Remember New Age Music? Paul Winter’s Consort? Alex DeGrassi? Windham Hill Records? Where did they all go? Well, percusionist/composer Ian Dogole brings back the best parts of that genre with a vengeance: a two cd set brings that style and attitude to jazz-centered material as well as a disc that features that wonderfully obscure label, “World Music.” Hey, I like it!
Subtitled “Jazz Journeys & Worlds Beyond” the disc has Dogole hitting everything from cymbals, floor toms, cajons, udo, and shakers in the company of Paul McCandless (remember HIM with Oregon?) on a wonderful bass clarinet and various saxes, Dave Tidball/reeds, Fred Rendolph/b and Frank Mrtin/p through a wondrously rich collection of interpretations of tunes by Alice Coltrane (“Blue Nile”), Ornette Coleman (“Lonely Woman”), Wayne Shorter (“Children of the Night”) and even Thelonious Monk (“Epistrophy”) as well as some originals. The melding of the deep reeds with the lighter than air percussion make for some of the best sounds you’re going to hear this year. Masterfully creative and explorative.
The second disc of sounds emphasizes simpler ensembles, just some percussion and maybe a bass, string, reed or vocal. A bit more on the ambient side, it serves more to create a mood than to make your mind take in the harmonies and rhythms. Rounding out the perfect first disc with the acceptable second, you get a great pair.
Global Fusion Music