Kuljit Bhamra/Jacqueline Shave/John Parricelli – Postcards from Home
(KEDA KEDCD27. CD Review by Chris Parker

‘… a captivating instrumental collaboration which blends jazz, folk world and classical music to create a truly organic whole’ is what it says on the tin (or at least the accompanying publicity material); Postcards from Home (note the preposition) features three musicians from (apparently) discrete traditions, each bringing his or her music to the party. Tabla player Kuljit Bhamra will be familiar to many jazz observers from his stint with Andy Sheppard; he brings the appropriately swirling ‘Dervish Dancer’, a subcontinental bluesy piece, ‘Darker Sides’, and the evocative ‘Escape to Tibet’.

Violinist Jacqueline Shave (currently leader of the Britten Sinfonia, who has played with both the Brindisi Quartet and the Schubert Ensemble) explores her love of the Scottish Hebrides with a suite entitled ‘Sounds of Harris’ and the two-part ‘Machair to Myrrh’.

Guitarist John Parricelli provides a couple of pieces inspired by Parisian visits, the Brazilian-flavoured ‘Guarana’ and a homage to Italian POWs in Scotland in WWII, ‘Another Place’ (also featured on his 2000 Provocateur quartet album, Alba).

The resultant album hangs together well, courtesy of the discernible commitment and open-mindedness of the participants; Shave and Parricelli are both neat, tasteful but surprisingly gutsy and emotional soloists, and with their elegant soloing and comping buoyed by Bhamra’s meticulously tuned percussion (‘complex ergonomics and new techniques enable me to pick out melodies and follow chord sequences whilst playing rhythm patterns’), this is an absorbing and wholly enjoyable album of true ‘world music’.