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A master in his heyday
Miles Davis: Walkin' with miles
Times Music; Rs. 100.
From its sound, this album assembles a sampling of the work of the trumpeter Miles Davis around the late 190s and early 1960s.
Davis had just been responsible for the innovation of modal jazz, which, like cool jazz (which also he had a hand in) a decade earlier, gave jazz a more relaxed and less hectic feel than the be-bop of the '40s and its successor, hard bop.
Davis, however, did not shun hard bop. The music here has touches of cool, modal jazz and hard bop.
It is particularly rich in solo improvisation by almost all members of the small groups performing (trumpet, tenor and/or alto saxophone, piano, bass and drums).
But Davis subtly reserves a commanding role for himself. He takes the lead on the theme in all the numbers.
Apart from the slow-paced classic "Round Midnight" and a fast version of "So What", the other numbers on the album are taken at a relaxed medium tempo.
The most interesting solos are found on "Walkin", on which tenor saxophone follows trumpet into the opening theme, to be followed in turn by a series of quickfire solos by trumpet, probably two different tenor saxophonists and then piano, bass and back to trumpet, with brief drum solos punctuating this last.
But all the other numbers ("Autumn Leaves", "All of You", "So What" and "Round Midnight") are also interesting interpretations that allow the soloists to add delectable dishes to the acoustic menu.
Music from Two Worlds
Remember Shakti: Saturday Night in Bombay
Universal Music; Rs 125.
Recorded in December 2000, Saturday Night in Bombay is a fine example of the attempts of the eclectic guitarist John McLaughlin to blend jazz with Indian music. He calls the group he has been working in recently "Remember Shakti", an all-star musical cast comprising Zakir Hussain on tabla, U. Shrinivas on mandolin, Debashish Bhattacharya on (Hindustani) slide guitar, Shivkumar Sharma on santur, and V. Selvaganesh on ghatam, mridangam and kanjira.
With this line-up, the music on the album is quite close to both Hindustani and Carnatic, but since the genre of jazz is far more inclusive than either Hindustani or Carnatic, calling it jazz is least likely to cause offence.
The hour-long recording consists of just four pieces, again suggesting the dominance of the Indian element.
Every piece is a gem, and McLaughlin is obviously comfortable with and used to blending jazz with Indian rhythms and melodic patterns.
McLaughlin, Zakir and Selvaganesh pervade the album right through. On the long second piece, "Shringar", they are joined by Sharma alone, whose gentle-paced, soft and melodious sound opens the number and dominates it for a long time before McLaughlin, Zakir and Selvaganesh come in one by one.
Shrinivas's mandolin and McLaughlin's guitar have some lively exchanges on the other three numbers, while Bhattacharya enters the musical conversation on two of them.
There are solo interludes by the percussionists as well.
The overall impression is one of several voices having a lucid conversation with one another in which everyone has his say.
JAZZEBEL
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