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GARAJ MAHAL
Live Volumes 1-3 (Harmonized)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz
Summer is on deck, time for bare footed soirees on the front lawn and kegs of lawnmower beer sipped all night from Mason jars. That tattered old "Steal Your Face" Grateful Dead T-shirt will surely make its annual re-emergence. Somewhere along the line, a minor league baseball game will be the most advantageous social gathering offered and the neighbor will wake you up with the sounds of his hedge trimmer.
This is the time of year where an adequate tan and a soundtrack constructed of the finest jam music are necessities.
In the three live volumes offered by Garaj Mahal there are the makings for just such a compilation. The Chicago/San Francisco foursome is a fast comer in the jazz-fusion department and the release of three live disks is a bold step toward affirming their position on that scene. Filled with long improvised jams and adventurous musical departures, these live sets represent the best and worst of their genre.
Frenetic and meandering, Garaj Mahal can bring bright July dreams to the dreariest January night. "Celtic Indian" from Volume One, the best of the three disks, recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, goes out on an extended walk, in no apparent hurry to return home. On Volume Two, "Poodle Vamp" is pure tongue in cheek, Phish inspired funny rock and "Stoked on Razaki" toward the end of the last disk is a popsicle treat on a hot afternoon, featuring special guest Jamie Janover. Musically, Garaj Mahal fills that loose fitting need for summer fare.
The recording quality on this set, however, is inconsistent and filled with enough holes to be distracting in a few places. This is the pitfall of live recordings, but where muddy may aesthetically be part of the charm, grating inaccessibility of a bootleg is not - not for a band as undeniably talented and electric as Garaj Mahal. It is certainly not enough of a detractor to turn these albums aside, but spotty recording, especially on Volume Two, will need significant smoothing before this becomes a true staple of the slow season soundtrack.
© 2003 - Erick Mertz