New Reviews: September 18, 2003
Reviews by Tom Orr
Nawang Khechog
Universal Love
Sounds True (MM0694D, 2003)
Tibet's Nawang Khechog has collaborated with a good many notables
in the global, new age and pop realms. Primarily a flutist but
proficient on a number of instruments, Khechog sought to make an album
reflective of the desire to love all sentient beings unconditionally and
cultivate that desire in others. It's a concept at once simple and
complex, but anyone who maintains that music is imbued with the power to
make such a thing possible will not only find comfort in Universal Love
but delight in its many sonic pleasures as well. The meditative music
so integral to Tibetan Buddhism is abundant here, with many a layered
soundscape featuring flutes, doongchen horns and chanting evocative of
snow-capped mountain scenes and remote monasteries. There's more than
Khechog's own heritage at work, though. African drums and rhythms do
quite a lot to shake things up, and connections to Native American music
are evident (not surprising, considering Khechog's recent wonderful work
with R. Carlos Nakai).
My advice to you (not that you asked) would be to pick up a copy
of this disc and have it on hand for those moments when you need a break
from the often unbearably nasty world in which we live. You'll not only
believe that the kind of love the title suggests is worth striving for,
but get an earful of beauty that should be just as universal.
M Path
Wanderer
Triloka (KAT 2029-2, 2003)
Up for a bit of musical wandering? This CD is a good way to go.
Gardner Cole--producer, guiding force and player of many
instruments--once wrote a hit song for Madonna, but don't hold that
against him. He's a world-class musician and fusionist, forming the
collective called M Path to give us all a listen to the ties that bind
Hindi music to such outlying realms as mystical qawwali, Tibetan spirit
and the far-reaching influence of the Rom (Gypsy) folk whose origins are
rooted in northern India. Restrained electronics lubricate a mix of
modern instruments (keyboards, guitar, bass) and not-so-modern ones
(tabla, oud, sarod) into an excursion of both seriously enjoyable
inner searching and sweetly lilting asides. This "nirvanic noise of the
nerves" as the liner notes call it, will set your free spirits dancing
and your heart seeking. Key components include the vocals of Asha Puthli
and Steve Gorn's superb bansuri flute in a steady balance of natural
sounds and techno-tweaks. Wanderer is an apt title for this work, which
seems to have a kind of longing at its core, bridging ancient and
contemporary sounds while it continually examines the wonders along the
way.
Vick Silva
Roots Man Dance
Rhombus Records/Polestar (CD 003, 2003)
There aren't too many musicians of Latino/Native American descent
who play pure roots reggae. Vick Silva not only helps fill a void but
makes you wish there were more of his ilk. Roots Man Dance lives up to
the title, dishing up satisfying electric/acoustic reggae that draws
lyrical inspiration from indigenous (particularly Aztec) cultures and
its rhythmic bounce from pre-dancehall Jamaica. There's a kind of
cautious celebratory tone to this disc. Songs like "Chicano Reggae" and
"Second Wind" have plenty of snap and a nicely detached sense of cool as
well. The tightly wound real-drums-and-bass reggae arrangements suit
Silva's brooding, slightly ominous singing voice, which in English or
Spanish seethes with a rebel spirit likewise appropriate to his chosen
musical genre. The recording itself is raw and not very polished, though
the instruments (including some memorable sax and keyboard) are crisply
laid down and the vocals straight up. Apart from one brief burst of rap,
there's no bowing to commercialism or compromise here. It's real reggae,
from a cultural perspective that doesn't skimp on depth when it comes to
songs of everyday life and the sometimes surreal way we look at it. All
serious reggae lovers simply must check this one out.
Pharoah Sanders/Graham Haynes
With A Heartbeat
Evolver (EVL 2015, 2003)
Take the title literally. There is the sound of an actual human
heartbeat heard throughout this album, from the Pink Floyd-like fade-in
to the very end. This is truly music that pulses with life, and the
players involved see to it that there's a strong organic component
throughout despite an abundance of electronic textures. The disc's 4
lengthy tracks are akin to movements of a symphony. Their eccentric but
undeniable beauty stems from the considerable talents of the musicians
at work here, including boundary-pushing saxophonist Pharoah Sanders,
cornetist Graham Haynes, bassist/producer/relentless sonic explorer Bill
Laswell and percussion master Trilok Gurtu. The heartbeat sound is a
kind of spiritual guide for a chilled-out musical journey that
alternately lulls and rouses. Distant programmed rhythms keep Sanders'
many-moods sax passages and other restrained instrumental bursts on an
even keel, moving with delicate subtlety from melancholy jazz to
ethno-trance to murky dub-funk to stuff that could be transmissions from
outer space. There is an intriguing balance of man and machine,
including such touches as when Gurtu's tabla and konnakal (vocal
percussion) surface. This album is a good listen when you're after
something that will both relax and engage your mind.
Tom Orr is a Southern California-based freelance writer, actor, percussionist, 9 to 5-er, husband, daddy, and aspiring deep thinker. He acquires more music than he has time to listen to, and feels the only solution is to acquire even more.
