Not since
Rufus Harley
first appeared with his
jazz
bagpipes in the early '60s has a
album featured such an unlikely lead instrument as
Douglas Ewart
's
Songs of Sunlife: Inside the Didgeridu
.
Ewart
, an
AACM
member who first discovered the Australian aboriginal instrument in the '60s, designed and built all of the instruments he plays on this album, in keeping with the precepts of
traditional
didgeridoo players. Accompanied on some tracks by bassist
Adam Lane
and percussionist
Stephen Goldstein
,
creates complex harmonics and overtones with the deceptively simple instrument, from the quite literally spine-tingling low-register throb of the three-part
"Mud Bath"
to the lighthearted, almost vocal
"Draghopping."
A few songs feature other instruments, like the roar flutes (a native Australian instrument that creates a sound akin to a birdsong) on
"Ancestors Flying,"
but the majority of
is an impressive overview of what can be done with one of the world's most unique instruments, as well as one of the most delightfully idiosyncratic
releases since
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
's similarly conceptual
Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata
. ~ Stewart Mason