Sean Trane
Well, more than a Schweizer album, this one would deserve to be her trio’sdrummer Mani Neumeier’s album, because he’s the one at the very inception of this project. To her own admission, pianist Irene Schweizer knew nothing of Indian music (outside listening to a few Ravi Shankar albums) but was attracted modal jazz through from whatever she’d heard from Trane and Tyner. Before that, first starting out as a Dixieland jazz in her early teens, she’d become a Soul-jazz and Hard Bop expert after spending a few years in England with Eddie Thompson and of course would later end up with the Feminist Improvising Group, where some Henry Cow members came through as well. Her trio was formed with two future Guru Guru members: the afore-mentioned Neumeier and bassist Uli Trepte.
As said above, Neumaier had connections with Sitar-player Dewan Mothar and through producer Joachim Berendt, the double trio joined for an Indo-Jazz project along with wind-players Barney Willen and Manfred Schoof. Only three tracks on the album, but the Neumeier and Motihar composition Sun Love is a stunning almost 18-mins piece that often goes wildly improvised and dissonant, but at first the Indian trio starts out on tambura and sitar, before tabla drums join. Irène’s Tyner-like piano enters before Mani’s manic drums and Trepte’s bowed contrabass do. While the two trios have made it rather dissonant and avant-garde, it’s Willen’s trumpet that sets fire to your B&W speakers, but Mani’s demented skin-pounding takes the whole thing to a superior level. On the flipside, the shorter Yaad is a delicious track where Motihar scats beautifully, only interrupted halfway through by Schoofs’ soft sax, and then they engage in a call and response with Willen trumpet in the background and Trepte arbitrating it with his bowed bass. Awesome!!! The closing Ganges track is penned by Schoof and opens on squeaks and growls from Willen and Trepte, continues in complete mayhem (Mani and Irène helping out) with brief resurgences of Indian grooves to zero-in again, but only temporarily, because the madness soon returns. Again, awesome.
BTW: you’ll find Motihar and Sathe (though with their names spelled differently) in Joe Harriett’s Indo-Jazz fusion albums in the next couple years. Though I’ve probably only skimmed the surface of Indo-Jazz Fusion, I suspect that this Jazz Meets India will probably remain in my tops for years to come, as this is much stronger than anything Harriott or McLaughlinn ever did in the next decade or so. If you must own only one Indo-Jazz Fusion in your shelves, this should/could be it.