Paradigms

Joaquin Núñez and Habana Safari have just released a recording of music they’ve been playing together for years, souped up with the addition of a great pianist. The record is Ruta De La Clave . Joaquin Núñez was born in Cuba where he was spotted as a talented percussionist in childhood, and educated accordingly with great teachers. He eventually moved to Canada where he lives with his family...

Egberto Willies is an activist, author, blogger, radio host, software developer, mechanical engineer, and more. Egberto’s media project Politics Done Right is a website with political articles that are well researched, direct and to the point, examining current events with critical thinking. This is a site where facts actually matter! Egberto also has a Substack newsletter, Egberto Off The R...

Gregg Hill is a prolific composer and writer, with 192+ compositions to his credit, and he just published his fifth book The Speckled Frog: The Music of Gregg Hill . Gregg started out with music at an early age, but didn’t go far initially.  He went on to have a life, a family, and a career as a truck driver. Time goes by and in his 50s he decided to get serious about music.  He tells us som...

Dee Robinson has been a truck loader, a janitor, worked in a cabinet making shop, worked in a big box store, and  has an adult son and grandchildren. Dee grew up around music. His grandfather played, his father played, and Dee noodled as a youngster, but at some point he decided to teach himself to play guitar, so he did. He also taught himself to play the banjo. The result is this record Dee from...

Natalie Bogwalker is the founder and director of Wild Abundance , a school where people learn Earth and Community based skills from house building to renewable energy to gardening, all good stuff that humans thrive on. Trauma can initiate a person into different awareness and a change of path.  Natalie experienced such an event when she was 19 which changed her life trajectory as she knew it at th...

Paul Asbell has been playing music for 60+ years give or take. He’s a virtuoso blues guitarist. He’s played with some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. In his new book Stages: Ruminations, Rants, and Reminiscences on a Life in Music Paul shares 32 stories from his past. Folks like Pete Seeger, John Lee Hooker, and Big Mama Thornton, and many more grace the pages of this we...

Jaime Ospina brings together musics from Africa, the Caribbean, his native Columbia and surrounding countries, as well as American musics like R & B, Blues, Jazz; the music of African Americans.  His new record The Vessel explores these musical connections with traditional and modern instruments and an 18 person ensemble. The album is beautiful. Feeding Souls is a non-profit organization Jaime...

Welcome back to Paradigms Duende Libre ; Alex Chadsey , Jeff Busch , and Farko Dosumov . Their new record Invocation is a combination of homage to some specific inspirational artists, and to Creativity in general. These artists have been playing together for many years.  They bring a quality of intimacy to the music, both composed and improvised. You can hear it. They are currently touring the Pac...

Gwen Laster is a violinist, composer, and teacher. Her ensemble is The New Muse 4Tet and they have just released an album Keeper of the Flame which explores The Heroes Journey from the point of view of African Americans.  The music is potent, much of it is improvised, and it offers listeners a unique experience. Gwen shares her story of growing up in Detroit and discovering her love of stringed in...

Silvano Monasterios tells us a great story about how he became a pianist. It’s his father’s fault! The new record The River is a powerful suite in which Silvano shares personal feelings and thoughts about his life, and about what’s happening in Venezuela, the country of his birth and a place we are hearing a lot about lately because of the political situation. Silvano takes seriously the responsib...

Joe Elefante has been inspired to make music for most of his life. He was a working musician during his youth, then when he had a family he got a “straight” job for a bit, but he eventually found his way back to music as a teacher, composer, and performer. Joe’s new record Wheel of Dharma brings together old friends and new to bring us a set of music inspired by the concept of Dh...

Francis Bebey was a Cameroonian musicologist, writer, composer, and broadcaster. He spent much of his life living in France, raising a musical family.  He toured extensively. Patrick Bebey is his youngest son, who has just released a record of his father’s unknown songs from tapes found after his death. Trésor Magnétique is the record, 20 tracks of previously unreleased material. Patrick and...

Aaron Shragge names John Hassell as an inspiration for the music on his new record Whispering Worlds – Cosmic Cliffs .  Intended to take listeners on a journey, this record invites us to expand our minds with imagination. This is the essence of human creativity. Aaron is part of Brooklyn Raga Massive , who have been featured on Paradigms , as well as being a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist...

Elana Sasson has just released her second album In Between . With Producer/Pianist/Composer Santiago Bertel and a great band of people from around the world. This music brings together Elana’s family’s Kurdish and Persian musical traditions, with traditional music from the native countries of the band members. Elana and Santiago join Baruch in a discussion about this record, the inspir...

Dahlia Dumont The Blue Dahlia returns to Paradigms to share her latest project Fantasia , and to talk about her life and what we’re experiencing in the world these days. Dahlia was raised in New York and has been living in France for many years, so her music is infused with both her American-ness and her adopted French culture.  These two cultures approach many aspects of life differently, f...

HandsØff2025 – Saturday April 5 2025 , more than five million people in more than 1200 events across the United States protested the unconstitutional destructive tyrannical behavior of the Trump administration. With over a hundred Executive Orders having been issued, many of them clearly unconstitutional, and in the process of being enacted, the people of the United States are actively rejec...

Mustafa Stefan Dill , like the music that inspires him and which he creates, is an amalgam of cultures and ethnicities.  Under the name Love Unfold The Sun he has just released a record Explode Yourself which will blow your mind. Mustafa shares some of his experiences, both from his early life and more recent challenges, all of which inspire him to create and revel in music that offers a transform...

Lucy Kaplansky returns to Paradigms to share her new musical autobiography The Lucy Story unreleased & rare tracks, 1976-2023 a fantastic retrospective of Lucy’s musical life going back to when she was 16 years old and coming up to the present. Lucy grew up with music, and as many musicians do, in the early years of learning her craft she sang songs of artists who inspired her, so this a...

Banning Eyre is one of those guitarists who has to play.  He has to explore different sounds and is drawn to commune with musicians wherever he goes.  Banning is an ethnomusicologist, so he travels far and connects with players, learning from them and sharing with them. He’s played in bands and ensembles, and is now releasing some of his solo music on the new record Bare Songs Vol. I Traveli...

Deborah Holland has been making music since she was a child.  She became well-known while working with the band  Animal Logic in the 1980s and 1990s. Since then Deborah has been making solo albums.  Her latest record I Made It This Far is 11 songs (plus 3 bonus tracks!) in which Deborah shares more of her life with us. In these times where uncertainty and instability have taken hold in the cultura...

Lilli Lewis is welcomed back to Paradigms, sharing her most recent album All Is Forgiven ,  sharing some of her personal journey with health, personal growth and evolution. Lilli’s music creates a space of passionate feeling, celebrating life, with all it’s complexities and contradictions. This album very much tells Lilli’s story, which is the human story, so it’s everyone&...

Yuval Ron works with sound in music, in healing, and as a medium for inspiring at-risk youth through Inspired Sound Initiative . He is an internationally renowned World Music artist, composer, educator, peace activist and record producer. Yuval has spent decades researching and playing sacred music from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as part of his Peace work .  Working with neurologists and psy...

Ghazi Al-Mulafi and Arturo O’Farrill are founders of Boom. Diwan .  This is more than a band, it’s a testament to the ability of humans to experience connection and joining through music. The new record is Live in the Khaleej! It is an excursion into a transcultural space of beauty and energy. Ghazi and Arturo talk with Baruch about the inspirations for this music. Ghazi talks about his gran...

Jan Gillies has been making music for a long time, whilst living a life of adventure and family, in wild places and small towns. Her music ranges from the political to the whimsical, often with themes from nature and relationships. Jan has many albums out, the most recent are one from a few years ago which was never really released, and one more recent, Hurricane’s Eye and Visions respective...

Rick Roe grew up in a musical family,  The piano is his instrument.  He composes, performs, and teaches.  Rick’s music comes from a place deep within him and his interactions with people and the world.  His latest record is Tribute: The Music of Gregg Hill which is a collection of tunes Rick has reworked and made his own, while honoring the composer. Rick and Baruch embark on a philosophical...