Search - Jon Balke :: Diverted Travels

Very pleasing Afro-Nordic world jazz

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 12/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I haven't exactly been following John Balke's career that closely, but from what I've heard, Diverted Travels strikes me as by far his best disc. He's conjured a very cool Afro-Nordic world-jazz vibe here, unlike anything I ever remember hearing before. Perhaps the closest analog is John Tchichai, the Congolese/Nordic sax player, but Balke sounds little like him.



What does he sound like? That's an honest question, and I'll try to give an honest answer. Pierre Dorge. How's that? Don't know who Pierre Dorge is? Well, you should. He's a Nordic guitarist who leads The New Jungle Orchestra, a kind of little big band that investigates various world musics (Chinese, Danish, African, e.g.) and presents them in a quite attractive neo-Ellingtonian kind of way. The late Johnny Dyani, South African bassist extrodinaire, was a member, as was that great and underrecorded percussionist, Marilyn Mazur. But there's a lot more space and a sifnicantly different soundscape going down here--much cooler and less hyped up--that strikes me as much more typical of the Scandinavian sensibility.



Balke has the Afro-Nordic thing going full bore here. Indeed, some of the cuts ("In Patches" and "Rivers," e.g.) present an almost unique combination of exotic Nordic percussion moves wedded to an exotic African vibe that transport the listener to some impossible combination of Afro-Arctic steppes. Mix in some very attractive Arto Tuncboyaciyan-ish vocals courtesy Per Jorgansen on a couple of cuts, which lends these proceedings an Afro-Macedonian vibe--something I'm always a sucker for--and you've got something very special going on.



I admit it took a while for me to connect with this music, but once I did, I couldn't stop listening to it. Highly recommended."