Live in Paris is a vitally important document of the Master Musicians of Joujouka. This pristine recording is the first to showcase the music with the appropriate fidelity. Within its intensity, Joujouka music is filled with nuance. Live in Paris captures the deep overtones of the drums, the gentle breathiness of the wooden lira flute, and the intergalactic wail of the double-reed ghiata pipes. Listeners can hear this music in all of its sonic and spiritual heft, roughly approximating the sound of a performance in the village. 

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When Sen. Gary Peters joined a small coterie of Detroit-affiliated members of the music business on Oct. 19 for an election-season Zoom call, the conversation began with topics like climate change, protecting the Great Lakes, and criminal justice reform. But the talk quickly turned to a looming issue: our pandemic-era inability to kick out the jams in person (and the fervent hope that we will be able to resume kicking them out soon).

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Hilliard “Sweet Pea” Atkinson, who had a run of improbable hits in the 1980s with surrealist art-funk outfit Was (Not Was) before becoming an in-demand session singer, died of a heart attack May 5. He was 74 years old.

“He was one of the most underrated soul singers around. I never felt he quite got the recognition he was entitled to,” said Don Was, who started the group with partner David Was in 1979.

47Soul plays an infectious style they call shamstep — a shout-out to Bilad al-Sham, the Arabic name for the Levant. The music combines dabke and dancehall beats, with percussionists Tareq Abu Kwaik and Walaa Sbeit providing propulsion. Arnaout plays slashing counterpoint to synth player Ramzy Suleiman's frenzied electro-mijwiz freakouts.

The group's bilingual Arabic-English lyrics place their strong political stance in the foreground. 47Soul's music deals with the aspirations of displaced people — Palestinians and others — as well as a broader message of freedom and human rights.

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Celebrated rock 'n' roll photographer Robert Matheu died unexpectedly in Los Angeles on Sept. 21 at the age of 63.

Matheu was born on Detroit's northwest side in 1955, the youngest of four children. He began his photo career as a teenager during the high-energy Motor City scene of the late 1960s. His early photos of the Stooges and the MC5 showcased a raw talent that, once honed, would make him an in-demand shooter.

"His work reflects the essence of Detroit and mirrors the raw and gritty music that comes from our city," says mega-producer and fellow Detroiter Don Was. "He was never an airbrush kind of guy and he never needed darkroom hocus pocus to enable his photos to stand on their own. He had the eye and the mastery of his tools to quickly determine the nitty gritty of the situation and capture it squarely in his lens. That's why his archives contain so many iconic images."

Heavy metal’s Anthrax may have called its debut album “Fistful of Metal,” but after three decades of punishment to his hands, drummer Charlie Benante learned the hard way that his fists were flesh and bone after all.

Benante needed surgery in 2013 to address a long-running battle with carpal tunnel syndrome. As he recuperated, he was sidelined for some of the band’s tour dates. That downtime had an upside, though, as Benante’s convalescence produced a prolific burst of songwriting that formed the basis of the group’s new album.

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Once in a while, a concert gives off such strange electric energy that its reverberations can be felt across the ages.

Alice Cooper’s June 21, 1972 show at the Holland Civic Center is definitely one of those. I was a mere baby when it happened. But as a youth in Holland, Michigan, I heard whispered tales of how that night shook the town’s churchy sensibilities to its core, leaving legions of terrified squares in its wake.