Harbinger

Ned Rothenberg/Sync | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 23, 2004)
• Original Release Date: October 23, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Animul Records
• ASIN: B0006DQ604
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #599,169 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. March Hair

2. Richie Havens

3. One-Oh-Nine

4. Phrygian Dream

5. Miss Chief

6. Tsuruta Kinshi

7. Kashmir

8. Macrame

Editorial Reviews

Sync might be envisioned as a modified sax/bass/drum trio, where the bassist has been replaced by Jerome Harris on either acoustic guitar or acoustic bass guitar, and where the drummer’s role is taken by Samir Chatterjee on tabla and dumbek. With Rothenberg moving among alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, and the Japanese shakuhachi and composing looping ribbons of melody with odd rhythmic contours, the trio has found a most palatable merger of jazz and Asian music.

The uncommon instrumentation is enhanced by a shared sense of purpose that gives Sync its winning character. Each player displays both the techniques and the sensitivity required to function as both soloist and accompanist, allowing Sync to maintain its three-way conversations after Rothenberg has finished soloing. This is not simply a matter of the leader’s ability to sustain extended melodic and rhythmic variations at lower volumes through circular breathing; it also results from the assurance that allows Harris to sustain a pronounced rhythmic underpinning in his guitar work and rare melodic fluency on bass. Chatterjee, who can sing and then play back the most complex patterns in the manner of the great tabla masters, also senses how to highlight more compact, swing-oriented parts through shifts in accents and dynamics.