Brooks, George: Spirit and Spice

Saxophonist extraordinaire George Brooks is a busy man having formed the Indian Fusion groups Summit, Bombay Jazz and the Kirwani Quartet. His new album Spirit and Spice is the latest offering from Summit featuring Fareed Haque (guitar), Kai Eckhardt (bass) and Steve Smith (drums) and a number of Indian guest musicians. Brooks does a great job of fusing classically influenced Indian music with melodic contemporary jazz.

Brooks is a fine player and his saxophone is a highlight throughout Spirit and Spice. His warm tone is very easy to listen to adding flair and melody to the compositions. Adding exotic Indian flavourings is the Indian flute playing of Ronu Majumdar. Sridar Parthasarathy also contributes to the Indian instrumentation adding mrdangam, ghatam, kanjira and her exotic background vocals. The drum skills of Steve Smith are another highlight as are the warm rhythms of tabla players Zakir Hussain and Swapan Chaudhuri who add their expertise to three of the album's eight tracks. I would be remiss if I did not give special mention to guitarist Fareed Haque. His signature rhythms and dexterous picking are bountiful here.

The up-tempo funk inspired "Monsoon Blues" opens the CD in fine style. Brook's smooth tenor sax combined with Haque's choppy guitar rhythms and Indian percussion is a wonderful mix of East meets West. The exotic sounding "Spice" is another fine blend of Indian classical musings with contemporary jazz sounds. Kala Ramnath's slicing violin work and Haque's distinctive guitar meanderings make for a nice slice of exotic flavoured jazz and at almost ten minutes there is plenty of time for the musicians to explore their surroundings and they do so with fervor. Brook's slow burning saxophone and Smith's subtle drum strokes in "Silent Prayer-Madhuvanti" will delight fans of contemporary jazz as will the easy listening sax groove in "Spirit" where Frank Martin's piano flourishes fill in the background making this one of the CD's most melodic songs. The album's Indian inspired roots are no more exemplified than in "Lalita" and "Peshkar For Hamza" with the former featuring the languid bansuri flute of Majumdar and the latter blending dreamy rhythms of tabla with a soulful sax groove.

Spirit and Spice is an outstanding album and I recommend it to all fans of jazz and Indian classical music. A few of the album's highlights include "Monsoon Blues", the Calypso inspired "Sri Rollins" and the exotic "Peshkar For Hamza" although there is really not a bad one in the bunch.

Track Listing:
1. Monsoon Blues (6:33)
2. Spice (9:55)
3. Silent Prayer-Madhuvanti (6:58)
4. Spirit (8:07)
5. Lalita (5:41)
6. Sri Rollins (5:03)
7. Peshkar For Hamza (5:04)
8. Casting (6:23)

Added: July 12th 2010
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Artist's Official Site
Hits: 1889
Language: english

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