Four String Nomad is a great work of art, a composition so beautiful it brings tears to the eyes of all who dare listen.
Imagine a great novel of Asia-rising written a hundred years ago, a document of bending and not breaking, a tome of agility, wisdom and wit, a story to vault technology, water, music and leaves down from coldest mountains to hottest valleys uniting the most sacred philosophers with the most profane chefs causing them to serve a boiled feast to animal and man alike for 13 moonlit nights. Clothing will be frowned upon but society will be woven like silk from the aromas of the ecstatic chefs and the whispered wisdoms of the transformed teachers. Dynasties of odious power will be harvested like pears at dawn and sold to diseased colonialists on the coast. No one must know.
Now imagine that same novel has been hijacked by a mischievous Frenchwoman with a violin and a pith-helmeted arborist from Swansea who are both in love with the same Jade Princess. They do not know she is dying of consumption and that her handmaidens are oiling and perfuming the sacred garments of burial and escape. The calligrapher who created this novel eavesdrops in the jungle and correctly portends centuries of aching sadness for himself, his family and all families. When sung, his playful name means both “time” and “life” in every tonal language, He brings with him a thousand chestnut eating bare-chested hill warriors to recapture his illustrated masterpiece, fighting the outsiders from the rocky fastnesses of the jungle’s stark boundaries. Of course he and his happy homunculi of swords win the day and wing on sunward, healing the Consumption Princess and freeing her and the lithe handmaidens to walk silently uphill. No eye contact, ever.
If you’re able to imagine all of that, then you will agree with me when I say that this sacred music, these holy sounds– the Four String Nomad album by the George Crotty Trio– could be heard as the impromptu soundtrack to the imaginary festivity above: that visualized book, struggle, victory, civilization and celebration.
Featuring the George Crotty Trio, Four String Nomad is an improvisatory exploration of the common ground between jazz and traditional music from Ireland, India, and more. It’s out January 17th, but you can listen now here:
