Charlie Mariano’s, Bangalore

2 Aug

Charlie Mariano is one of the sax greats from the Bebop era. He has lived and toured primarily in Europe and Asia in recent decades and now resides in Cologne, Germany. In the 50’s he played with Dizzy Gillespie and Erroll Garner among others, but he is thoroughly open to all streams of music: he guested on a Steely Dan recording and even worked with the German pop singer Nena (99 Red Ballons), and he’s recorded with a philharmonic orchestra to mention just a few examples.

He’s also one of the few Westerners to master the Nagaswaram, one of the most popular classical instruments of south India and the world’s loudest non-brass acoustic instrument. While in India the idea for this CD developed.

I consider it a true treasure, some of the melodies are addictive, it is very rare for me to play the same CD more than twice in a week. The first week I had this CD I must have listened to it five times, it is just so emotive and original. This is a great CD to add to your collection.