An album of rare beauty that is a welcome addition to the Luminessence series and quite frankly unmissable.
ECM 1349 / 552 3888 (LP from the “Luminessence” Series)
Zakir Hussain (tabla, percussion, voice); Hariprasad Chaurasia (flutes); John McLaughlin (acoustic guitar); Jan Garbarek (tenor & soprano saxophone)
Recorded December 1986
At the time of its original release the album was considered a triumph. A perfect fusion of East meets West was greater than the sum of its parts. Making Music was not the first such collaboration that I had heard that sought to fuse together the musical traditions of different culture and continents having been acquainted with John McLaughlin’s work with Shakti, but it perhaps opened my ears and mind to greater understanding of such meetings.
First impressions at the time may have suggested that Garbarek was the odd one out (the saxophonist has subsequently gone on to explore further meetings with Indian musicians with recording such as Madar), but at times he is the catalyst that draws the music together.
Listening again to the music I am struck by its beauty and purity. There is a connection between the musicians that goes beyond the compositions that allows them to explore their own musical heritage and that of the colleagues. The collective quartet nearly set out their stall on the opening title track which seems to encompass in its twelve-minute duration everything that they had set out to achieve, and it is only the quality of the other compositions that prevented this from being a very short collaboration indeed.
The beauty inherent in this softly spoken music is in the use of dynamics and the way in which each participant is welcomed into the conversational aspect of the music either collectively or in more intimate conversations develop organically; flute and percussion on ‘Water Girl’, soprano and flute on ‘Sabah’ and ‘Toni’ that features a three-way conversation between tenor, guitar and flute.
‘Making Music’ opens the album and is a beautifully constructed and self-contained masterpiece. Opening quietly with guitar and flute before tabla and soprano saxophone enter this is a truly breathtaking combination as the four musicians come together to create a unique ensemble. McLaughlin’s guitar solo accompanied by Hussain’s tablas is a thing of great delicacy, and Jan Garbarek’s soprano playing with his use of dynamics and timbre is astonishing.
This mood is captured throughout this wonderful album and McLaughlin’s command of the idiom is again demonstrated on ‘Zakir’ in which he duets delightfully with flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia. An album of rare beauty that is a welcome addition to the Luminessence series and quite frankly unmissable.
