Ubiquity
2008
Miles Of Styles
About This Album
Shawn Lee, the multi-instrumentalist/composer extraordinaire whose forays into funk, spaghetti westerns, 1960s television music, electronica, MPB, and pop have turned him into a well-respected and often requested film and television score writer, once again looks deep into his bag of influences for Miles of Styles. Lee reaches across the globe in creating the nearly two dozen tracks on the album, from Italy ("Ciao Bruno") to Nigeria ("Lagos Calling") to the U.S. ("San Diego"), and practically everywhere in between. In the hands of a lesser artist, this kind of multi-national traversing might seem hodgepodged or disconnected, but as Lee is no way a purist -- and never makes any claims to be so -- the 20 songs here flow smoothly and naturally from one to the next. These are his songs, not Brazilian songs or Indian songs or Parisian songs or Jamaican songs, though he is informed by the traditions of each, or at least by the popular conception of these traditions. The actual authenticity of "Chinese Chillin'," for example, is debatable, but this isn't the purpose of Miles of Styles. Lee is respectful of the different cultures, certainly, but these are his interpretations, interpretations that merely resemble the originals, don't imitate them.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,6,7,9,14,15 and 18)

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