21 Spices

Setting aside his wonderfully adventurous series of world music fusions, 21 Spices finds Trilok Gurtu returning to his early jazz roots, back to when he made his name playing with the likes of Jan Garbarekand John McLaughlin. There’s plenty of Trilok’s trademark tricky tabla playing underpinning the album’s seven lengthy tracks, but his subtlety at times gets overwhelmed by the precise, thumping kick of the full kit played by Simon Phillips, one-time drummer with Mike Oldfield and rock band Toto. Recorded live at a series of concerts in 2010 with additional studio overdubs, at their complementary best the two percussionists provide a driving and inventive bedrock for the virtuosity of a number of stunning soloists. The playing of German-Spanish guitarist Roland Cabezas evokes comparison with two former Gurtu collaborators, McLaughlin and Pat Metheny. In particular, the mellow, semi-classical opener ‘Peace of Five’ reminded this reviewer of Metheny’s splendid 1992 ‘world jazz’ album Secret Story, while the haunting saxophone playing of Lutz Büchner on the same track owes something to the crisp meditations of Garbarek.

Elsewhere the jazz is more full-on and the brass-heavy NDR Big Band, conducted by Jörg Achim Keller, riffs with a muscularity that is more Manhattan than Madras. Ultimately, 21 Spices is likely to find more fans among readers of Jazzwise than Songlines. But those who are open¬eared enough to subscribe to both will no doubt feel doubly rewarded.