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: Safar-E-Daroon

By Mike Jurkovic
April 22, 2020
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Safar e Daroon germinates from its dark, submerged interiors immediately and immediately brings you into the light. But a light of what? A lover's lamp? A hushed arena? An Australian wildfire? Take your pick and let your mind go. It's all going to happen and does so in spades on oudist Gordon Grdina's second go-round with his associates, The Marrow.

As it has been on recent releases such as Gordon Grdina's Nomad Trio> (Skirl, 2020) with pianist

Matt Mitchell

piano
b.1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Matt Mitchell and drummer

Jim Black

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Jim Black, Marrow's Ejdeha (Songlines, 2018) or the rockier quartet clamor of Cooper's Park (Songlines, 2019) it isn't only the dusky, centuries old sense of other-worldliness that arises from Grdina's oud that draws you in. Improvisational yet disciplined, there is always something going on behind the proverbial veil as it were, and that movement has become a watermark of both his writing and his guitar/oud playing.

Now it's more than likely Grdina doesn't give it a second thought whether we think it's jazz or not, but once you begin to think of where the music starts and where it finishes, be it the quixotic title opener that slingshots to a 10/6 rhythm, or "El Baz" with the fevered sparring of Grdina and violinist

Josh Zubot

violin

" data-original-title="" title="">Josh Zubot seemingly unaware of the burbling conversation between bassist

Mark Helias

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Heliasand cellist

Hank Roberts

cello
b.1954

" data-original-title="" title="">Hank Roberts, you're caught in the wake and stir. You flow on the melancholy raga "Shamshir" and the sketchy impulses of "Outsize" and how percussionist Hamin Honari floats between it all, and you instinctually feel the motion.

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Track Listing

Safar-e-Daroon: El Baz : Mini-con; Calling on You; Shamshir; Convergence; Illumination; Outsize; Gabriel James.

Personnel

Gordon Grdina

oud

Mark Helias

bass

Hank Roberts

cello

Josh Zubot

violin

Hamin Honari

percussion

Album information

Title: Safar-E-Daroon | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Songlines Recordings

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