Blue Mongol
SSC1147 2005-10-11
Track List
The Camel - 4:18
Gathering Light - 5:22
Behind The Mountains - 2:57
Steppes Song - 4:03
Djoloren - 8:34
Four Mountains - 5:33
Buryat Boogie - 5:36
Blue Mongol - 5:16
Bridle Ringing - 2:41
Ulirenge - 4:57
American Round - 3:13
The Leopard - 5:01
Honey On The Moon - 6:50
Musicians
Roswell Rudd - trombone, meliphone, scat singing
Battuvshin Baldantseren -throat singer, limbe(flute), ikh khur(horse head bass), khomus (jaw's harp)
Badma Khanda - vocals
Dmitry Ayurov - morin khur (horse head fiddle)
Kermen Kalyaeva - lochin (dulcimer), khalmyk dombra (lute)
Valentina Namdykova - yatag (zither)
Rudd's latest collaboration is with the young, conservatory-trained Mongolian singer Badma Khanda and her five-member ensemble, which includes a throat singer, horse-head fiddle and bass, and instruments similar to flute, dulcimer, and zither. Rudd calls the results "art folk," an apt phrase for music that's often stark but never less than beguiling. Twinning with Khanda, matching the throat singer's gargle with growled multiphonics, or just floating over the strings, Rudd throws himself into everything with such relish you might be hard-pressed to tell which tunes are traditional and which are his without glancing at the credits. The Buryats meet him halfway, occasionally recalling Django or country swing, even boogie-woogie on the delirious title track, where Khanda beats it eight-to-the-bar and Rudd quotes "Buttons and Bows." East is East, and West is West, and wherever the four winds blow—that's not just a quote, it's his philosophy.
Francis Davis , the Village Voice
Reviews
�The final number set off a spontaneous standing ovation. The overall shared expression of each facial expression in the audience � including myself � was that of re-encouragement, of having experienced something for the very first time which no one could even relate to anything previously encountered, a rarity to be sure in this day and age of regurgitation.This was a gift of a night that featured original music in the guise of a fusion never previously imagined and against all odds with differences of musical scales, rhythms, and traditions. Rudd and the Mongolian Buryat Band have pioneered an altogether new form of music without label, genre, or category.�
�Roswell Rudd is unprecedented, unparalleled, and this is his most unique musical and cultural collaboration possibly in the history of �jazz�, and certainly a notable one on music history as well.�
Laurence Donohue-Greene ALL ABOUT JAZZ NEW YORK � Nov. 2004
