SURYA NAMASKAR

4.5 stars. "Surya Namaskar" was released in 2014 and in my opinion this is where Budjana's albums started getting really good. The previous six albums to start his solo career were more traditional sounding, more in that jazz mentality of keeping things in check as it were. That period ended with 2013's "Joged Kahyangan" which even Dewa suggests is in that smooth jazz style. That at least prompted him to let his hair down and go into that Fusion area more with "Surya Namaskar". From using distortion on his guitar on one track only on "Joged Kahyangan" to pretty much using it all the time here. And this Fusion style will continue with his next four albums, not counting the one he did with guitarist Tohpati Hutomo.

The lineup here is basically a trio of guitar, bass and drums with five guests adding their talents to one track each. Besides Dewa on guitar we get Jimmy Johnson on bass, and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. Now thats' a trio! I love the story Steve Vai tells about Vinnie being given a black page by Zappa in the studio. This was the early eighties. Everyone is watching as Vinnie puts the black page to his right and his plate of sushi to his left and proceeds to play. At one point he grabs a piece of sushi with his left hand, puts it in his mouth, continued the riff with his left hand and feet then pushes his glasses up, and then played the remaining part of the bar. Vai says it was the sickest thing he has ever seen. Frank threw the papers that were in his hand in the air and walked away, Bozzio turned around and walked out of the studio while everyone else was laughing in astonishment.

The liner notes for this album were written by the late John Kelman and it's like a short story. He is such a good read and there's so much information provided by him about the sessions for this album and beyond. I should mention that the five guests here add synths, electric guitar, vocals, Sundanese harp and Sundanese violin. And the synths are provided by the great Gary Husband on the opener. The title "Surya Namaskar" means "prayer in motion" or "salute to the sun". I work with this beautiful Indian girl and when I showed her the cd cover she right away put her hands above her head in prayer mode, face up to the sun, and starts to move. Go on.

I had to laugh at Budjana talking about all the charts, clicks and sequencers he sent to both Jimmy and Vinnie, and how Jimmy studied them to the point of knowing them, while Vinnie he says may have looked at them once(lol). Dewa mentions that Vinnie complimented him on both his playing and compositions more than once during these sessions in LA. Budjana also relates the story of meeting his hero Allan Holdsworth at his home then in San Juan Capistrano with Leonardo Pavkovik(Moon June Records) and a few of Dewa's Indonesian friends. They spent a few hours with Holdsworth that Dewa describes as an emotional meeting for him. The song "Capistrano Road" came to him after this meeting and this song is dedicated to Holdsworth.

I haven't even talked about the music yet, but five of the eight tracks are killer. I mean high end Fusion tracks. The hair is down. Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7 are my favourites. There's so much joy on that title track. How about the bass after 3 1/2 minutes! I was reminded of Holdsworth on "Lamboya" but my favourite track might be "Kalingga", the longest at over 9 minutes. I like the guest harp and violin. Guest wordless vocals as well. The rhythm section is beyond impressive on that opener.

So I'm bumping this one up, and while I prefer "Mahandini" which will be released four years after this one, this is like 1b, almost as good.

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