Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Rez Abbasi: Snake Charmer

203

Rez Abbasi: Snake Charmer

By

View read count
Rez Abbasi: Snake Charmer
With Snake Charmer, his fourth CD as a leader, guitarist Rez Abbasi overtly draws on his Indian subcontinent heritage. Beneath this conspicuous exterior is a rhythmically charged guitar-organ-drum trio. This was palpable within minutes at the group's CD release party at Joe's Pub, when Abbasi, along with organist Gary Versace, and drummer Danny Weiss, locked into the quick, sinewy movement of the title track. Their tight interplay is the foundation for the music and provides solid support for their guests.

On "Pearl," Dave Liebman's soprano sax acts as the conjurer, its taut, serpentine lines winding around the atmospheric movement of Abbasi's sitar-guitar and Kiran Ahluwalia's enchanting voice. In concert, she was a mesmerizing study in control and injected an appropriate spirituality to this composition dedicated to slain journalist Daniel Pearl. Ahluwalia paired with the burbling tabla of Naren Budhaker on "Motherland" to support Abbasi's patient solo and evoke the exotic.

The trio displays its acumen when it mines churning, up-tempo tunes with recurring unison rhythmic patterns, such as "Tantra" and "Blood Orange." In the former, Abbasi takes a cleanly phrased turn featuring fleet single-note runs, while Weiss modulates the beat with sparse, well-placed fills. Liebman punctuates the quiet dynamics and patient proceedings of "Rumi," matching lines with Abbasi for tonal contrast. A duet for Abbasi's acoustic guitar and Ahluwalia's traditional singing on "Thanks for Nothingness" offers a calming conclusion. Though Abbasi and his cohorts flirt with the edge, they reign themselves in to ensure that the improvisations never subvert the melody or groove. The result is a lively take on the marriage of Indo and western influences.

Track Listing

Snake Charmer; Pearl; Tantra; Motherland; Kismet; Rumi; Blood Orange; Thanks for Nothingness.

Personnel

Rez Abbasi
guitar, acoustic

Rez Abbasi- guitars, sitar-guitar, surmandal, percussion; Gary Versace- organ; Danny Weiss- drums, tabla; Kiran Ahluwalia- Indian vocals, tanpura; Dave Liebman- soprano saxophone on "Pearl" and "Rumi."

Album information

Title: Snake Charmer | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: Earth Sounds

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.

Near

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

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.