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Sudani
is the ambitious, genre-spanning project of
New York alto saxophonist Patrick Brennan in collaboration with Chicago-born
drummer Nirankar Khalsa and a number of Gnawan musicians, recorded live in
Morocco with a stereo mic and portable DAT. As one might guess from the setup,
Brennan improvises alongside the other’s undulating, heady trance grooves.
But it’s surprising just how at home Brennan’s skewered, Dolphyesque
melodies and serrated squeals and squeaks sound amidst the mystic rhythms
evoked by M’allim Sudani’s guinbri (a plucked chordophone made
from wood and animal skin, with a somewhat bass-like resonance), the trap
drumming of Khalsa, and the rapturous density provided by several more Gnawa
on additional percussion. One might not expect that the blues would have
such a pronounced presence on a release such as this, but the connection
runs deep on “Timarmalia Blues ” and “with Ma’abud
Allah”, both with Khalsa’s vocals. Though broken into distinct
tracks, there’s a sense of serialized motifs, unit structures that can
be combined and recombined in various ways to create a beatific, hypnotic
spiral of sound. The fourteen minute opener “Marhaba ya Marhaba”
is a particularly ecstatic tour-de-force. This disc suggests itself as an
excellent point of entry for the free jazz fan who wants to begin to explore
the magic music of northern Africa. Pete Gershon Signal to Noise, page 38, issue #18, july/august 2000 |
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