RSSThe Heliocentrics [extended]
- Out There [Now-Again, 2007] ***
- Inspiration Information, Vol. 3 [Strut, 2009] A-
- Infinity of Now [Madlib Invazion, 2020] B+
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Consumer Guide Reviews:
Out There [Now-Again, 2007]
Introducing Sun Ra and Michael Henderson-era Miles to Henry Mancini and Maurice White ("Distant Star," "Joyride"). ***
Mulatu Astatke/The Heliocentrics: Inspiration Information, Vol. 3 [Strut, 2009]
The Ethiopia-born and -steeped, U.K.- and Berklee-educated, Harvard- and M.I.T.-associated Astatke is a subtle player on vibes, keyboards and Latin percussion as well as the inventor of something he calls Ethio-jazz. He gets much respect from his largely non-Ethiopian cult, a little less from DJ Shadow drummer Malcolm Catto's band--the Heliocentrics aren't just his sidemen, and thus concoct one of those remarkable collaborations where each party compensates for the other's shortcomings. On his own, Astatke is a mite understated, musicianly and genteel; on their own, the Heliocentrics are just slightly showy, brittle and fickle. Together they play not-quite-Arab Ethiopian scales real loud, juxtapose electric guitar and one-stringed mesenqo, and groove more obstreperously than jazz deems proper. There have been other Euro-Ethio fusions--Le Tigre, Dubulah, in a way Karl Hector. This is the only one that creates a world of its own. A-
Infinity of Now [Madlib Invazion, 2020]
Led by black Britons Malcolm Catto on drums and Jake Ferguson on bass, this intermittent pan-world band/project has bent its jazzy-beaty electro-atmospherics toward scholarly Ethiopian legend Mulatu Astatke and eightysomething U.S. Persian music polymath Lloyd Miller/Kurosh Ali Khan. Here the flavoring agent is the younger Barbora Patkova, whose dreamy soprano signifies no more specifically in English than in Czech than in vocalese yet somehow makes the whole schmear cohere. Some morning when you wake up in your own bed not knowing where you are or why it matters anymore, these wanderings might just help you feel at home. B+