Lasqo, Joe – “Turquoise Sessions” – [Edgetone Records]

Max Level   10/25/2011   CD, International

Solo piano and a fine listening experience. On his website Lasqo describes this work as “Ancient musics from Japan and India in 21st-century modernist interpretations”, which sounds about right to me. He combines North and South Indian raga forms, traditional Japanese flute music, some classical techniques, and solo jazz-based piano improvisation into longish pieces that are unpredictable throughout yet quite nice to listen to. I don’t think I have enough of an understanding of international and modern classical music forms to truly appreciate what Lasqo is doing–a raga constructed from something called an All-Interval Hexachord would be just one example– so I let him do all the driving and I just go along for the ride. I ended up liking this CD quite a lot. Tracks range from 6:38 to 24:48 in length.