Gamelan, Andalusian, Arabic and South Asian, jazz and funk flow around each other in the World Peace Trio, comprising British reeds virtuoso Gilad Atzmon, Indonesian world and jazz pianist Dwiki Dharmawan and Middle Eastern oud star Kamal Musallam, who met for a one-off jazz festival gig in Jakarta in 2015 and then recorded. This peace-themed music was co-devised by the three members, save for the Palestinian traditional song Ramallah, Atzmon’s anthemic and then free-jazzy Gaza Mon Amour, and Duke Ellington’s In A Sentimental Mood – for which Atzmon swaps the microtonal note bends and swooping wails of Middle Eastern reeds tonality for a sumptuous, romantic jazz-ballad sound. Musallam shifts easily between traditional oud techniques, Django-Reinhardt-like phrasing and electric fusion’s sustained sounds, Dharmawan can invoke Herbie Hancock’s trenchant eloquence or Cecil Taylor-like free-jazz tumults. A unique lineup of different sensibilities and skills, the World Peace Trio is only hampered by the occasionally humdrum hooks and backing vamps that necessarily emerge as safety nets for their collectively free-falling explorations.
