Search - Lelo Nika, Joe Zawinul :: Moving Landscapes

Good album-Zawinul is not on it!

Brian Whistler | Forestville, CA United States | 11/23/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this CD because it is tagged on Amazon as having the late Joe Zawinul on it.He is not. I was told that there was a connection between Zawinul and Lelo Nika and there is. Check out the video of the two of them playing together on youtube, although the clip features Nika with Zawinul in the background playing chords for a minute and fading out for a display of Lelo's considerable solo viruosity. Once I got over the initial disappointment of realizing that although the CD is dedicated to the memory of Mr Z, he doesn't appear on it, I really started to enjoy it. Everything I heard about this artist is true. He is a virtuoso accordionist and seems intent upon breaking new ground for the instrument. This is an adventurous outing. There are fusion tracks as aggressive as anything I've heard anywhere. A couple if things sound like film soundtracks. Some moments are downright avant garde-others pastoral and pretty, . This is a sort of musical travelogue. It is clear to me from this one CD that Lelo Nika is a major voice on the button accordian and like his banjo playing counterpart Bela Fleck, he is reinventing and redefining his instrument for the 21st century. The more I hear it the more impressed with this artist. Jazz fusion button accordian? That and much more. This is a real find."