Classic India

Various Artists - Miles From India (2008) {2CD Set Times Square Records TSQ-CD-1808, Miles Davis alumni}
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© 2008 Four Quarters Ent. / Times Square Records | TSQ-CD-1808
Jazz / Fusion / Post Bop / Jazz Funk / Modal Music

Mixing the music of jazz icon Miles Davis with sounds and instruments from India, as producers Bob Belden and Yusuf Gandhi did on Miles from India, was far from an outrageous proposition. Davis set the precedent himself — not only with his use of Indian players like the tabla virtuoso Badal Roy in sessions issued on albums like Big Fun and Get Up with It, but also with his sinuous modal compositions stretching back to 1959's epochal Kind of Blue and continuing through his electric period of the '70s.

Pharoah Sanders - Pharoah (1976) {India Navigation IN1027CD rel 1996}
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© 1976, 1996 India Navigation | IN 1027 CD
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Spiritual Jazz / Saxophone

Pharoah Sanders album for the India Navigation label was known alternately as Pharoah or Harvest Time, sees his vision of the jazz group — a sonic melange approximating nirvana. This is an old time, late night favorite. The recording gets the timbre of Pharoah's tenor, his breathy depths, like no other in my library. And it feels good to just groove and come down with this music. Harvest Time is especially delicious. It's an under-appreciated jem!

Despite an excellent debut, India.Arie still had much to prove with her second record. Several of her neo-soul compatriots, from D'Angelo to Erykah Badu to Macy Gray, had faltered with sophomore albums, and it appeared she may have already said everything she had to say on Acoustic Soul. That anticipation, and trepidation, is exactly what makes Voyage to India such a beautiful surprise; it's a record that easily equals her debut, boasting better vocal performances but also better songwriting and accompanying production. As on her debut, there is a marked balance of organic and artificial: an acoustic guitar paces many tracks, though the edges are shorn off for a digital feel; the beats are often sampled, but there are still plenty of handclaps and fingersnaps; and the arrangements are simple yet obviously very polished. The improvement in her songwriting is most obvious from the first three tracks (after the short intro). The themes driving "Little Things" (keeping it simple), "Talk to Her" (the importance of honesty, warmth, and communication in relationships), and "Slow Down" (taking life one day at a time) certainly have been covered already, many times even, but India.Arie writes with a fresh perspective that makes it sound as though she's the first to broach the topic.