Chateau Benares
Forty decades after George Harrison first twanged a sitar, Indian crossover is still going strong. Sanjay Mishra said that growing up in India he tried to be like Harrison, and he's been doing that since his debut,Blue Incantations, 11 years ago.  On that album, Mishra had Jerry Garcia as a guest on three tracks, some of the last music the Grateful Dead guitarist would record.  Jerry's gone, but Sanjay is still here with his fourth CD.  More than Harrison, Mishra follows in the tradition of John McLaughlin's influential east-west fusion group, Shakti.  Mishra, however, mixes in more western elements, playing his fretless guitar in raga modes atop rhythms that are sometimes free alaps and other times minimal electronica grooves.  While most of the music is Indian-derived, he brings his classical background to bear on the counterpoint of Enrique Granados's "Oriental" and jumps into some jamming funk on "The Gateless Gate" with Steve Gorn blowing bluesy bansuri flute over a walking bass line.  Some ofChateau Benaresis a little jammy and aimless, especially the tracks with looped grooves like "Loop 4 Alternate."  Mishra works best on more heavily arranged tracks like the guitar-synth chamber piece, "Oslo," and "The Bells of Heaven Ring," where Mishra weaves his guitar between the rivulets of Barun Pal playing the hansa veena, a sitar-like lute.Chateau Benaresis an album of intoxicating elegance and ruminative graces--check in and you won't want to leave.--John Diliberto