Six stringer Joel Harrison releases a couple of new albums showing the breadth and width of the wondrous world of frets.
Mother Stump has Harrison along with NY-based Michael Bates/b, Jeremy Clemons/dr and Glenn Patscha/key gets back t his musical roots on the appropriately titled Mother Stump. As with all guitarists, blues is the taproot of all things from the axe, and Harrison takes material that is as traditional as “John The Revelator” to Boomer folk like “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen and delivers it in a variety of indigo moods. A hip take of George Russell’s “Strausphunk” is as sleek as ’61 Caddy fins, while soulful struts have the right groove on “I Love you More Than You’ll Ever Know, ” while “Luther Vandross’ “Dance With My Father Again” has a delicacy that is delectable. A nice refresher course on where it all comes from.
Harrison then travels to the completely other side of the world, joining up with Anupam Shobhakar and his sarode (think modern sitar, Gary Versace/key, Hans Glawischnig/b and Dan Weis/dr-perc for an exciting mix of jazz and “world” music in the best sense. Originals such as “Leave the Door Open,” “ The Translator” and “Madhuvanti” mix acoustic and electric strings with gentle waves of drama rising up and down, with moods flowing from pastoral to mercurial at the drop of a hat. Dave Binney’s also sax livens up the latter two with some exciting soloing and adding texture to the lead lines. A take of the blues classic “Spoonful” has the strings bending and snapping like your trudging through either the muck of the Mississippi or the Ganges, while “Kemne Avul” has Bonnie Chakraborty’s nasally vocals mixing spices into the blues stew. “Devil Mountain Blues” and “Deep River” are as American as okra, but when you remember that it’s also a staple of Central Asia these sounds make even more sense. The blues is universally celebrated here. Dig in!
Cuneiform Records
Whilrlwind Recordings