Pathika by David Borgo

Original music inspired by my 2023 travels in India, Kenya, Jordan, Cyprus, Croatia, Morocco, and Portugal, sailing as faculty with Semester at Sea. The tracks range from exploratory improvisation ("Mumbai" and "Azrou"), to intense Middle-Eastern-inspired grooves ("Aqaba"), odd-metered folk melodies ("Dubrovnik"), hard-swinging modal jazz ("Limassol") and harmonically-rich ballads ("Mombasa"), to the profoundly melancholic ("Lisboa") and playful ("The Bath").

All About Jazz writes: "The inspiration and creation of Pathika parallels a pair of Duke Ellington's finest recordings: Near East Suite (Bluebird/RCA) and Latin American Suite (Fantasy, 1967)... While Ellington delved into a bit of ethnomusicology of his own, both sets feature his distinct and unmistakable voice, shaded by the sounds of his host countries. The same can be said of Borgo and Pathika. If we can smell the streets of "Mombasa," the voice we hear is Borgo's adventurous modern jazz sound which often pushes the permeable border between mainstream and free." (Dan McClenaghan)

David Borgo is a saxophonist specializing in original modern jazz and improvisation. He has a PhD in ethnomusicology and is a Professor of Music at the University of California San Diego. David has toured extensively, including performances in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North, Central, and South America, and has released eleven CDs and one DVD of original music on a variety of labels.