Fareed Haque and The Flat Earth Ensemble
Flat Planet
Owlstudios.com
By George W. Harris

Fareed Haque is a guitarist who’s played with the likes of Joe Zawinul and Pacquito D’Rivera, so he knows his way around the eclectic sounds of “world” jazz. On his most recent release as a leader, he successfully tackles the cross hybridization of Middle Eastern instruments and rhythms with a mainstream jazz root system. Haque mixes his various guitars (and occasional flute) with a standard rhythm section, along with sitar and tabla to create some infectious music. Songs like “Blu Hindoo” have a Wes Montgomery groove, but with flutes and Indian instrumentation, while “The Hangar” has a boogaloo beat combined with some boppish lines and a firey Indian raga that is as spicy as tumeric. Almost all of the songs have a catch melody; “The Chant”, for example is given that extra “umph” with Kala Ramnath’s violin and Indrajit Banerjee’s sitar. If you’ve ever wondered what Pat Metheny would sound like if he were Middle Eastern instead of Midwestern, this might just be it.