Non-Guitar Pop Toots Its Own Horn

Western pop, particularly rock ‘n’ roll, is so fixated on the guitar as the instrument that you might think that no other instrument exists . . . like, for instance, horns.

It was honking saxophones (and pumping pianos) that fueled rock before Chuck Berry and then the British Invasion made six-string axeslingers the music’s prime movers. And consider the jazz realm, where trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis and saxophonists Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman played prominent roles in shaping the music.

World music has its pockets of guitar domination--particularly in African pop--but this edition of “On the Off Beat,” a periodic look at roots, ethnic and non-mainstream music from around the world, focuses on the new directions and old twists of horn players from the progressive (Steve Coleman) to the traditional (the Master Musicians of Jajouka).

STEVE COLEMAN & FIVE ELEMENTS.

“Sine Die.” Pangea.

Just what the world needs: another crop of young jazz players trying to use contemporary funk rhythms, Third World elements and high technology as a springboard for serious improvisation. Alto saxophonist Coleman is the de facto leader of a set of young, Brooklyn-based musicians attempting just that, and he may be on to something with “Sine Die.”

Neither Cassandra Wilson’s jazzy vocals (especially on “Destination”) nor Coleman’s darting, acidic solos (“Cinema Saga”) sound forced or restricted by the rhythmic underpinning. The rhythm section isn’t likely to tear the roof off any heavy-duty funk emporium, but it doesn’t approach the funk as some alien life form, either. Maybe Coleman and company will ultimately dead-end in another tired fusion formula, but right now it sounds more like an adventurous new direction.

PAULO MOURA.

“Gafieira Etc & Tal” Braziloid.

Like Coleman, Moura favors a mix-and-match aesthetic, but it isn’t easy to get a grip on the Brazilian reed player on this album. If “Dialogo” and “Rio Negro” sound like a Brazilian Weather Report with Moura in the Wayne Shorter role, then “Ao Velho Pedro” and “Alma Brasileira” throw things for a loop with banjo and trombone and a feel closer to New Orleans trad jazz. Moura also exercises his swing clarinet chops and solos effectively over a rock-steady backbeat, so who cares if you can’t pin him down? The compositions are intricate yet uncluttered, the performances economical but expressive, and the variety stimulating.

VARIOUS ARTISTS.

“Music Is My Occupation.” Trojan (British import).

This collection of instrumentals from 1962-65, part of a series of reissues of early Jamaican classics, features solo singles by members of the studio band that defined the formative stages of ska. The island’s best musicians, including trombonist Don Drummond, created from scratch the fundamental building blocks of Jamaican music from indigenous styles, New Orleans R&B; and the horn sound of Blue Note jazz groups.

Saxophonist Tommy McCook’s “Magic,” “Strolling In” and “Yard Broom” evidence the New Orleans connection--imagine Frankie Ford’s “Sea Cruise” crossed with a high-steppin’ Mardi Gras parade and seasoned with a dash of Jamaican allspice. Trumpeter Baba Brooks’ “Vitamin A” and Drummond’s “Green Island” sound like prototypes for the late-’70s British Two-Tone bands like the Specials and Madness. But the long guitar melody winding beneath the punchy horn lines on McCook’s “Apanga” is something else again--a fresh departure foreshadowing the way this music, so progressive for its time, became the cornerstone of a new tradition.

BROTHER VERNARD JOHNSON.

“Rocking the Gospel.” ROIR cassette.

Johnson is a Texas-based gospel saxophonist with a wild ‘n’ woolly vibrato reminiscent of jazzman Arthur Blythe and licks from the King Curtis/Junior Walker R&B; school. This set, recorded live at a Fresno church with vocal support from a choir, doesn’t quite hit the incendiary heights the liner notes promise. However, the opening side does rock out smartly, particularly when Johnson’s passionate playing on “I Must Tell Jesus” and “Lord Life Us Up Where We Belong” ignites the congregation. But interest wanes on the second side as the novelty of hearing a saxophone ripping through gospel material wears off. Available from Reachout International Records, Suite 725, 611 Broadway, New York, N.Y., 10012.

THE MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA.

“The Master Musicians of Jajouka.” Adelphi.

The Jajouka musicians make devotional music of a different sort, and they have lured artists ranging from writer William Burroughs to the late Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman to Morocco.

Recorded in 1972, this album is more in the nature of a field recording than Jones’ celebrated (and rare) album of music from Jajouka, but there are moments of startling power. The short selections are performed on the rhaita, flutes and a string instrument called the gimbri, with drum accompaniment. The most potent tracks feature the rhaita--a high-pitched, reedy foghorn with a nagging, deranged tone that grips you and just won’t let go.

Check the finales to “Boujeloud” and “Jajouka Black Eyes,” where one rhaita locks into an insistent drone while a second weaves hypnotic patterns around it and the drums pound away underneath. There isn’t any other music in the world like it.