Shez Raja has created an album that is a stirring blend of jazz, funk and Eastern music, and which showcases one of the UK’s leading jazz-funk bassists.
Raja Records RR002CD
Shez Raja (bass guitar); John Etheridge, Guthrie Govan (electric guitar); Chris Jerome (keyboards); Roopa Panesar (sitar); Tony Kofi, Vasilis Xenopoulos (saxophone); Ahsan Papu (bansuri); Zohaib Hassan (sarangi); Gurdain Rayatt (tabla); Dennis Chambers, Sophie Alloway, Jamie Murray (drums); Fiza Haider (voice)
Recorded various studios in London and the USA, Digital Fidelity Studios, Lahore, Pakistan, and Pizza Express, Soho, London. No recording dates
This album is a mix of so many things: musical genres, nationalities, recording locations, live and studio music, as well as Eastern and Western music. It reflects the life and music of British bassist Shez Raja, who was born on the Wirral, Merseyside, to an English mother and an Indian father
Starting out a classical violinist, Raja switched to the electric bass at twelve and has never looked back. His bass influences include Marcus Miller, Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke, but listening to this album I can also hear Ralphe Armstrong (who played bass in another of Raja’s musical influences, The Mahavishnu Orchestra) and bassist Brian Bromberg, whose solo albums are always an interesting and eclectic mix.
Raja is a very inventive bassist who uses tuning, technique and technology (in the form of effects pedals) to transform his bass sound. He’s also a prolific composer (he wrote all the album’s songs) and his prowess as a bass player has attracted a lot of attention in the jazz world. You certainly need some talent to have the likes of Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Trilok Guru and Wayne Krantz play on your albums, as Raja has done on previous works.
On this album, his eighth as leader, drummer Dennis Chambers and Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge each play on two tracks. There’s also a trio of musicians from Pakistan: Ahsan Papu, Zohaib Hassan and Fiza Haider, and two with connections with India: London-born sitar player Roopa Panesar, and tabla drummer Gurdain Rayatt. There are also musicians well established on the UK jazz scene: Tony Kofi and Vasilis Xenopoulos on saxes, Sophie Alloway and Jamie Murray on drums, guitarist Guthrie Govan and keyboardist Chris Jerome – the last two only appear on the album’s twin live recordings.
‘Quantum Spirits,’ the album’s opening number, appears twice, first as a studio cut and later as a live performance from the Pizza Express jazz venue in Soho, London. It’s a bustling jazz-rock-funk number, with Jamie Murray laying down a heavy, syncopated funk groove and Raja tuning his bass to sound like a Piccolo bass guitar, made famous by Stanley Clarke. John Etheridge’s searing guitar solo adds edge and excitement to the sound, as does Vasilis Xenopoulos’s bluesy tenor sax solo.
What I like about Raja’s playing is that he’s a very democratic band leader. It must have been tempting to pepper this album with lots of extended bass solos and fancy virtuosic playing, but he doesn’t do any of this. Raja’s often happy to simply lay down a groove and let other musicians take centre stage, and when he does solo, it’s never too long or overblown. That said there is plenty of fine playing here to satisfy bass guitar fans.
Etheridge also appears on ‘Vishnu,’ along with Dennis Chambers. This midtempo piece starts off with a funk bass riff, snarling guitar lines and a heavy backbeat. Raja also plays a neat little Eastern motif, and Etheridge interjects here and there with screaming lines. Around the midway mark, there’s a short melodic bridge section, followed by some call and response between guitar and bass. Raja then lays down a bass vamp, over which Chambers plays a thundering drum solo – his power and speed are astonishing.
Chambers also plays on the album’s title track, a jazz-funk-indo beat enhanced by the rhythmic, ringing sound of Gurdain Rayatt’s tabla drums. Tony Kofi’s tenor sax and the bass play the song’s theme together, before Raja unleashes a burbling bass solo. You don’t hire a drummer like Dennis Chambers to simply lay down a little backbeat, and so Chambers is given a solo slot which offers even more explosive drumming.
One of my favourite tunes is ‘Through The Multiverse’ which combines the ringing, singing sound of Roopa Panesar’s sitar with a midtempo syncopated funk groove – Sophie Alloway is a terrific drummer. Raja plays a heavy bass groove, sounding more like a dub bassist. Panesar and Kofi perform impressive solos. It’s one of those tracks you wished was at least twice as long.
The lovely ballad ‘Together We Fly,’ is the album’s only vocal, featuring the voice Fiza Haider, who has worked with Raja before. One wonders if the song’s title was inspired by Haider’s singing – her voice soars, sweeps and floats like a bird in the sky. Panesar plays a delicate sitar solo and Alloway uses brushes, the percussion never overpowering the vocals.
‘Lucid Path to the Golden Lotus’ includes Rayatt on tabla and Ahsan Papu on bansuri, a bamboo flute. The combination of the soft, sweet tones of the bansuri floating over Raja’s funk bass line, Rayatt’s ringing tabla and Alloway’s steady backbeat make for a very satisfying sound, embellished by Papu’s solo, which at times sounds like a crying human voice – it’s an affecting performance.
‘Maharishi Mindtrip’ is the album’s only trio performance with Raja joined by Zohaib Hassan on sarangi (a short-necked string instrument with a singing sound) and Jamie Murray on drums. The song lives up to its title, beginning with a Murray’s short, pounding drum solo before settling down into a tight groove, with a theme which evokes memories of Sixties hippies heading off to the East for enlightenment.
The album closes with two live performances from Pizza Express Jazz and a quintet comprised of Raja, guitarist Guthrie Govan, keyboardist Chris Jerome, saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos and drummer Sophie Alloway. ‘Quantum Sprits’ has a similar groove and feel to the studio version, although Guthrie plays a much longer guitar solo with plenty of wah-wah. Both versions are equally satisfying. The closing number ‘Rabbits’ is the longest number at a little over ten minutes in length. This energizing jazz-funk workout showcases guitar and bass, with both Raja and Guthrie soloing at length, and the bassist deploying an effects pedal to create a warbling sound effect. Shez Raja has created an album that is a stirring blend of jazz, funk and Eastern music, and which showcases one of the UK’s leading jazz-funk bassists.
