Dan Weiss Jhaptal Dumset Solo

CD

Named by the New York Times in 2009 as one of the “Five Drummers Whose Time Is Now,” Dan Weiss has kept that promise as a busy jazz sideman. His intriguing concepts, deeply influenced by Indian music, culminated in Tintal Drumset Solo, on which he applied tabla patterns to solo drumset. This follow-up CD is an even more challenging East-West mesh. Jhaptal is a ten-beat cycle of North Indian music. While a guitar continually outlines a melodic cycle, Weiss vocalizes each composition’s tabla bols (syllables representing strokes) then mimics it on drumset while expanding with improvisations. Technically it’s a stunner. But more importantly, it’s passionate, coherent, and mesmerizing. (www.danweiss.net ) Jeff Potter