Album Review: Joseph Tawadros - Chameleons Of The White Shadow

It all seems so effortless, to flow so naturally from one effervescent melody to the next, yet the musicianship on display is often so mindbogglingly extraordinary it leaves you breathless. I remember feeling the same way the first time I heard Béla Fleck & The Flecktones through 1991's Flight OF The Cosmic Hippo. Appropriate then, that Fleck should feature in the line-up on this latest collection from Australia's own master of the ancient Arabic Oud.

Ever inventive, for Chameleons Of The White Shadow, Tawadros has gathered together a superlative international group that includes, besides the Canadian Fleck, the Cameroon-born New York-based bass player Richard Bona, American jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco, who regularly plays with UK fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, and, of course, his percussionist brother James Tawadros, along with guest contributions by veteran jazz vibraphonist Roy Ayers on the track Freo, French accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier on the opening cut, White Shadow, Street In Sarajevo and the closing Broken Promises.

For all that firepower, there's never a moment when it all seems like an excuse to show just how brilliant any one musician is at any particular point – all that superb musicianship is serving Tawadros' often sublime compositions, as they should. And for every frenetic workout, like the opening cut, there's a thoughtful, subtle piece of reflection like Street In Sarajevo, evoking a mood, one assumes, similar to one Tawadros may have experienced himself walking through that once embattled city. Then of course Bona kicks in on the following track, Freo, to just blow you away, yet still serving the mood and texture of the piece without any pretention. This is truly world-class, world music, connecting sounds and styles across every conceivable border.