"Dding Dek," which opens guitarist Nguyen Le's CD "Bakida," combines rhythms of the Far East with fusion guitar work from Le, Paris born of Vietnamese parents, whose playing reminds me some of Mike Stern or Joe Satriani. Miles Davis would have been down with the tune and its sound in places also brings to mind, at least to mine, Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer's brilliant ECM disk "Khmer," maybe the most interesting marriage of jazz and electronica I've heard.
"Dding Dek" pretty much sets the stage for what follows in a consistently creative set. "Bakida," which I like a lot, is lighter than "Khmer," for instance, and includes more conventional jazz elements, although not necessarily used conventionally. Take the title track, kind of a fusion ballad, or "Heaven," where the guitar licks are almost electric Spanish.
On the German Act label, High Note in the U.S., the disk is built around Le's trio (guitar, bass and drums/percussion) and brings in an international collection of artists for guest spots, two of my favorites, American saxophonist Chris Potter and Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, among them. More good jazz from Europe, and other points on the globe, on a disk which I think electric guitar fans in general would dig.
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