Guitar sitar man

Miles Davis, among others, experimented with South Asian instruments like the sitar and tabla in his electric bands and I wouldn't say without success.

But maybe it takes someone like Fareed Haque, whose group I caught at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis Saturday night, to really get full use out of such instruments and Pakistani-Indian musical forms in a jazz context. A Northern Illinois University music professor and son of a Pakistani father and Chilean mother, he understands both the axes and the music in a traditional sense and he's as deft and innovative a jazz electric guitarist as Bill Frisell and Mike Stern, two of my favorites, the latter of whom played with Miles.

This is evident on "Cosmic Hug," Magnatude, a 2005 Haque CD I bought in the wake of the Indy show. The disk opens with "Gulab Jammin," a fine mixing of South Asian, jazz, rock and funk elements. Make no mistake, Haque is known as a fusion guitarist and there are plenty of stretches where he gives the Johns McLaughlin and Scofield, or any other guitarist Miles employed, a run for their money, even on an overtly subcontinent-influenced piece like "Lahara." I'm betting Davis would be impressed, with Haque and with his band mates, Dan Nimmer on Fender Rhodes and J. Cappo on keyboards and electronics not the least. It's a tight group and exciting stuff.