. See him and his band live if you possibly can.

50 YEARS OF MUSIC - Thursdays at 9:00 AM and Sundays at 8:00 AM.

This week I'm joined by my daughter Elise, who helps choose and play soul music to turn up and enjoy. From the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies, these are songs that will make you smile, even when they're originate musically from a broken heart.

From well known and overplayed artists like the Temptations and James Brown to lesser known talents like Arthur Conley and The Shades of Blue.

Don't expect to hear Aretha Franklin sing "Respect." Instead, enjoy Otis Redding's original version, while Aretha, after one of music's most powerful 2-note intro, climb's an octave and a half in the opening 3 seconds of "Since You've Been Gone."

Since age 11, novelty songs, cutesy lyrics, and musical jokes don't do it for me. But on this week's show (Thursday 9:00 AM, Sunday 8:00 AM) I go beyond wacky humor and funny lyrics, all the way to irreverant absurdity. Transcendent, cosmic humor.

Lothar & The Hand People

This week's music is off the wall. It's music in the vein of the transcendently irreverant cartoon show "Ren and Stimpy." Featured artists: Lothar & The Hand People, the first band to use synthesizers extensively and musically. Their off the wall track is the song "Sex and Violence." (which, other than an occasional "um" is pretty much the entire lyric)