JAN GARBAREK — Ragas And Sagas (Ustad Fateh Ali Khan & Musicians From Pakistan) (review)

JAN GARBAREK — Ragas And Sagas (Ustad Fateh Ali Khan & Musicians From Pakistan) album cover

Album · 1992 · World Fusion

5/5 · 2025-01-29
Moshkiae

Jan Garbarek Ragas and Sagas 1992

With Ustad Fateh Khan (voice), Shaukat Hussain (tablas), Nazim Ali Khan (sarangi), Deepika Thathaal (voice) and Manu Katche (drums).

This is the area where a lot of Jan Garbarek's work fits really well ... as a raga, or as the definition describes it, some kind of framework for the improvisation to take place, and end up creating some music. One might even suggest that the opening parts are to be a part of the whole thing later, together as one piece. You don't exactly get that here on this album as the pieces are all well defined and put together, even if it is all improvisation, which I think it is ... though I'm not used to these things in a foreign language of music, which a lot of the different things out there in the middle east and far east of this world, certainly are, and not exactly appreciated in Western circles of the arts.

I don't think I can describe the different 5 pieces of music, which ought to tell you how acquainted I am with a lot of foreign music, though I probably listen to more of it than most folks that tend to stay with the more familiar things on radio and disk, that are listed in many publications, for example.

This is an album to be listened to, and not ... discussed, is just about all I can say, and the idea that Jan Garbarek can fit himself into and with these folks, is rather neat and special ... it's rare that you see such socializing in the arts, although I would think that Jan Garbarek's touch in the music is much more suited for these kinds of things than the metronomic nothings in so much rock music and even jazz out there. And Ustad Fateh Khan's vocal abilities are indeed special and rather amazing, even as you might think that during a moment in the RAGA II piece his voice is synthesized, but nope ... it is clear that it is not ... but sure grabs how we have come to listen and identify things in music ... until one day, we hear something that is not what we think ... I have to say ... far out!

Very nice work and special in its own way ... and the saxophone excursions do not exactly feel over done here since this is the point in a lot of this style of music in the East ... it's what made the Ragas famous, even though our ideas of what a Raga is, is very different ... but it's safe to state that the process in rock and jazz do not exactly allow for things to be this open and non-stop ... too much of the westernized music in the past 60 years has been centered on the "song" idea, and this is something that is not a part of the Raga ... I was once told that if a Raga was under an hour, it was no Raga ... and that ought to give yo an idea of the limitations that go home in these pieces ... and it becomes wide open to the interpretation in our Western minds, that don't know this music intimately, and in this case Jan Garbarek seems to have very little to hang on to, other than some vocal moments that are likely pre-defined that help Jan Garbarek add something to the whole piece. A good example, would be the Raga III piece.

A special album, and something that only ECM ever did, allow for its folks to do a lot of work on their own, and sometimes it worked and others it sound more conventional, but at moments like this one in this album the whole thing just goes somewhere that we can nt exactly define and experience ... but might become clearer as we listen to these things more and more.

NOTE: If you are into "jazz", this album is not for you, I don't think. If you are into the experiment of hos a jazz player can mix and match with something else, then this album is outstanding in that idea and comes though shining brightly. A wonderful touch ... and I might even say a rare touch!