East Meets West Fleetingly at Skirball Concert

The Skirball Cultural Center kicked off its multicultural World Mosaic series Thursday night in a concert aimed at blending the attributes of two seemingly compatible musical genres, with tabla artist Sandip Burman returning for a second Skirball appearance leading a group combining jazz and Indian musicians.

Actually, the program only included one Indian, Burman, performing with American jazz players Jerry Goodman (violin), Howard Levy (harmonica and keyboards), Steve Smith (drums), Victor Bailey (bass) and Randy Brecker (trumpet). And, unlike last summer’s similarly oriented “Facing East” program, which provided a genuinely appealing musical synthesis, this year’s “East Meets Jazz” too often emerged as the product of a group of Western musicians assiduously reading their way through written music.

True, the music occasionally roved through the complex rhythms of the Indian classical genre, especially during a Sandip piece in a 51/4 meter. But here, as in other works, once past the composed passages, the improvising largely abandoned any linkage with Indian ragas or talas , simply taking place over repetitious vamps.

The offbeat meters of the 51/4 piece, for example, were actually part of a cumulative 21-beat pattern; the jazz players, in the improvisations, simply played over the 21 beats, unconcerned about the complex micro-rhythms of the internal 51/4 segments.

The highlights of the evening, as a result, tended to take place during individual solo passages--some of them having little to do with East-West cultural encounters. Bailey’s virtuosic exposition of Joe Zawinul’s “Birdland” was a marvel, countered by the whimsical qualities of his interactive improvisations.

Levy, who appeared to be the jazz artist with the greatest familiarity with Indian music, offered a few slipping and sliding harmonica solos calling up references to the sound of the Indian shenai . And Smith’s solo exposition was a whirlwind of ambidextrous rhythmic proficiency.

Appropriately, it was Burman who came up with the most compelling offerings. Seated behind his tabla, a small but radiant figure with lightning-fast fingers, he moved easily from the groove of the jazz segments to the maze-like rhythmic details of the Indian passages. Tossing in quick vocalizations--in scat-like style--of the classical rhythmic symbols, he was as entertaining as he was informative.

The program suffered, however, from an inexplicable decision to omit an intermission. The result, in the last segment of the two-hour-plus presentation, was the constant distraction of audience members leaving and returning to their seats. One can only hope that coming programs will be structured in more listener-friendly fashion.

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The World Mosaic series continues Thursday at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., with a performance by Brazilian artists Flora Purim and Airto Moreira. 8 p.m. Admission: $28 ($25 for Skirball members; $20 for students.) Information: (310) 440-4500 or https://www.skirball.org.