Kane Mathis, Geminus | The Vinyl Anachronist

This new album from Kane Mathis (website) leapt out at me barely five seconds into the first track and started conjuring wintry images and ideas. It reminded me of a dark and snowy drive between Syracuse and Rochester a few years ago, and the jazz program on the NPR station started playing a jazz trio, bass and drums and…harp. That was fantastic music, and I wanted to know everything about it. I was unsuccessful in finding that recording, even after checking the radio station’s website and doing the Google. For a second I thought this Kane Mathis, was that performer. This is a harp jazz trio, isn’t it? Not quite. on his new album Geminus, Kane Mathis plays the oud, a fairly well-known Turkish string instrument, and a mandinka kora, which has origins in Morocco but looks like a cross between a sitar and a banjo. Surprisingly, the kora sounds a lot like a number of harps, which is probably what fooled me. Now take these two lovely and exotic string instruments, and back them up with a drummer (in this case, John Hadfield) and a bassist (Sam Minaie), and play some jazz like that mystery harpist did on that […]