private/Ragtime
Edward Powell : Spiritdance (CAN,rec.2003-2006,pub.2007)***°
Edward Powell I knew from his Friedsitar Fusion project (see review below). Now he has a new, solo-led CD out, which gives a wide vision of world fusion styles. The album was recorded over a three-year span in various places (Czech, Switzerland, Greece, Austria, Canada) and occasions, I assume mostly recorded under studio conditions.
By the names of the participants we can guess a bit where the tracks have been recorded, but jazz contrabass player U.Gjerdingen and Indian-classically trained Indian percussionist (tabla, ghatam, dugli, duff, Panjabi dhol, dolak) seems to appear most often.
The first piece, “Sungarden” with jazzy bass, tabla and sitar starts with a mountain-form founded melody on sitar (seemingly a sthai by Ravi Shankar in raag hamsadvani), then is improvised upon, taking seemingly the melody up side down to the last part, with a variation that brings us to a highlighting finale (a Carnatic mukhtayam suggested by Sandeep). It has a good solo part for the bass. On what I presume are the Czech sessions, Karin Gelnarova adds some jazzy vocal improvisations.
“Krishna Clock” has very original fusion, almost crossover elements, when the mood and the guitar balances between blues, jazz and Indian modes. The thumbed bass and thumbpiano are elements that contribute beautifully together. The track has also a small freed from restrictions form of a Krishna theme. This all sounds like a colourful “thumb”ling clock with jazz colours mostly.
“Om Dum” on baritone oud, and African sounding bass on gambribass is a soulful fusion with for me African as well as Indian associations, and a social singing I also associate with an African way. “Sudan” led by baritoneoud and afrobass I assume refer to its Sudanese origins but equally keeps a certain eastern feeling there.
On “Jai Jai Narayana” there has been a duet and interplay of slide-guitar with sitar, but also percussion and a bass solo takes part in the communicative musical theme exploration. A bit of singing (bhajan style) we can hear as well.
The next two tracks are not so composed and thought over as all previous tracks, and sound more like a live improvisation, with some percussive live improvisations. The last and longest track is a trance-provoking sitar-like instrument ? improvisation which after five minutes is taken over by a danceable, simple and direct, rather hypnotic improvisation on a variety of instruments, used on Rose Daily’s collection. Instruments like oud make the improvisation more a background theme with a real human intermission and contribution in it. Like this it remains a dance piece, which you can associate in a medieval or Middle Eastern context, a mode which must have been much more similar and comparable in medieval times at times of musical court-like enjoyment.
The biggest part of the album showed a thoughtful consideration of taught world music elements mixed with or fusion jazz flavours, while the last pieces are more lightly improvised. Both parts are enjoyable in their own way, but for me especially the thoughtful fusions are worth discovering to those, like me, who are curious to hear any mind-with-heart blending idea of world fusion.
