ALBUM REVIEWS

Jazz Standards in the Tambrin Sauce (Self Released)

Halloran ALCOA Sessions (ArtistShare)

Before quick airline travel to the sunny Caribbean was both utilitarian and a vital part of the tourism product, cruising from ports north to the islands was an adventure in itself that required patience and a tropical assimilation. Halloran from New Orleans, a kind of cultural Caribbean North Pole, has reimagined the zeitgeist of the era and recreated “the musical experience aboard cruises run by the Alcoa Steamship Co. out of New Orleans from 1949-1959.” A broad dance music repertoire from Trinidad, Guadeloupe,

Arnaud Dolmen Adjusting (GAYA)

Guadeloupean drummer Arnaud Dolmen says that this, his second album, is “about how we adapt and adjust...The unexpected should be a source of strength.” Within it, Kwéyòl jazz, vodou lyricism, and native gwo ka drum rhythms mix with and influence instrumentation that echoes a creole past and points to new ways of assimilating. Antillean music evolved.

The tambrin drum — a kind of frame drum similar to the Irish bodhrán and the Brazilian pandeiro — is indigenous to Tobago, and acts as that island’s sonic identification, much like the steelpan is to Trinidad. Tobago-born musician and keeper of the cultural flame, John Arnold, seeks a rhythmic basis and bedrock for the tambrin drum family, the cutter (high pitch), roller (rhythm) and boom (bass), outside of the island’s traditional festival and ceremonial dances on this new album. Six popular jazz standards are performed here to find a new interpretation of how songs can swing when imbued with rhythms born in the islands. The indigenous reel and jig beat is used to give “Fly Me To the Moon” the “feel of the folk style.” This kind of attempted amalgamation of genres and sounds has a presence in jazz, and this experiment in fusion has merit. This conversation between cultures, jazz and tambrin, expands the possibilities of World Music.

New Orleans, and Venezuela gives the listener an appreciation of what the Caribbean aesthetic sounded and looked like to foreign tourism execs. Calypso, biguine and joropo are played energetically and well. The songs of Trinidadians Lionel Belasco and Pat Castagne are given new life as the idea of cruising “down to the Spanish main” becomes, not so much a bygone dream, but a way of restoring majesty to local music.

Available at iTunes

Available at iTunes

Available at iTunes