Growing up, there were musical artists who always turned up on teevee commercials hawking an album of their greatest hits for just $19.95! Call the 1-800 number, and allow 6 weeks for delivery. One of these artists was a guy named Zamfir, who played a strange instrument that looked like a series of single-pitch flutes flipped on end. Well, this instrument is a real one, called the Pan flute, and it turns out that Zamfir himself is a respected master of this particular instrument. Who knew! Certainly not me at the time. There was a sense back then that a recording artist who showed up on those commercials wasn’t to be taken seriously, but honestly, that’s not the case at all. I wonder sometimes how that marketing strategy came to be, though.
This selection doesn’t feature Zamfir himself (he did record Christmas music, but…honestly I didn’t like it all that much), but I do like the Pan flute, which has a slightly other-worldly sound to it, so here’s someone else: Fabian Salazar, a Native American musician. It is a lovely instrument, if somewhat limited.
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