TV REVIEW : ‘Visions’ Has a New-Age View

The “New Visions” series presented every Sunday evening on cable’s VH-1 channel is doing a commendable job of combining in-person music and interview shows (hosted by Ben Sidran) with videos of jazz and New Age artists.

The first of this Sunday’s two hours will be devoted to Fahreed Haque, a guitarist of Pakistani origin. Haque’s music, performed both finger-style and with a plectrum, effectively blends jazz, folk and New Age elements. He is accompanied by David Spinoza on rhythm guitar and the eminent Harvie Swartz on upright bass.

Sidran, who has many credits of his own as pianist, singer and composer, knows what questions to ask and how to keep the interviews reasonably interesting, though Haque comes across as a far-from-dynamic personality.

Splitting the show with him is the duo of Carla Bley and Steve Swallow. Playing material from their recent album, they are an intriguing couple. Bley, a pianist and composer who has one foot in the avant-garde and the other in sheer satire, remains largely invisible through her great mass of blond hair; even during the interview, her eyes cannot be seen.

Her slightly Monkish solos are conservative by her own normally abnormal standards. Bley tells Sidran that her attempts to be commercial having failed to sell, she plans to “do more weird stuff.” An odd woman and self-described cult hero, she is at least never dull. Swallow backs her capably on electric bass.