Baklava Express continues Proctors Passport Series Friday in its GE Theatre; multi-cultural explorations of rare imagination and creative energy. Its four members explore in several directions; their wide interests never outrun their skills.

Oud player Josh Kaye’s transatlantic background and Brooklyn upbringing prepped him to lead a quartet with violinist Daisy Castro, bassist James Robbins and percussionist Jeremy Smith. They rummage among Jewish, Arabic, Turkish and jazz traditions to make something new, music whose deep roots and right-now virtuosity recall Jordi Savall*.

Baklava Express. Photo provided

Some definitions via Wikipedia (which I support with donations).

Baklava: a layered pastry dessert made of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with either syrup or honey.

Oud: a Middle Eastern short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped fretless stringed instrument, usually with 11 strings grouped in six courses (pairs). 

Talking about a new album due next month – and likely to contribute to Friday’s repertoire – Kaye cites Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jewish communities among prime musical sources. 

Again, Wikipedia clarifies.

Mizrahi: Jewish communities originating from the Middle East and North Africa,

Ashkenazi: a major Jewish diaspora population descending from medieval Jewish communities in the Rhineland (Germany) and Northern France, later migrating to Eastern Europe.

London-born Kaye came here at 13, studied philosophy at Hartford College before abandoning his Ph.D. program at New York’s New School to play heavy metal electric guitar before joining French guitarist Stephane Wrembel’s acoustic gypsy jazz band. When Kaye first heard an oud in a Brooklyn barber shop jam session, he invited himself in, bought an oud and began to explore Middle Eastern sounds. The fretless oud allows more complete tonal control than a guitar whose fretted neck steers players into conventional scales. 

Daisy Castro started playing Suzuki method violin at six; then a family trip to France at 12 brought her into contact with the same Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli gypsy jazz tradition Kaye explored. Before leading her own jazz band and joining Baklava Express, she played in her family band Infidel Castros. In addition to Baklava Express, she also plays with Wade Schuman’s hybrid multi-traditional crew Hazmat Modine and the Latin rock Gonzalo Bergara Quartet.

Bassist James Robbins – not to be confused with DC punk stalwart J Robbins (Jawbone and other hardcore crews) – played mainstream jazz with stars including Clark Terry, Billy Taylor, George Benson and Freddie Hubbard before joining Baklava Express. He also plays with the Colombian electro band Delsonido and rockers Thank You Scientist.

Percussionist Jeremy Smith also hybridizes in several directions including the Afro-Peruvian band Festejation, Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica big band, and the Knights, the classical ensemble that played Troy Savings Bank Music Hall last month.

In other words, they can go in any direction as their 2023 debut album “Davka” demonstrates on nine songs starting from “Kosher Bacon,” a delicious oxymoron.

Baklava Express expands tradition in cozy, tasteful explorations; clear melodic statements spin out, jazz-like, from repeating patterns that prepare the listener for detours and delights.

Friday at 7:30 p.m. $34.51 518-346-6204 www.proctors.org

After Friday’s Baklava Express show, Proctors Passport Series – a project of Music Haven – wraps up with Colombian cumbia accordionist Yeison Landero on Thursday, May 14, also in Proctors GE Theatre.

* Jordi Savall is a Spanish-born musical explorer, genius-level viola da gamba player and longtime leader of ensembles from compact chamber size to symphonic. His “Orient-Occident” and “Istanbul” albums are multi-cultural favorites in a career as prolific as Bill Frisell’s: Savall released nine albums in 2011 alone.

Yeah, OK. Viola da gamba: a bowed and fretted string instrument that is played da gamba (i.e. “on the leg”). It is distinct from the later violin or viola da brachia…one of the earlier viol family of bowed, fretted and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes…to adjust the pitch of each of the (five to seven) strings. 

Joel Harrison proclaimed his love for two-guitar bands Friday at the Van Dyck Music Club, extolling the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, Joe Pass and Herb Ellis, Ralph Towner and John Abercrombie. Fans chimed in with their own favorite pairings in what felt like a seminar for a minute, though nobody noted this also describes the Beatles. But Harrison demonstrated that respect even more vividly than words in a dynamic show with his own two-guitar band.

Joel Harrison Quartet. From left: Mark Dzuiba, Rich Syracuse, Jeff Siegel, Joel Harrison

Harrison and fellow guitarist Mark Dzuiba played off each other in harmony, counterpoint, echoes near and far, comments straight or playful; Harrison flat-picking a skinny Gibson hollow-body, Dzuiba flat- and finger-picking a Fender Telecaster solid-body. Bassist Rich Syracuse and drummer Jeff Siegel – the Sly and Robbie rhythm section of our regional jazz stars – crafted firm foundations under everything, from earthy blues shuffles to high-altitude bebop flights.

“Doxy” spun the spotlight around at everybody onstage in turn, a fun funk shuffle with spry solos all around. This wasn’t a warm-up; all four were at full operating temperature, though Harrison’s second solo was the tune’s hottest and his duet with Dzuiba wrapped the thing like a gift.

Rich Syracuse, above; and Jeff Siegel, below – the Sly and Robbie rhythm section of our regional jazz stars

Harrison’s own “Sunday Night With Vic” for fellow guitarist Vic Juris felt like pals out fishing or raising glasses on a shady porch, peaceful and slow – guitarists sunny up top in a smooth cruise but complex beats below, uniting in a stately coda.

The set simmered and soared in a simple, strong shape. “It Falls on You” from Harrison’s 2021 “Guitar Talk” album of duets felt like a sibling to “Vic” in its grace before the intense, at times menacing “Survival Instinct” scrambled with dangerous energy to a hard-stop, all hot drama and force before dramatic silence. They kept the energy high with “Webb City,” brisk bebop bounce spiced with a strong swing under Dzuiba’s solo like a seminar in tones and phrasing styles. Syracuse shone here, too, turning a walking bass line into a strut.

“Body and Soul” grew from a guitars-only glide into melodic reverie, elegant and graceful; then “Bird Song” cruised from similar sparse musings into a meditative melody, Siegel’s tasty hand percussion spicing the mood. 

Siegel also starred in the bebop blast of “Solar,” erupting free in a groove that flowed jagged and jaunty by turns; guitars echoing licks at the end.

Another “bird”-titled tune followed – Harrison’s “Migratory Birds” – introduced by his spoken environmental alarmism that translated musically in double-time drums and clattering solos on top before a coda fade.

Two Guitars: Joel Harrison, above, and Mark Dzuiba, below

Things peaked in maybe the 90-minute set’s least-likely song choice, the pop classic “Wichita Lineman.” A high-flying exploration of this (overly?) familiar melody, this showed Harrison and his quartet at their cohesive, intuitive best. Everybody knows the tune, but they all brought something personal, powerful and fresh to it while ensuring everything fit – as Harrison’s repeating riff underscored Dzuiba’s solo, for example. Syracuse sparkled here, too.

Harrison noted “Anthem of Unity” was a “good title for these times we’re living in,” and their closer shone a sunny happy funk groove around the room, loose in a fun way. Harrison set the mood with a repeating riff that grew wings as a cozy R&B groove.

Throughout, they showed a confident cohesion, though they read parts from charts. Everybody played nearly all the time, listening and helping out. So sparser sections took on a distinctive drama. The two guitars glowed in both cohesion and contrast, in lead or rhythm roles, Harrison using more sustain than Dzuiba whose usually terse, clipped phrasing fit perfectly. 

SONGS

Doxy” (Sonny Rollins)

Sunday Night with Vic (Harrison)

It Falls on You (Harrison)

Survival Instinct (Harrison)

Webb City (Bud Powell)

Body and Soul (Johnny Green, Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eaton)

Bird Song (Paul Motion)

Solar (Bill Evans)

Migratory Birds (Harrison)

Wichita Lineman (Jimmy Webb)

Anthem of Unity (Harrison)

MORE GUITARS

Bluegrass/Newgrass acoustic guitar master Tim O’Brien plays tomorrow, Saturday, March 8, in a duo with wife Jan Fabricius at Caffe Lena (47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs). O’Brien had already built an imposing reputation as an immaculate and propulsive picker with Hot Rize and other bands before his wife Jan Fabricius began playing mandolin and singing around their home in what became a duo. 7 p.m, doors 6:30. $37.96 members, $43.38 general, $21.69 children and students. 518-583-0022 http://www.caffelena.org.

Guitars may seem almost incidental to the creative powers of brilliant singer-songwriters John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett, playing Wednesday at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall (30 Second St., Troy). But six-string acoustics shape their songwriting just as they underline the songs. Their duo shows combine tunes and tales, jokes and jams as well as anyone onstage these days. They’re old pals at play. 7:30 p.m. Few seats remain: $67.50, $55. 518-273-0038 http://www.troymusichall.org.

Gypsy-jazz acoustic jazz master Stephane Wrembel plays Caffe Lena with his quartet on Friday, March 13. French-born, Wrembel studied in Europe before enrolling at Berklee in Boston on scholarship. Composing and recording hot-swing instrumentals for Woody Allen film soundtracks brought a deservedly ever-expanding audience. 8 p.m. doors 7:30. $34.70 members, $39.04 general, $19.52 children and students.