Rash Behari Datta, Master of the Indian Sitar

Rash Behari Datta, as regular readers might recall, gave us a rather remarkable CD of ragas arranged for 20 sitars. He returns in a more conventional guise as the single soloist on Master of the Indian Sitar (ARC Music 2401).

For this date Datta has chosen a lengthy exposition on Raga Bilaskhani Todi, and a somewhat shorter one for Raga Mishra-Bhairavi. He is nicely seconded on tabla by Sanju Sahai.

This is not a disk of pyrotechical brilliance a la Banerjee or Shankar. It is a good exposition of the alap (out-of-tempo prelude) for each raga, followed by some elaborate GATs (compositional motifs) around which Datta improvises. The disk conveys a very strong mood and as such is a delight. Datta however does not establish himself here (and probably does not wish to do so) as a world-class virtuoso so much as a subtle exponent of the tradition.

The sound is very good too.

Adrian Benavides, Same Time Next Life

The multi-instrumentalist Adrian Benavides makes his solo debut with a jump-out-of-your speakers disk: Same Time Next Life (Unsung 016). Touch guitarist mastermind Markus Reuter shared the co-writing and co-production duties with Adrian. King Crimson's Pat Mastelotto supplied the heated drumming.

It's heavy music, music with an edge, post-prog with an attitude, metal with a brain. The music comes at you hard and full, much of the time, with a few lyric interludes for contrast. There is a bit of industrial in the mix but never in a formulaic way.

It's in expanded song form with vocals by Adrian, weaving around the theme of shock and bereavement of a father on the death of his daughter. In fact it is a personal response by Benavides to the stillborn birth of his daughter Valentina.

This is avant rock of a high order. It's a great example of places art rock is going today.

Carol Robbins, Moraga

Carol Robbins, jazz harpist. Moraga (Jazzcats 108) showcases her well in a sextet that includes Billy Childs, piano, Larry Koonse, guitar, and Gary Novak on drums.

This is a mix of Robbins originals and standards, done with enough space to show the Robbins harp style. She plays less consistently in the arpeggiated Alice Coltrane style, prefering a note-run-chordal approach much of the time. She is very good, tasteful, and beautiful to hear. Not every song she writes is a masterpiece but they generally serve her well. It's nice to hear a harpist of her caliber emerge, and to do so strongly at that.

This is an artist to watch!! I look forward to more.

Chris Forsyth, Kenzo Deluxe

Kenzo Deluxe (Northern Spy 025) is all about one thing: making solo electric guitar music in a room, live (with digital delay to help things along). Chris Forsyth is the guitarist. If he is a technical wizard, he does not show it on this disk. This is more about weaving attractive rock progressions, riffs, and mesmerizing repetitions than it is about wowing you with prowess.

There is a psychedelic quasi-Indian raga rock aspect to it and there is a kind of super paired-down pulsating soundscape aspect too. Fripp and Eno minus Fripp...and Eno. Instead something else. Forsyth, musically naked. Making music that has a memorable quality. But very elemental, basically.

I am not going to tell you that Chris Forsyth is the next big thing. He no doubt isn't. Not at this point. What he is involves creativity and imagination. Oh and a sort of nervy rock starkness that is refreshing. He's not going to be one to trade fours with Pat Martino but he in some ways creates the art of rock for himself, anew, by sustaining an entire CD with just his guitar and his imagination. That's something.

John Abercrombie Quartet, Within A Song

I don't suspect I need to tell readers of this blog that John Abercrombie has been a major force, a major influence on jazz guitarists since sometime in the '70s. I listen to many new guitarists in the round of reviews I do, and I have become more impressed in recent years with just how influential he has become.

But as with many great artists there is no ONE John Abercrombie. He changes as he sees fit, both over time and from project to project. So his latest, Within A Song (ECM 2254) has a way about it quite different than, say, the first Gateway album he did with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette way back when. Yet it is still Mr. Abercrombie that comes through, all that he is as a musical artist, and what he plays here has some relation of course to his earlier output. Perhaps that is pretty obvious.

The new album puts John with tenor original Joe Lovano, bass master Drew Gress and Joey Baron, a drummer of great depth, fire and subtlety, depending on the project.

This is an album of standards and a few Abercrombie originals. It is music in an ultra-laid-back mode, a cool sort of approach. That doesn't mean that the players aren't reaching back for inspiration and well-conceived improvisations. They are.

Abercrombie has evolved his tone so that at the moment it is unmistakably him, as always, but so mellow as to seem to be closer on first listen to a Jim Hall than ever. Yet what he plays is all Abercrombie, all the time. And even his tone has a telling Ambercrombian fullness and twist. At any rate he is in top form and must be heard with some concentration to be appreciated. Lovano sounds great too as you might expect. Gress and Baron hit more lightly but no less profoundly than usual. And the whole thing swings big!

It's an album that reminds us why John Abercrombie is such a force today. And it's a great listen too!

Starring, ABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ

Hey, WTF! That's my motto for the day. It fits perfectly with the band Starring and their Northern Spy release ABCDEFG-HIJKLMNOP-QRSTUV-WXYZ. The record label wisely put a sticker over the cover design because it has psychedelic graphics that are 100% unreadable. Now that's cool I guess. Cutting-edge graphic design has gradually eschewed the word content over the years so that in many cases it is no longer to be read, nor can it be. It's a kind of punk thing I suppose. And what counts for me of course is the music.

So let's turn to that. This is a very cool psychedelic-punk-prog hybrid band that rehearsed like the devil no doubt to get this album to sound the way it does. It has some pyrotechnical brilliance in it from keys and rhythm. The vocals tend to be attractive slacker girl punk in various guises, and there's something of Reich's "Four Organs" somehow in there, if you have any idea what I am talking about.

The band is Brooklyn-based, and that fits too. Brooklyn block-for-block right now is probably the creative capital of the United States and there's a WTF do what we want ethos that fits the kind of innovation being spawned over there (as opposed to the Jersey side, where "get the f outta here!" tends to be what comes to the forefront most frequently).

Anyway this is very cool music. Starring is doing something new with some earlier things without sounding retro in any way. That's not easy. It's good, though, seriously. Now who the f designed the cover??

Alexandra Grimal Quartet, Andromeda

The avant echelons of the music often called jazz seems to be expanding continually. There is most certainly no one way to arrive at a group music. Alexandra Grimal and her Quartet, in the recent Andromeda (Ayler 127), gives us a distinctive take on the possibilities.

Alexandra writes and arranges a music of contrasts, quiet and sparse, then full and hard-hitting, solos, duets, trios and the full band in various settings, free and composed, and more besides.

The quartet is well-chosen. Alexandra plays tenor and soprano, Todd Neufeld acoustic and electric guitars, Thomas Morgan on double bass, and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. Each contributes strongly to the end result.

Tyshawn's drumming is something to listen to in itself. He is bold and orchestral at points, quietly subtle at others. Alexandra plays a thoroughly contemporary tenor and soprano, from the overblown rich overtones to the quietly breathy. Todd Neufeld is a model of understatement much of the time, always feeding band and listeners with lines and chords that are un-cliched and fresh. Thomas Morgan plays with detailed care, imaginative creativity and excellent technique.

The compositions for this album were put together while Alexandra was in residence at the MacDowell Colony in the US and have a well-wrought, open quality.

This is music that must be listened to closely. Its contrasts and twists will allude the casual listener, I suspect. Put the time in and you will find a most unusual quartet effort and an innovative approach to quartet improvisation-composition. Give it an ear!