Ilios Steryannis: Babylonia Suite

Canadian drummer Ilios Steryannis traces his family roots back 2,500 years to ancient Babylonia. With his Babylonia Suite, he explores the family tree and his maternal grandparents' diasporic journey from Baghdad to Mumbai to Manchester and finally to Canada with a world music selection of sunshine bright music, with eleven life-affirming compositions. The instruments include piano, bansuri flute, violin, tabla, oud and saxophone. The result is a sort of Middle Eastern, Indo-jazz fusion that shifts into the direction of "Blue Rumba," a tune that sounds like classic Blue Note Records bebop, with the ancestral spirits of Mesopotamia looking on.

The first six selections make up the Suite; track 7 is a traditional Iraqi/Jewish song. Tracks 8 through 11 come from people, places and things inspired by the drummer/composer's life experiences, while "Sun Song" gives off a mysterious vibe, a pared-down, introspective exotica with a Babylonian tinge.

In the Suite, "Babylonia," the opener, begins with 6/4 groove that shifts into 12/8. A key change represents the journey from Mesopotamia to the modern world, while "The Cobra" is ominous, in-your-face Middle Eastern funk evolving into up-tempo swing.

" Mysterious" is the descriptive word for the disc's closer, "La Plante." Written by Steryannis for an "enigmatic healer who treated my family and many others in Toronto in the 70s and 80s." The sweet, floating sound of the bansuri flute and the high gleam of the Fender Rhodes levitate above Steryannis' complex groove, closing the album on a compelling note.

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