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 […]
