Jerry
Leake : Cubist (Rhombus)
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As
a sometimes-percussionist myself, I have a soft
spot for pure rhythm CDs when well executed. Jerry
Leake's Cubist took a couple of listens to grab
me, you know...wading through the distracting melodic
stuff and chanting and all. But grab me it does.
While it's as much a jazz-fusion album as one focused
on global rhythms, the creative orchestration of
a broad array of instruments and beats makes for
fascinating listening. Is "Plan 9" an
alien invasion of Morocco? Maybe. "Caldera"
runs through several Latin folk and jazz motifs,
"Chrysalis" and other tracks feature tabla
and other Indian flavors, and Africa comes through
on "Smoke" and several other tracks. For
reasons I can't clearly articulate, however, I find
one of the most compelling tracks to be the counting
song "Geo" -- which sounds like a mashup
of the Futurama theme, Balinese kecak, and an instructive
Sesame Street tune. Leake and his collaborators
push the concept of world percussion and they push
the listener into challenging and rewarding new
musical realms.
The
Worm : Writhing & Wriggling (Wormfood)
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Guilty
pleasure admission: I've recently been listening
to British pop music. Don't worry, SoundRoots isn't
about to go all mainstream culture on you. In fact,
this pop music does have discernible global roots,
so it's not entirely off our usual track. Ironically
for a band called The Worm, this group has a firm
pop backbone that's often mixed with west African
rhythms and instruments. But it's not African music,
more like a three-way car crash involving a London
pop-reggae band, M.I.A., at least one John from
They Might Be Giants, and a kora player who was
innocently trying to cross the street. The kora
player in question is one Surahata Susso, who contributes
some lovely riffs to "The Race," perhaps
the most charming song about conception I've ever
heard. The three core members of this London-based
quartet (I know, but somehow this odd math makes
sense with these guys...) are Max Baillie, Andre
Marmot and Nicci Simpson. The whole 7-song EP exudes
a buoyant innocence that belies The Worm's growing
reputation as a festival/party band. Billed as "Afro-reggae-garage,"
The Worm might be better described as grown-up-kids
music you can dance to. And you will.
Ocote
Soul Sounds: Coconut Rock (Eighteenth
Street Lounge)
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Just
west of Olympia, capitol city of Washington State,
there's a small saltwater inlet that's scenic at
high tide, and fragrant at low tide. In this near
mythical setting lies the Mud Bay Tiki Lounge, at
which a strange crowd gathers, including government
workers, hippie students, semi-employed loggers,
the idle rich, and some unique bands. And if this
album is any indication of their live sound, Ocote
Soul Sounds should get a regular gig at the Tiki
Lounge. Led by Martin Perna of Antibalas and Adrian
Quesada of Grupo Fantasma, the group's sound is
downtempo dubby Latin grooves with a side order
of funk. While Ocote has a more relaxed approach
to activism (with the exception of the biting anti-gentrification
song "Vampires"), their chilled out sound
will put you in the mind to make peace with your
neighbors. And maybe you'll even dance with your
social opposite to Ocote Soul Sounds at the Tiki
Lounge next weekend. Stranger things have happened
there.
Mulatu
Astatke : Mulatu Steps Ahead
(Strut)
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Seemingly
right on the heels of his retrospective album New
York, London, Addis, Ethiopian jazz great Mulatu
Astatke (a.k.a. The Father of Ethio Jazz) shows
that he's not standing still with nine tracks ranging
from the mellow introspective jazz of "Radcliffe"
to the Ethio-Latin sizzler "Boogaloo"
(which yes, has hints of the Batman TV theme). The
emphasis for much of the album is more on the jazz
than the Ethio, with hints of the African coming
via a solo here, a chord change there -- and the
casual listener might not even mark those tracks
as particularly exotic. Only on "I Faram Gami
I Faram " and "Mulatu's Mood" are
the ethnic roots forefront, and perhaps not surprisingly
those are my favorite tracks along with the simmering
kora-horn-piano-vibes "Motherland."
“I
desired to ingest West individual styles within
this edition and essay newborn structure of using
the bonny good of the kora,” explains Mulatu
in his own curious vocabulary.
The
digital album includes the bonus song "Derashe"
which sounds like a free-jazz rehearsal but in fact
highlights the tralatitious diminishing scales of
the Derashe grouping of Southern Ethiopia which
were integrated into compositions by the likes of
Debussy and Charlie Parker.
Though
Mulatu is taking a step more toward jazz with this
release, there's plenty of appeal
for the fan of Ethiopian roots. And his clever integration
of styles makes the music work even as your brain
is going "huh??"
Lean
a bit more about the history of Ethio jazz in this
video -- including how Ethiopia's Emperor traveled
to Europe in the 1960s and invited some Armenian
musicians to teach European instruments to Ethiopian
musicians.
©2010
Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media
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