As a rule – and rules are there to be broken – I am not a fan at all of a strings section, quartet or whatever size, tacked on to a small jazz group.
But Mirror does work handsomely. I was quite moved by ‘After the Storm’ for instance. The strings are like enthusiastic cheerleaders to the main draw which of course is tabla virtuoso, drummer, percussionist, singer Trilok Gurtu.
Leader of Italy based Arké violinist Carlo Cantini who conducts takes these fascinating rhythms to the next level wrapping them in a certain sheen that’s more satin than gloss. The enthusiasm is infectious on ‘Peace is Not Peaceful’ and I liked the playfulness in the naming of the piece. Gurtu’s konnakol type vocals are as incisive as a guitarist and there’s an electricity to the sheer drive of the opener, an ideal way to begin.
Not at all new to one another – and that familiarity and an at easeness are apparent – Arké and Gurtu worked together as far back as appearing as guests on Gurtu’s 2004 album Broken Rhythms and later on 2007’s Arkeology.
I have heard Gurtu play a few times. Back in the 1990s most memorably this was hearing him in the formidable company of Mahavishnu Orchestra genius John McLaughlin at London’s Royal Festival Hall. And I interviewed TG, then in his 40s living in Hamburg, oh around 1994 in a Marriott near Regent’s Park for a magazine around at the time that the reliably Falstaffian figure of Jonty Abbott used to edit called Jazz on CD.
Thinking back Gurtu, now 73, told me about his love of table tennis and he talked about his mother a famous singer in India Shobha Gurtu, Queen of Thumri.
Some of Trilok’s best work is with John McLaughlin heard on the masterpiece Qué Alegría and the Belonging band’s Jan Garbarek.
Holding a Mirror inevitably to life among the bits I most like are Trilok’s drumming on ‘Settembrino’ – again you get a fabulous drive and sense of attack but the time keeping is so exact. And if understandably and especially if a Boomer you are a sucker for old school Indojazz-rock then bingo.
Arké String Quartet – Cantini with violinist Valentino Corvino, violist Sandro di Paolo and bassist Stefano Dall’Ora – exhibit their folky side in the main opening theme of ‘The Cathedral’. The jangling quality of ‘Whirlwind’ is even more involving especially in its feverish unspooling. Best tabla bits are the very well caught sonically impactful elements found within ‘Tornavento.’
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