The World Is Not Your Home (2007)

"Jazz may be America's indigenous music, but David Rogers has set out to internationalize it, seamlessly incorporating native rhythms and instruments from a variety of nations. Rogers studied music in Ghana for two years and, earlier in his life, lived in Southeast Asia, so it's not all that surprising that he would look to those lessons in global culture to give his jazz colorings not often found. Working with five superb musicians, Rogers is more than generous in doling out solo time and in allowing his crew to forge new directions. Whether tilting Latin, as on the album-closing "La Isla de Reyes," featuring masterful piano work from Craig Taborn, or spotlighting the gyil (an African xylophone), played by both Mark Stone and Derek Bermel on the tour de force, gamelan-esque, 11-plus-minute "Oboo Ketua Nyom," Rogers is conscious that his chosen music is a distinctly American one, yet he's determined to go multilingual, musically speaking. Each track here is a world unto its own." (Jeff Tamarkin, Allmusic)