Rez Abbasi, Things to Come, 2009

Readers of my blogs know that I do not restrict myself only to the very latest releases, the flavors of the month. The idea is that good and great music may not have been recorded and released yesterday, and so it is never a bad idea to consider something that's been out for a while.

Such a recording is guitarist Rez Abbasi's Things to Come (Sunnyside 1236). It's Rez on guitar with the nucleus of the Indo-Pak Coalition that has been so fruitful for all concerned: Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto, Vijay Iyer on piano, and Dan Weiss on drums. Also appearing on this album are Johannes Weidenmeuller on acoustic bass, Mike Block, cello, and some beautiful vocals by Kiran Ahluwalia.

A look at Google makes it clear this album has gotten quite a few reviews. So I wont belabor the obvious. What's important: the wide-ranging chromatic soloing by Rez, Rudresh and Vijay, Peter's rhythmically advanced drumming and Kiran's classical Indo-Pak oriented vocals. This is Indo-Pak fusion, which is to say it is informed by the classical South Asian tradition. "Informed" is probably a good word because Abbasi and company have very much incorporated that influence into their own way of playing and improvising. The compositions sometimes have the melodic motion of the Carnatic tradition, for example, but essentially with differing note-cells. That same can be said for the rhythm. This is first and foremost a modern jazz form, electric, fused. It is a wonderful showcase for the unique style of the principal soloists--Rez, Rudresh and Vijay--and a platform to incorporate Ms. Ahluwalia's angelic vocals.

It is essential listening if you want to know what modern jazz has going for it. Rez and company have carved out their own niche and it is a vital one.

Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition with Abassi & Weiss

South Asian classical music has one of the richest heritages of any on the planet. In the right hands the tradition can be extended into Western improvisational contexts with movingly impressive results. We've had Mahavishnu and Shakti, of course, and others.

One of the best of recent endeavors comes out of a meeting of three of the most accomplished of the new wave of players. Alto saxman Rudresh Mahanthappa heads up the group known as the Indo-Pak Coalition. Their CD Apti (Innova 709), out for a couple of years, is one of the most singular and moving of such efforts. The trio includes Rez Abbasi on electric and acoustic guitar and electric sitar, and Dan Weiss on tabla.

I've covered all three players on the Gapplegate blogs, and for good reason. Mahanthappa is one of the more exciting alto men to come along in recent years. He has an unmistakable sound and a way of improvising in complex chromatic-modal blazes of fire that soar with their own trajectory. Abassi is a guitarist that has gotten my attention for a number of years as an extraordinary adept improviser who manages to negotiate the thickets between McLaughlin, Metheny and Abercrombie without sounding like any of them. And technically he is one of those monsters, but one who places personal expression and good musical sense before pyrotechnics. A rapidly articulated line always has a musical reason for existence with Rez. Dan Weiss is a drummer who to me did the incredible: he played a CD-length drum set solo based on the talas and bols of Hindustani music (see my www.gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot.com pages for a review of that recording). And he did some amazing things there. He also has played with some notable others and has a couple of interesting recordings with his own group as well. Here he is on tabla, and I suppose I should not be surprised (I've never heard him on tabla in any extended way) but he is in excellent form.

What the Indo-Pak Coalition do on Apti is, like Shakti before them, combine rhythmic, structural and melodic aspects of South Asian music with the harmonic and improvisatory components of the jazz that each of them do so well. The Coalition do it all with their own distinct musical identities intact. It is music of a very high level of accomplishment and innovation. Mahanthappa and Abassi show mastery in what they play, the ensemble routines are quite complexly appealing and Weiss plays some very forward moving tabla.

Apti takes Indo-Pak-jazz-fusion onto very personal turf in ways that are exhilarating and filled with musical abundance. It is awe-inspiring music.