Search - Hemispheres :: Crossroads

The Bay Area percussionist/composer/bandleader/producer/educator Ian Dogole an exceptional musician who, for three decades has worked with a wide variety of artists, from Richie Cole to Alex DeGrassi, and is the leader of the celebrated ensemble Hemispheres brilliantly and beautifully blends the far-flung rhythms, instruments, and melodic/harmonic textures of world music with the swing of jazz with ingenuity and integrity, on Crossroads, his Sunnyside debut and his seventh recording as a leader. Joined by an all-star cast consisting of multi-reed virtuoso, Paul McCandless; the legendary co-founder of Oregon, bassist Bill Douglass, pianist Frank Martin, Sheldon Brown on woodwinds, with special guest, Iranian composer/percussionist Hossein Massoudi.

As is the hallmark of any Hemispheres project, Crossroads offers a kaleidoscopic brew of musical styles, instrumentation and moods, moving seamlessly between the jazz and world music arenas, Dogole says. The majority of the compositions are original, coming from [me], and woodwind virtuosi Sheldon Brown and Paul McCandless. Fresh interpretations of compositions by guitarist/pianist Ralph Towner, legendary trumpeter Woody Shaw and Iranian composer/multi-instrumentalist Hossein Alizadeh round out the recording.

Created with the help of a Career Development Grant from the Marin Arts Council, Dogole s dazzling array of cajon, dumbek, global drumset, and kalimba and percussion makes Crossroads less of a East meets West project, and more of a East swings West venture. Towner s The Glide, originally recorded by Oregon in the mid-eighties, is rendered here with a bouncy, mid-tempo groove, contrasted by McCandless plaintive Spirits of Another Sort, an Oregon ballad from 1998. Brown s Fathers & Sons and Running Shadows are both syncopated with Arabesque airs and Latin tinges. Jazz trumpeter Woody Shaw s Intro to Katrina/Katrina Ballerina, features Dogole s intoxicating kalimba solo, which segues into Shaw s Motherland-pulsed selection from the seventies. The leader s Golden Heart/Guiding Spirit and Mirror Images are also featured: the former, a neo-boppish tribute to his significant other, and the latter, a spectral, solo showcase on the hang, a Swiss steel pan-inspired hybrid instrument that was created in 2001. The CD closes with Zarbi, a live track recorded at The Hillside Club in Berkeley, California in February 2008, and composed by world-renowned Iranian musician/composer Hossein Alizadeh. Featuring Hossein Massoudi s evocative vocals, floating over a 5/4 rhythm with an ostinato bass/piano line.