Arun Ramamurthy Trio: New Moon

Violinist Arun Ramamurthy is a first-generation Indian American artist. His ancestral roots in India run deep, and his musical roots there run deep, too. He has embraced American jazz but remains artistically tethered to his parents' homeland. 2014's' Jazz Carnatica (Self Produced) (review here), by his Arun Ramamurthy Trio, showcased his talents for walking the line between the old world and the new.

New Moon, coming ten years after Jazz Carnatica, features, again, Sameer Gupta on drums and bassist Damon Banks replacing bassist Perry Wortman from the group's 2014 line-up.

Carnatic (South Indian) music shares the aspect of improvisation with American jazz. In the case of the Carnatic, the improv is normally played over a tight weave of mathematical rhythmic foundations—freedom juxtaposed with the groove. With "Bangalore to Brooklyn," the first song of the "New Moon Suite," the group opens with a collective alap, a group improvisation tied to the raga. This alap forms a three-way expression of loose-limbed spontaneity that leads into the more formal playing of the tune, which then leads to Ramamurthy and his violin. He soars with his lead voice improv, making the violin sound as at home with the traditional music of South India as it does in the concert halls of Europe.

"Aaji"—the name of Ramamurthy's grandmother—is the second piece of the "New Moon Suite," It reflects, with an intoxicatingly deliberative feeling, his respect for a woman who, early on, helped steer him in his artistic journey.

This is not jazz with an Indian tinge; it is Indian music with a jazz tinge. From the opening notes of the recording, the atmosphere speaks strongly to the hypnotic influence of Carnatic music and the raga with a reverence for the traditional stirred into the free, forward-motion vibe of American jazz.

Trios are at the heart of jazz. There is a purity in three, whether it be with pianists Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, guitarists Bill Frisell and John Abercrombie or saxophonist Sonny Rollins, the elemental three-way articulation of a lead instrument plus bass and drums demands the most from the combo, and, done well, pays off the most for the listener. The violin plus two is less common, but Billy Bang did it uncommonly well, and so does Arun Ramamurthy on New Moon.

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