Ravish Monin's Trio Tarana: Miren (A Longing)

Featuring the violinist's ostinato-based staccato lines and his band-mates' powerful three-way exchanges, the music crosses many genres while maintaining a scope nestled within good cheer. Ultimately, Momin is a mover and shaker as he navigates the band through North African modalities and Indo-folk themes—all executed with a cutting edge, no-looking-back mindset.

A good portion of these works are engineered with the soloists' circular voicings and budding motifs, spawning heated improvisational dialogs amid linearly designed unison choruses. On "Miren, Terzic's soaring lines ride atop the drummer's fractured backbeats, highlighting the trio's vast expressionism, as many of the passages contain rhythmically contrasting diversions, capped-off by the group's penchant for rendering Middle Eastern-oriented sub-themes.

Bardfeld's spiraling solo during "Fiza launches the band into extended thematic episodes, all kicked into high-gear by Momin's energized drum and percussion work. At times the musicians communicate mystical undercurrents, often counterbalanced with ominously crafted shifts in strategy. Momin literally has the beat on this stuff; in simple terms, he's in a class of his own.

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