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L&BH?s Cyndi Combs was kind enough to e-mail me information regarding this year?s North Beach Jazz Festival, held this past July 26-30. I was interested in Saturday?s ?World In The Park? segment of the festival; however, I was unable to attend it.

I was particularly intrigued by a San Francisco-based jam band on Saturday?s schedule called [tag]New Monsoon[/tag]. They were billed as a ?local world-jazz-grass act? on the festival?s website, which served to ratchet my interest and curiosity a few notches higher. I went immediately to the band?s website and browsed through what I have decided to call ?propabanda? (n. information and cool stuff methodically spread to promote a band, repeated ad infinitum by members, media, and fans) sections. I discovered New Monsoon?s recent CD, [tag]The Sound[/tag], was co-produced by Michael Shrieve and Paul Kimble.

I was somewhat familiar with Kimble?s work with Grant Lee Buffalo and Luna. Shrieve, on the other hand, I knew extremely well as one of the rock world?s great drummers. Not a household name like his counterparts Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, or Ginger Baker, but every bit their equal in chops and imagination. Shrieve was the teenaged drummer for the original Santana band ? watch ?Woodstock? and check out his playing on ?Soul Sacrifice.? He collaborated with Japanese composer Stomu Yamashta and rock?s multi-talented Steve Winwood on the ?Go? and ?Go 2? recordings of the mid-1970s, and has continued to this day with a solo career which has focused on electronic music explorations.

So what would a CD produced by these two guys sound like?

One would expect the drumming and percussion to be top-notch. It is. Marty Ylitalo drives this band like it?s the last music they get to play. His drum work is outstanding; muscular in the title track and ?Journey Man,? understated during the quieter passages of songs like ?Hold On For Now.? Brian Carey adds fine work on congas and timbales, giving the music some textures associated more with the Allman Brothers rather than Shrieve?s old band. Shrieve plays percussion on a few tracks. Rajiv Parikh plays tablas, which are placed in the mix in the same way a master chef adds a potentially dominating ingredient, the tablas are very much there, blended well with the other instruments. Parikh is front and center during ?Bridge Of The Gods.?

Jeff Miller plays the electric guitars, Bo Carper plays acoustic guitars and banjo, and Phil Ferlino plays all keyboards. Together they create a sound that brings to mind the above-mentioned Allmans, Dead (of course they do ? they?re a JAM band!), post-Mahavishnu McLaughlin, pre-Dominoes Clapton, and present-day Jayhawks. Miller is the obvious go-to guy in this band and his playing is full of fuzz-toned fire. His solos were juxtaposed with Carper?s on acoustic guitar in a few songs like ?Broken Picture Window,? which made both players? offerings more effective and buffered the burn-at-all-costs style of Miller.

Miller and Ferlino handle the majority of the vocal work. Their double-helix harmonies wrap around each other like the previously mentioned Jayhawks? voices. I was strongly reminded of the duet sound on their ?Hollywood Town Hall? CD, and the way David Crosby used to compliment Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark in the Byrds. The lyrics in these songs tend to wander a bit; words do not seem as focused as music on this recording and maybe it is asking too much for them to match each other. Or maybe it was my mind on overload: this CD has a lot to absorb and definitely improves with each listening.

Ferlino closes the recording with a 2:40 solo piano piece titled ?Falling Out Of Trees.? Here ends this review with a strong endorsement for adding this CD to one?s collection. New Monsoon is much more than a local world-jazz-grass act: they?re a killer group with a great sound and that?s no propabanda.

For ordering and additional information, visit www.newmonsoon.com.

[tags]cd review, Vallejo music[/tags]

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