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Sample Track 1:
"One Day His Axe Fell Into Honey" from New Deli
Sample Track 2:
"A Crack in the Clouds" from New Deli
Layer 2
Album Review

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All About Jazz, Album Review >>

TriBeCaStan is a mythical kingdom or mystical state (or both) founded by John Kruth and Jeff Greene, built upon music brought within its walls from Western China, Cuba, Morocco, Uzbekistan and just about any and every where else. For New Deli, their second official "state communication," TriBeCaStan's population expands to include Claire Daly, baritone sax ace for Taj Mahal (and previously, James Brown); ska trumpeter John Turner; and Bruce Huebner, master of the pentatonic bamboo Japanese flute.

"As we say in TriBeCaStan, 'If your toes all face one way, you will walk crooked,'" Greene suggests. "This means we must be in solidarity with all of the world to find the right direction. If you dig around in the '60s and '70s in music from India, Thailand and Ethiopia, you hear how the musicians borrowed from and reworked American music. We're just doing the same thing, but in reverse."

"We've not only been inspired by world-class global musicians like Bachir Attar of the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Carnatic mandolin master U. Rajesh, and the Austrian hurdy-gurdy virtuoso Mathias Loibner," Kruth explains, "we invited them to play as guests on New Deli!"

You can pick out of this unique pan-cultural tapestry jazz threads from rewoven tunes by Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, but there's almost no way for mere words to justly address the breadth and depth of this journey through TriBeCaStan.

Recorded at Bill Laswell's studio, Kirk's "Freaks for the Festival" holds high the banner for this ensemble to march behind. Horns shuffle in a New Orleans rhythm while the drummer and percussionists rock a more Latin groove, further enhanced by Kirk alumni Steve Turre's steamy trombone solo. "Two for Ornette," a medley of Coleman's "Dee Dee" and "Theme from a Symphony," dances toward the Caribbean on percussion, strings and Turre's bleats on shells, while a solitary horn counterpoints back toward New Orleans. This electronic treatment of Cherry's "Guinea" sounds like another world trapped someplace between ancient and modern times. "The Mystery of Licorice McKechnie," a disconnected string of percussion, synthesizer and alto sax, sounds as close as you can come to a crazy Sun Ra tune performed by someone other than Ra.

 05/25/12 >> go there
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