The late Ginger Baker was one of the most powerful and innovative drummers to ever grace rock music, especially since he never truly considered himself a “rock” drummer, but rather a jazz drummer. You can hear it in this release where he collaborates with legendary bassist Bill Laswell and Gambian griot Foday Musa Suso for this 20-minute EP.
Suso and Baker play their instruments off of each other beautifully, while Laswell anchors the chaos. Recommended.
Malombo is a style of music I have never had the chance to come in contact with until today. South African drummer Thabang Tabane is the son of Dr. Philip Nchipi Tabane, considered to be a master of the genre, and Thabang is apparently doing a fine job continuing the family tradition.
Norwegian saxophonist and composer Jan Garbarek never disappoints, but adding Mumbai-born master percussionist Trilok Gurtu makes his sound that much richer.
The Passepartout Duo are pianist and keyboardist Nicoletta Favari and drummer/percussionist Christopher Salvito. For such a minimal setup, they manage to put together a sound that is cinematic in scope. There are elements of contemporary classical music, but a bit of jazz slides in there as well. Quite a profound release from them.
As an aside, the artwork was made by a Chinese company, as the Bandcamp website indicates:
This item is produced in China by the arts organization AnyOne Workspace, and all the proceeds from this sale go to the artists Yannis Zhang and Yumo Wu.
Though the limited edition set is a bit out of my price range, it’s going to a worthy cause. As someone who is currently residing in Beijing, it’s good to see local artists collaborating worldwide. There is a wealth of talent locally, and they need exposure.
Rishad Shafi was a drummer and percussionist from Turkmenistan who headed the best prog band out of Central Asia in the 1980s, Gunesh.
The Faran Ensemble are a rather spectacular World Music group out of Israel, taking elements of the music of their neighbors. They are a band to watch out for in the coming years.
Z’ev was one of the kings of the early post-Industrial/experimental music scene. Starting off as a normal drummer in the 1960s, he began experimenting with all sorts of found objects, studying their percussive qualities. In a rather bizarre experiment, here he is covering Wipeout by The Surfaris.
Naná Vasconcelos is, perhaps, the finest jazz percussionist in the world. Having collaborated with the likes of Brian Eno, Jon Hassell and Don Cherry, among so many others, he has also been an extremely prolific composer and performer in his own right. This particular album is tonight’s soundtrack as I talk with my own Brazilian.
Composer, pianist, percussionist and all-around good guy Joseph Benzola has been hiding quite a few treasures. He’s done the world a favor by releasing some of his sketches through his Bandcamp site.
© P. Robinson 2004-2022
Iberian record label since 2012.
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