Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Ragawerk: Ragawerk

Ragawerk: Ragawerk

By Chris May
August 12, 2022
View read count

Fusions of jazz and Indian raga go back to the mid-1950s, when the London-based Indian composer John Mayer began experimenting with the concept and, in the early 1960s, went on to form Indo-Jazz Fusions with the alto saxophonist

Joe Harriott

saxophone
1928 - 1973

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe Harriott. Meanwhile, across the pond,

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane became so fascinated with raga that he named his son after sitar player

Ravi Shankar

sitar
1920 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Ravi Shankar. Fast forward to the 1970s and British guitarist

John McLaughlin

guitar
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">John McLaughlin raised the game with

Mahavishnu Orchestra

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Mahavishnu Orchestra and

Shakti

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Shakti.

And so the fun continued until spring 2022, when jazz's fascination with raga went one step beyond with the Israeli-born, New York-based tenor saxophonist

Oded Tzur

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Oded Tzur's exalted masterpiece Isabela (ECM) (which Tzur discusses in an All About Jazz interview here).

Now, a few month's later, comes German band Ragawerk's eponymous album, its fourth since 2015. Previously known as the Max Clouth Clan, Ragawerk is a quartet led by guitarist

Max Clouth

guitar, electric

" data-original-title="" title="">Max Clouth and drummer

Martin Standke

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Martin Standke and completed by bassist Peter Puskas and keyboarist Georg Boerner. A dozen guest musicians, most of Indian heritage, contribute to the album.

Clouth lived and studied in Mumbai for three years prior to forming the Max Clouth Clan and he and Standke, who consider themselves primarily to be jazz musicians, are no mere cultural tourists, instead approaching the raga tradition with respect. Ragawerk blends the music with jazz, Krautrock and electronica. Some tracks, such as opener and first single "Ab Yeh Kya" (check the YouTube clip below), are full-on Indo fusions, others lean to a greater or lesser degree towards Krautrock. The music is spacey and oftentimes pretty and is ultimately something of a cross between the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the

Pat Metheny Group

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Pat Metheny Group and the Krautrock minimalism of German guitarist and ex-Ash Ra Tempel leader Manuel G?ttsching in the 1980s.

Whether this is a 3.5 star ("very good") album or a 4 star ("excellent") one is pretty much a toss up. If one compares it to Shakti's masterpiece Natural Elements (Columbia, 1977), then 3.5 might be appropriate. Purely on its own terms, however, it deserves 4.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Ab Yeh Kya; I Promise; Grace Krpa; Nature Of The Self; Overlays; Das Modul; Theta Wave; Face In The Sky; The Shore;Mangal.

Personnel

Max Clouth

guitar, electric

Martin Standke

drums

Peter Puskas

bass

Georg Boerner

keyboards

Additional Instrumentation

Varijashree Venugopal: vocals (1); Kabuki: modular synthesiser (1, 3, 7, 9); Koel Puthli: vocals (10); Mahesh Raghavan: GeoShred (10); Shruti Ramani: vocals (8, 10); Shivaraj Natraj: kanjira, mridangam (1, 6, 10); Udhai Mazumdar: table (1, 5, 6); Mehtab Ali Niazi: sitar (1); Abhisek Mallick: sitar (2, 7, 8); Manas Kumar: violin (1); Hannah Visser: violin (3, 9); Sophie-Justine Herr: cello (3, 9); Koel Sen: voice (7).

Album information

Title: Ragawerk | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Bellaphon

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Tedeschi Trucks Band At Red Rocks
< Previous

Octet And Originals
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.