Sunny Jain/Rashied Ali

Two innovative drummers from either end of the generational spectrum hit Philly on Saturday night. First up was the Sunny Jain Collective at the Painted Bride. A second-generation Indian-American who grew up in Rochester, NY, Jain (who I profiled here) inflects his music with influences from his heritage, but with a lighter touch than many such fusions; the concept never overpowers the improvisers. Surprisingly for a drummer, he gathers more inspiration from the melodies than the rhythms of those influences, and draws from pop-influenced Indian sounds like bhangra or vintage Bollywood rather than from Hindustani classical music (though that does seep in a bit). He did, with a showman's flourish, draw a dhol from the wings for one tune, but midway through transitioned back to his kit. Jain has gathered an impressive group around him, and if the absence of guitar/sitarist Rez Abbasi is evident in a slight loss of "accent" in the Indian-inflected pieces, the music doesn't suffer for the presence of forceful pianist Marc Cary. Bassist Gary Wang shares Jain's understated approach (the bandleader rarely took a flat-out solo throughout the evening), and saxophonist Steve Welsh sparingly employed effects to lend his tenor a guitaristic wash. The most impressive pieces were those featuring vocalist Samita Sinha, as on the folk song Meri Bhavana, where her bittersweet lilt inspired a smoky, melancholy solo from Welsh. Other highlights were the instrumental burner "Johnnie Black" and the vocal piece "Sialkot", which featured gorgeous sax/voice interplay.

Only caught the tail end of Rashied Ali's set, which expanded his Jazz Messengers-style quintet with the addition of altoist Lakeisha Benjamin. This latest group is surprisingly straight-ahead for the bandleader, whose rep was built on free jazz experimentation and his time with John Coltrane (my recent interview is here). But the group managed to pull off an impressive blowing session, silencing about half the chatterers at Chris' and drowning out the others. The seat belts really came off with an intense tear through James Blood Ulmer's "Theme From Captain Black."