Customer Reviews

Saltanah

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once I heard Bhatt and Shaheen play together in 1997, my first priority became the aquisition of an album of their music. I was not disappointed. Saltanah begins with a few gracefully played notes on Simon Shaheen's 'ud (a middle-eastern lute), gradually and then rapidly developing into a complex series of melodic skip and jumps, beautiful ornamentations and general brilliance of expression. This is followed shortly by the counter voice of Bhatt's Mohan Vina (a hybrid of the slide guitar and the sitar), and from there the album travels in directions never before explored in the history of music. These two musicians, accompanied by Ronu Majumdar on the bansuri (a bamboo flute) and Sangeeta Shankar on Hindustani violin, are brilliant masters of their instruments, forming melodies which are at once complex and beautiful enough to be enjoyed even by western listeners who have never heard music from either of the traditions represented. Since both Arab and Indian art music are improvisational in nature, one has to wonder at the connection these two musicians must have in order to produce such a wonderful set of musical creations without rehearsal or even early takes. If I had not seen it myself, I would not have believed that they were not reading music from a sheet.

The first time I heard this album, I was absolutely enthralled. As time went on, however, I found that is was only mildly entertaining. As is the problem with most "fusion" recordings, there's actually very little fusion going on. Its more like two people imitating each other on instruments that don't typically belong together. I've heard many of V.M. Bhatt's solo recordings and many of Simon Shaheen's solo recordings and they are all superior to this release. This disc proves to be nice background music and it is a fun bit of "ear candy" to chew on occasionally, but there's not much serious interaction occurring. The more one gets familiar with the individual traditions (of the Middle Eastern maqam and the Hindustani raga) the more one realizes how elementary this experiment really is. Like I said its fun to listen to occasionally, but doesn't have a ton of substance.

It is not that often that two musicians from very different cultures come together to improvise music together. This is second to no great jazz improv records. Simply put, this as good an example of musical interaction as you will ever hope to year. Forget about their virtuosic technique, sublime melodies, or warm engeneering of the recording (the halmark of the Waterlilly label. In fact, this CD is recorded on a gold CD for that much better sound). No, it is the way they listen, leave space, answer back, mimic, lead that is the magic of this recording. VM Bhatt is among the most musical players you can hope to hear (he does not indulge in technique for the sake of it, even though he has more than you can imagine). Shaheen is a master of playing with the time. If you love improvization and have a good attention span for it, buy this record.

Mr. Jovaldo (see below) has his point. As for me, I don't serach for complexity in this recording, I just enjoy it. A superb oud player plus a great Indian master playing an instrument he had created. Altogether-a very captivating meditative album which will please anyone who enjoys arabic-indian rhythms and long instrumental improvisations.

This has got to be the best indo-Arab fusion CD that ever came out. It's a thrilling combination of the Arabic Maqam, and the Indian Rag, played by Oud, and Vishwa Mina masters, Simon Shaheen, and Vishwa Mohan Batt.

Folks, if you are into mystical, classical, deep, or even traditional music, this CD is a MUST.

Enjoy...