Customer Reviews

As Is

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Sunny Jain Collective: "As Is" (NCM East)
"As Is" is an absolutely successful debut for the four-member collective of 28 year old Indian-root Sunny Jain (his parents hail from New Delhi). During the last years drummer - leader Sunny Jain has performed with the likes of Kenny Barron, Kyle Eastwood, Norah Jones and Seamus Blake. Growing up in United States he had the privilege to keep up with two different cultures and his first album as a leader reflects this blending. Two more members of the quartet are of Asian origin too: guitarist Rez Abbasi (born in Karachi, Pakistan) and bassist Gary Wang and "As Is" is full of exotic colors and mystery. A large part of this traveling aura springs from the marvellous work of Rez Abbasi on sitar guitar. Abbasi's tone, the way he plays the chords, the triplets and the sixteenth notes, as well as the endings of some phrases are Pat Metheny reminiscent. Saxophonist Steve Welsh - the sole non-Asian rooted - finds no difficulty in matching his colrtanish sound with Indian rhythms and melodies in the traditional "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram" or in "Aap Jaisa Koi", a song from a popular Indian movie of the `80s. When he lays his sax aside (for example after his solo on "Horizontal Pathway") he turns the sound towards a techno direction by using electronics. Listening to the music of Sunny Jain you feel like turning up the volume and letting its positive energy spread all around in order to share the pleasure with other people.

"As Is" is an absolutely successful debut for the four-member collective of 28 year old Indian-root Sunny Jain (his parents hail from New Delhi). During the last years drummer - leader Sunny Jain has performed with the likes of Kenny Barron, Kyle Eastwood, Norah Jones and Seamus Blake. Growing up in United States he had the privilege to keep up with two different cultures and his first album as a leader reflects this blending. Two more members of the quartet are of Asian origin too: guitarist Rez Abbasi (born in Karachi, Pakistan) and bassist Gary Wang and "As Is" is full of exotic colors and mystery. A large part of this traveling aura springs from the marvellous work of Rez Abbasi on sitar guitar. Abbasi's tone, the way he plays the chords, the triplets and the sixteenth notes, as well as the endings of some phrases are Pat Metheny reminiscent. Saxophonist Steve Welsh - the sole non-Asian rooted - finds no difficulty in matching his colrtanish sound with Indian rhythms and melodies in the traditional "Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram" or in "Aap Jaisa Koi", a song from a popular Indian movie of the `80s. When he lays his sax aside (for example after his solo on "Horizontal Pathway") he turns the sound towards a techno direction by using electronics. Listening to the music of Sunny Jain you feel like turning up the volume and letting its positive energy spread all around in order to share the pleasure with other people.

I heard Sunny Jain once before at a festival in Ireland with Clint's son, Kyle and was impressed by his willingness to play outside of a "style." This CD and group is an incredible display of maturity and great music. The roots are definitely jazz, but these guys must be listening to other types of music, because it's not boring. My favorite songs on the album are "Horizontal Pathway" and "As Is." Great textures, melody and sound. Highly recommended!