Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Baiju Bhatt: Eastern Sonata

3

Baiju Bhatt: Eastern Sonata

By

View read count
Baiju Bhatt: Eastern Sonata
Every day more emigrants leave their homelands. And as they travel their musics shadow them. The songs follow the singers into their new homes and, just as the people learn the language, the tunes adopt the new country's phrases. Adding its musics to the sonic lexicons of their native countries. So that new songs will be written. Where these lands meet in rhythms and melodies.

Baiju Bhatt and Red Sun's Eastern Sonata is the sound of such a meeting. It plays like a dialogue between genres: world music, jazz, rock. Bhatt's violin-melodies snake from the speakers in long, flowing curves. While beneath him Blaise Hommage's bass and Cyril Regamey's drums roll with the power of the best rock bands. As if they were emphasising the lead instruments' movements. Italicising their key points.

"Pari Shokogun" opens the record like a portal to the new world. A land reshaped by the flows of people, where the borders have been scuffed by countless footprints. Bhatt's violin and Valentin Conus's saxophone sing this place's song. Tracing the outlines of its peaks and valleys with the contours of their melodies and improvisations. They weave around the exotic rhythms with the deftness of birds as Prabhu Eduard's percussion chases their flights on "Kintsukuroi." Where Bhatt's pizzicato introduction sets the track in motion. Sparking a constant flow that runs through its runtime like a long, unwavering road. The link from one place to the next. From people, to people.

Eastern Sonata is a record of movement—it neither ceases nor stills. Even on "Cosmopolis," where the time signature is treacherous as a mountain path, the band move with the looping, circular rhythm. Anchored by Hommage's bass, the lead instruments hop from beat to beat as if they were jumping from needlepoint mountaintops. The rhythm shifts to a Latin groove as the piano sneaks into its solo. Before the band stream into the closing build-up. And the record continues to roll through its soundscape. A vast, ever-shifting world.

Closing track "Song For Little Shai" opens with a swell of sound. Ushering in the gossamer piano chords and the drone of Krishna M. Bhatt's sitar. Here the European classical and Indian music traditions meet. Each one complementing the other, their nuances fitting like cogs. And the ethereal finish, of sitar-slides and a child's laughter, hangs in the air. Gentle as frost on a spiderweb. Brilliant as the sunlight's shine on its threads.

Everything on Eastern Sonata moves in harmony. Not just a musical harmony, but a human, cooperative one. Where different cultures come together instead of warring. And as more footprints scuff those borders, reshaping this world into the one in Eastern Sonata's music, it will become imperative that we listen to the fruits of such harmony. To keep the melting pot stirred.

Track Listing

Pari Shokogun; Kintsukuroi; The Joyful Warrior; Cosmopolis; Eastern Sonata; Ode to the White Ape; Upper Welsch Side; Opium; Land of Wonders; Whirlpool; Song for Little Shai.

Personnel

Baiju Bhatt
violin

Baiju Bhatt: violin; David Tixier, piano; Mark Priore: piano; Blaise Hoomage: bass; Valentin Conus: soprano & tenor saxophone; Cyril Regamey: drums; Nguyên Lê: guitar; Krishna M. Bhatt: sitar; Prabhu Edouard: tabla, percussion; Jay Gandhi: bansuri flutre; Amine Mraihi: oud.

Album information

Title: Eastern Sonata | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: QFTF Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante
All In Motion
Dave Redmond
Cat & The Hounds
Colin Hancock's Jazz Hounds Featuring Catherine...

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.