Rating: NNN
On a strictly technical level, this album is ideally produced. Vocalist Suba Sankaran can negotiate any sound between archaic Eastern intoning and hepcat jazz (though she leans closer to the former), and Ed Hanley and Debashis Sinha both temper the percussion elements with almost machine-like precision of rhythmic restraint. The concept of an Indian classical record with funk overtones is interesting, but here everything’s so polished. This album would seem a lot more soulful if its sensibility lived up to the rawness inherent in traditional Indian mysticism and the sweaty soul of improvised jazz. Autorickshaw funk up the Sage Yoga Studio Friday (October 1).