Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Irene Schweizer / Dewan Motihar / Barney Wilen / Manfred...

Irene Schweizer / Dewan Motihar / Barney Wilen / Manfred Schoof: Jazz Meets India

By John Kelman
May 13, 2010
View read count

Irene Schweizer / Dewan Motihar / Barney Wilen / Manfred Schoof: Jazz Meets India

Years before John McLaughlin began a deep investigation into the music of India that resonates to this day, there was Jazz Meets India. It wasn't the first time that Indian music had crept into popular western culture—

The Beatles

band / ensemble / orchestra

" data-original-title="" title="">The Beatles and

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane, amongst others, had already seen to that—but this 1967 MPS date was an early experimental meshing of linear Eastern modality with free jazz improv. There have been plenty of failed cross-cultural experiments, but thanks to Promising Music's ongoing MPS reissue series, this conjoined septet of European improvising trio, traditional Indian classicists and a couple of additional horn players proves an unqualified success.

Comprising only three compositions—two extended pieces and one relatively brief one at just over five minutes—the premise of Jazz Meets India arose when MPS producer Joachim Ernst Berendt asked pianist

Irene Schweizer

piano
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Irene Schweizer's drummer, Mani Neumeier, if he had any connection with Indian musicians. The drummer had studied with sitarist/tablaist Dewan Motihar a couple years earlier in London, and Motihjar was, himself, a student of

Ravi Shankar

sitar
1920 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Ravi Shankar—already on the ascendancy to international stardom at this time. With Neumeier's insistence of including saxophonist Barney Wilen, and the additional of trumpeter

Manfred Schoof

trumpet
b.1936

" data-original-title="" title="">Manfred Schoof, this mix of eastern and western instruments works precisely because, at the core of all three pieces, is a fundamental that's not jazzed up, nor toned down. Instead, both sides moving towards a common middle ground where individual authenticity remains, while creating something fresh and exciting.

The 17-minute "Sun Love," co-written by Motihar and Neumeier, begins steeped in Indian traditionalism, with Kusum Thakur's droning tambura and Motihar's sitar patiently finding their way to a tablaist Keshav Sathe's more defined pulse. Schweizer's trio doesn't enter until after the four-minute mark, but when they do, they're clearly coming from a space heralded by Coltrane—albeit more gently—as Neumeier injects a 6/8 swing over Sathe's longer rhythmic pattern. Bringing a chordal instrument into the mix of this largely linear music could displace it, but instead Schweizer's increasingly active playing respects the piece's inherent modality, drawing on

McCoy Tyner

piano
1938 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">McCoy Tyner for inspiration but going to areas of even freer expressionism. Schoof—whose recently reissued Resonance (ECM, 2009) was nothing short of revelational—plays with equal license, as does Wilen, who adopts a less nasal tone than that of Coltrane's.

"Yaad" provides a brief moment of contemplation, Wilen's saxophone a delicate foil for Motihan's gentle singing, but it's Schoof's closing "Brigach and Ganges" that's Jazz Meets India's greatest success. Starting with Uli Trepte's microtonal-centric bowed bass and some empathic yet lyrical interaction between Schoof and Wilen, over the course of 14 minutes it builds towards the disc's greatest reckless abandon; Neumeier and Scweizer, in particular, playing with unbridled fire matched, perhaps surprisingly, by Motihan.

Neither east nor west, yet redolent of both, Jazz Meets India is an overlooked gem from the MPS catalogue, one that may have seemed more innovative at the time of its release, but which remains engaging nearly 45 years after it was first recorded.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Sun Love; Yaad; Brigach and Ganges.

Personnel

Irene Schweizer

piano

Ir��ne Schweizer: piano; Uli Trepte: acoustic bass; Mani Neumeier: drums; Dewan Motihar: sitar, vocals; Keshav Sathe: tablas; Kusum Thakur: tambura; Manfred Schoof: trumpet, cornet; Barney Wilen: soprano and tenor saxophones.

Album information

Title: Jazz Meets India | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Promising Music/MPS

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Ryan McGuire: Metal Reasoning
< Previous

Life Is Sweet
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.