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Reviews: Esthema ~ Apart From the Rest
Posted on Saturday, April 05, 2008 @ 15:19:09 PDT
Topic: Reviews
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Artist: Esthema
CD: Apart From the Rest
Home: Boston, Massachusetts
Style: Middle Eastern/East European Jazz Fusion
Quote: "It’s a perfect combination of Middle Eastern/East European folk music and American jazz, like an amped-up Loreena McKennitt without vocals."
By Jamie Anderson
I’ve gotta come clean and tell you that I’m a bellydancer and I love jazz. I want to kiss my editor for sending me this disc. It’s a perfect combination of Middle Eastern/East European folk music and American jazz, like an amped-up Loreena McKennitt without vocals. This quintet has studied all over the world, and with excellent musicianship, they smoothly turn out originals centered around the beautiful melodies played on oud, bouzouki (both members of the lute family prominent in Middle Eastern music) and violin with bass, drums and guitar providing the support.
It’s the drums and bass that give these compositions an American jazz sound. Missing are the distinctly polyrhythmic Middle Eastern beats. In fact, if you isolated the rhythm section you’d find a pretty standard jazz base. Very well-played and creative, to be sure, but definitely not Turkish or Egyptian. The same goes for the bass and guitar. It’s the gorgeous minor melodies played on the other stringed instruments that serve as a centerpiece for this recording and really make them stand out from the crowd of bands doing “world music.” (Can I say how much I hate that term? Everything is world music. It’s just a label slapped on some bands by folks who think anything outside of the states is exotic.)
On “Consequence” the violin and bouzouki do a very cool call and answer, then join together for musical phrases. (Please forgive me if I confuse the oud and bouzouki. There aren’t separate credits for each cut and to my ear, they have a similar sound.) It quiets for a section then the bouzouki becomes the focus, ably backed by the drums and bass. There are several more sections – like a good jazz jam with lots of tasty melody – and towards the end is another call and answer. Beautiful. “For Whom? For Me …” is in an odd time that compliments the melody. Every good jazz band has a few tunes in something besides 4/4. “Apart From the Rest” really lets the band stretch and show off their chops with each of them taking a solo and no, the bass solo doesn’t suck. This isn’t some garage band, y’all, they know their stuff.
I should send roses to my editor for giving me this disc. As for everyone else – go hear Esthema live – they seem to play in Massachusetts and New York mostly – or buy their disc. Don’t bother with the flowers.
Artist Website: http://www.esthema.com
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