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March 20-26, 2003 musicpicks Ben Allison's Peace Pipe
For all the talk about jazz’s African roots, it’s rare that you actually hear musicians make good on the promise. But Peace Pipe, one of the newer projects of the Jazz Composers Collective, does just that. At the group’s heart is Malian kora virtuoso Mamadou Diabate, who plays this African harp-lute with the enchanting, lilting quality of a journeyman griot. "As soon as I heard the kora, and Mamadou in particular, a light bulb went on," bassist-bandleader Ben Allison writes in the liner notes to the band’s self-titled Palmetto Records debut. That bulb burns strong in this band, one of the most successful attempts at modern jazz with an African thrust. So is it ironic that, aside from Diabate, the guys in Peace Pipe aren’t black? It might have been, if not for the obvious respect they bring to this music. Allison, saxophonist Michael Blake, pianist Frank Kimbrough and drummer Michael Sarin prove once again that music knows no color, only taste. Sat., March 22, 8 p.m., $20, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914. 
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