by Bret Love
Liu Sola is a Chinese musician whose radically distinctive sound incorporates elements of a number of seemingly incongruous influences, including Chinese opera, free jazz, funk, blues, and even Japanese Noh theater. Her debut Western release features a stellar lineup, including organist Amina Claudine Myers, guitarist James Blood Ulmer, drummer Jerome &Bigfoot& Brailey, saxophonist Henry Threadgill, and the Last Poets' Umar Bin Hassan. Produced by acclaimed fusionist Bill Laswell, the album is a typically eclectic pan-cultural experiment, but one that doesn't always hit its mark. When it does, as on songs like &Boya's Adventures,& this bizarre collusive concept is as refreshingly original as anything released in the '90s.