Nashaz

Jazz and the Near East found each other as far back as Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington, but American guitarist-turned-oud player Brian Prunka takes the convergence down exciting avenues with his band, Nashaz. Their debut album opens in the traditional vein of a hypnotically rhythmic Mid-East circle dance with Prunka’s oud venturing alongside and outside the melody. Ecstasy and melancholy are the rippling veils behind the soloing trumpet and sax, and when the rhythm turns to a ’60s avant-garde pulse, Nashaz ventures into music John Coltrane would have understood.