Friday, May 16, 2014

Fareed Haque, Trance Hypothesis

Guitarist Fareed Haque and his ensemble on the album Trance Hypothesis (Delmark 5012) are no joke. Not that anybody is suggesting they are. Ever since my youth and the advent of the "Indian Beatles", Ravi Shankar, John McLaughlin, and so on I've been very much smitten by South Asian influenced jazz and rock when done well.

And Fareed Haque does it well! He combines contemporary funk and rock-jazz with Indian instruments such as the tabla, sitar, and goes as far afield as to include an oud player, plus some hot Western musicians and some very hip charts.

Fareed plays very formidable lines on electric-acoustic guitar, the organist is hip in the post-Larry Young mode and everybody pulls weight here.

Sometimes you are reminded of the McLaughlin trio that had Gurtu, other times things get more dense. There are killer tracks, some a bit less killer, but this is a statement of the East-West thing that bears hearing and continues the vibrant cross-fertilization that has been a vibrant part of my own lifetime musically. So I am glad. And Maestro Haque is no slouch on guitar. On the contrary!! Recommended.

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