All-star session with no ego

by Jim Trageser
This review first appeared in the February 21, 1997 issue of the North County Times.

This is a drummers' all-star session: Airto Moreira from Brazil, Milton Cardona of Puerto Rico, and Zakir Hussain from India. These are three of the best-known percussionists in the world, joined by Glen Velez, Valeria Naranjo (Philip Glass Ensemble) and Reinhard Flatischler, who put the whole project, dubbed Megadrums, together. Over all this is the flute and saxophone of Wolfgang Puschnig.

"Layers of Time" avoids the pitfall that too many "all-star" confabs fall into – the temptation for the artists to compete against one another. Instead, this is a true ensemble effort; the songs are put first, the percussionists melding their considerable talents and individual sounds of their different drums (conga, tabla, pandeiro) into a balanced whole.