Tasa Bhakti & Soma Reviews

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Bhakti
Tasa
1. akbar's jewel - 4:55
2. anamayakosha - 9:47
3. twilight - 7:21
4. marie - 7:18
5. bhakti - 4:60
6. matunga - 9:24
7. durga - 2:28
8. moksha - 4:25
9. karuna - 8:53

Chris Gartner - bass guitar, groovy vibe
John Gzowski - guitars, drones
Alan Hetherington - pandero, maracas,
cymbals, caixa and percussion
Ravi Naimpally - tabla and percussion
Ernie Tollar - soprano saxophone, ney
and bansuri


Soma
Tasa
1. amravati - 6:14
2. megh - 8:15
3. udav - 8:18
4. soma - 8:40
5. shyamanand - 6:55
6. rahu - 6:30
7. tara's lullabye - 4:37
8. rudra - 7:50

Chris Gartner - bass guitar
John Gzowski - guitars, drones
Alan Hetherington - percussion
Ravi Naimpally - tabla, dumbek and vocals
Ernie Tollar - soprano saxophone
and bansuri

SPECIAL GUEST:
Dhruba Ghosh - sarangi and vocals



Tasa is a jazzier more North Indian-oriented Remember Shakti with bass and saxophone replacing mandolin.
On "Bhakti", Tasa's first album, the production is chamber scale, instruments form small partnerships, maintaining musical territory whilst tentatively venturing out into the beyond, the playing exploratory, the bass/tabla grooves anchor the group for limited excursions into solo space.

Coryell & Hariprasad's "Music Without Boundaries" and a wealth of other Indofusion styles like Nadaka's work are grounded by Shakti and Remember Shakti, but Tasa also clearly draws from other influences; the melody of the title track is in the style of Weather Report's "The Pursuit Of The Woman With The Feathered Hat" from "Mr. Gone" and "Sweetnighter"'s "Boogie Woogie Waltz".

"Soma" has a tighter, fuller, more developed and accomplished sound, augmented with the guest appearance of sarangi maestro Dhruba Ghosh son of tabla great Nikhil Ghosh, a guru of Naimpally. The emphasis is now strongly on heavy groove-oriented Indojazz fusion, perhaps more Western-style song structures, some konokol and Hindi vocals, with equal Eastern/Western arrangements. The compositions are more balanced, the major harmony dialogues emerging between the sarangi and Tollar's saxophone, which now has a less edgy jazzy tone than before, more sinewy and serpentine it is often used to colour rather than lead.

As before, the group revolves around the solid bass and tabla rhythms, smudgy, swelling basslines oozing out into beat pockets, valleys dispersed among the sonic tabla summits. The lighter side shines through on a few tracks, especially a duet with female guest vocalist Samidha Joglekar, and another Tollar bansuri-led extended piece that also showcases guitarist John Gzowski's imaginative soloing, with unavoidable John McLaughlin similarity and familiarity.