Music From the Tea Lands

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This pan-Asian travelogue features musicians from China, India, Tatarstan, Indonesia, Japan, Turkey, and Iran. Aside from the unifying theme of the 400-hundred-year-old tea trade, the tunes have little in common and range from modern fusions to intriguing glimpses of rarely heard traditions. Assorted strings dominate the instrumental forces, especially harplike sounds, but the vocals are equally strong. Among the most fascinating tracks are Zulya's beguiling recollections of her Tatar childhood, Oki's tribute to his endangered Ainu (Japanese aboriginal) heritage, the Anatolian Turkish saz (lute) stylings of Okan Murat Ozturk, and an arrestingly percussive example of Iran's classical Persian disciplines as performed by Kamil Alipour. The set offers an array of unexpected pleasures from cultures that deserve to be better documented in the West. It is as mellow yet invigorating as the perfect tea break. A recipe for chai, a spicy Indian milk tea, is included. --Christina Roden

Review

Like Music from the Coffee Lands, its 1997 forerunner, this collection initially seems a bit contrived, but it begins to make sense when one considers that tea is the most common beverage in the world and is associated with a broad diversity of mostly Asian cultures. The music on here is as marvelous as it is obscure, with a peaceful quality that is indeed compatible with a good cup of tea. Except for Ancient Future, whose track is drawn from a Narada CD, the ten performers are little known. Several of them, including singer Zulya from Tatarstan, erhu player Lei Qiang from China and guitarist Sanjay Mishra from India, have left their native turf for Australia and North America. --Paul-Emile Comeau -- From Rhythm Magazine, ISBN13: B00004W5LV ISBN10: B00004W5LV Material Type: audioCD