Autorickshaw: Four Higher

"Ganamurthy," a song of devotion and praise to the Lord Krishna, employs an eight-beat cycle. Ed Hanley on the tabla and Debashis Sinha on the sruthi box and dumbek enhance the effect, while Rich Brown invents melodic notes that sidle into the vocals, a feature that distinguishes itself on other songs as well. In an unusual move for Indian classical music, Sankaran plays the organ, which she uses for the drone, on "Ragam," a wordless improvisation where she takes the melodic structure, delves into it, and comes up with some engrossing variations. George Koller adds to the impact of this compelling performance from Sankaran with his playing on the dilruba.

Both the jazz tunes are adept interpretations. Sankaran scats with verve, lending the words a suppleness and bringing a heady effervescence that wafts balmily into "A Night in Tunisia."

The CD comes with an informative booklet and a colorful one too, the latter a takeoff on the exotic art on releases in India, particularly the southern part of the country.

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