Raquel Bitton, Rhythm of the Heart

There is never a shortage of unexpected combinations out there in musicland. Here we have one today, singer Raquel Bitton and her album Rhythm of the Heart (self-released RB 4302-2). It's Raquel and a 20-piece Latin-cabaret group doing songs associated with Latin singer Tino Rossi. There are tangos, boleros, cha chas, sambas, bossas, merengues, danzons, all arranged nicely for the large group in classic '40s-'50s nightclub fashion. Rossi was especially a French sensation during his lifetime.

So Raquel singing these songs in French is definitely not a stretch. She has the voice of a chanteuse, well nuanced and well presented.

This is the sort of thing that left me at first hearing scratching my head, but a few listens later I fell into its spell and there I remain.

It's not exactly jazz, so don't expect a swinging band and lots of solos. There are strings, a Latin rhythm core and some nicely turned horn parts. Not jazz, no, though Xavier Cugat is not so far away when you hear it. What you get is total charm and a Cuban-French combination that sticks in your head after a while. And Raquel can sing.

Different!! Nicely so...

UTSAV! Arghyam (The Offering), Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Celebrating Ravi Shankar

Continuing the UTSAV! series of music inspired by and in tribute to Ravi Shankar is this volume by singer Ashwini Bide Deshpande, an acclaimed member of the Jaipur-Atraulli Gharana and someone Maestro Shankar stood in relation to as Guru.

She performs a series of compositions-ragas, all of which were created by Ravi Shankar with the exception of one, which Ms. Deshpande created herself.

She has a marvelous voice, warm and expressive, and extremely dexterous as called for the the later sections of the ragas. She is ably accompanied by excellent practitioners on harmonium and tabla.

As a bonus the last track features Ravi Shankar himself, performing Raga Mishra Gara in a recording made some years ago and previously unreleased.

Ashwini Bhide Deshpande is a marvel. The disk will be pure delight to those who love the North Indian Hindustani classical music style.

Utsav! Raga & Raj, Barry Phillips, Linda Burman-Hall, Lux Musica Ensemble, Celebrating Ravi Shankar

To honor and celebrate the life and music of Ravi Shankar, several new and highly interesting CDs have been produced, all under the general series title Utsav! Today a look at Raga & Raj (East Meets West Music 1011), a fascinating compellation of Western Classical-Indian Classical hybrid fusions, which of course Ravi Shankar himself did much to promote through his deservedly acclaimed recordings with Yehudi Menuhin, and with many of his film scores.

Today's compilation features the Lux Musica chamber ensemble with noted jazz musician Barry Phillips on cello and Linda Burman-Hall on harpsichord. The two co-direct the musical proceedings. It's a series of compositions from various periods that utilize ragas and classical Indian melodies in combination with Western classical elements. So we have the tabla (much of the time) in tandem with Euro-classical instruments and some really fascinating music.

There is Barry Phillips' own "Eight Ragas" from 2010, William Hamilton Bird's collection/arrangement "Hindoostanee Airs" going way back to 1789, Lou Harrison's suite "Jala Journey" and Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar's "Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram," composed sometime before 1931.

It's a wonderful set of works that evoke the singular past of the Raj and the Euro-Indian cultural cross-fertilization that begun centuries ago and of course continues today. Each work is unique, excellently performed and beyond simple description. This is an East-Meets-West conflation fully in keeping with Pandit Shankar's lifelong preoccupation with such constructive amalgams, yet a fascinating CD in its own right.

You should hear this one, definitely!

KAZE, Tornado, with Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura

KAZE is a dynamic new quartet that blazes trails while they blaze. It perhaps is what you expect from pianist-composer Satoko Fujii and her trumpeting-composing cohort Natsuki Tamura, but maybe not exactly? Actually this is the second album by KAZE, but they sound so together it could be the tenth. Along with the two are trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins. The four together meld with single-minded creativity.

It's free-avant music but very much directed by compositional arches. There are five numbers performed on the disk, two by Fujii, two by Orins and one by Tamura. There is something Zen-rock-garden-like in this music, only set on fire at times. Every note has concentrated power and the spaces in between no less so.

The performances are exhilarating. From Orins' sensitively dynamic drumming, Satoko's highly supercharged, creative, well-timing piano outbursts to the edge-of-the-sound-and-back trumpeting of Tamura and Pruvost, this is outstanding avant music.

One of the best I've heard this year!

Paul Bley Trio, Closer, 50th Anniversary Edition Remaster

It is possible that pianist Paul Bley is not as recognized as an important figure in the development of free jazz now as he was years ago. I do not claim to have my finger on the pulse of consensus out there, partially because I don't really care what the world thinks and it does me no good to heed the "no, we don't recognize that" jazz police that claim to be the sole tastemakers. Why would I care?

In my own thinking Paul belongs to a small handful of piano innovators in "new thing" evolution. Of course the other would be Cecil Taylor. And of course there are others, but the influences of Taylor and Bley seem especially critical in what went after.

And of all the albums Paul has made, one of the most seminal surely is Closer (ESP 1021), a trio date from 1965 that has been nicely remastered on CD for ESP's 50th Anniversary series. The trio included the wondrous bass wielding of Steve Swallow. On drums was a young Barry Altschul, at the very start of his free drumming career and already an extraordinarily sensitive drummer for the trio context.

And on this album Paul was making a pretty clean break from bop roots--in just 27 short minutes covering some seven very excellent Carla Bley compositions, a number written by Ornette Coleman, one by Annette Peacock and one of his own.

These are classic head structures that allow Paul and the band to break free of changes and let themselves create free tonality and chromatic improvisations that of course owe much to Ornette's harmolodic approach yet have an unmistakable originality.

Keith Jarrett most certainly paid close attention to what was going on with Paul in this stage and built his early style around it. Then of course many others have followed in the path since.

But even if others had not been influenced in the years that followed, this album would still hold up as an avant classic. It is that--and anyone who hasn't heard it really should check it out.

Offiong Bassey

Today's CD is not the sort of thing that finds its way onto these blog pages that often. Mostly that's because I do not receive this kind of music that often. The world music releases I get in the mail and like have migrated over from the Guitar and Bass Blog to this site though, and so from time-to-time I'll be exploring such music here. The CD in question is by one Offiong Bassey. The CD is self-titled (Moonlit Media Group 0346).

Offiong Bassey is a singer who has a beautiful voice and uses it to very good musical advantage. She is of African extraction and takes full advantage of her rich heritage, with harmonies suggestive of South Africa, and vocal choruses and rhythms that often have a West African feel (her family is originally from Nigeria). The music is an all-original set of Offiong songs, well arranged by Blethy Emmanuel Tiegnon.

The music sometimes has a religious theme, and in the process combines contemporary Afro-American Soul/R&B, Hip-Hop/Rap, Afrobeat and otherwise African influences, not all coming to the fore in every number, but rather working together in various degrees depending on the song. It's music that has an accessible element throughout so that one might call it "radio friendly."

What hits me about her album is the rhythmic vitality of the music and the excellence of her vocal style. The songs have memorability too. There is both sophistication and a soulful directness.

It's bringing me a good deal of pleasure. Give her album a listen.

Lina Allemano Four, Live at the Tranzac

Out of Canada today comes the Lina Allemano Four and their CD Live at the Tranzac (Lumo). Lina is a primo trumpetiste with a good sense of form, fine chops and a pleasingly brassy attack, a Barbara Donald for today. Her quartet is a good one with voices of merit in Brodie West on alto, Andrew Downing on double bass, and Nick Fraser on drums.

The CD brings you a set of their music from the Tranzac club in Toronto. Each of the seven pieces was written by Lina, combining avant and post-hard-bop elements in ways that set up the improvisations well. Lina has something to say and says it. Brodie comes across with a piercing free-post-Bird passion that acts as a nice foil to Lina's extroverted brass effusions. The rhythm section works together very well throughout.

It's an album that gets better the more you listen. Lina Allemano has brass power. It's a good one to hear. Check this one by all means.