Ok I admit it, the headline was cheesy but the Australian Art Orchestra managed to put one over me in that department. A four man outfit that stepped out the ranks of the 21 member strong AAO. They were led by the trombone playing skills of Adrian Sheriff . Now, I accept the trombone. Like it even. But I'd much rather catch it as a part of even a 3 man horn section than as a lead instrument. It isn't limited, it's just a bit two dimensional. Anyway, they were sort of tepid on the warmer side and downright atrocious when they tried to incorporate Carnatic taalams into their playing. I'd like to listen to the whole AAO before writing the name off.
Lineup: Carl Dewhurst (guitar), Adrian Sheriff (trombone), Alister Spence (piano) and Niko Schauble (drums)
Lehera was nice. Yup, that's about it.
Prakash Sontakke - Hindustani Slide Guitar & Vocals
S. Karthik - Ghatam and Percussion
Prashant John - Guitar, Flute and Vocals
TAS Mani - Mridangam
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2 comments:
Carnatic taalams, eh? Oddly enough, I was just down by the music books section in the LIPA library and felt really bizarre when I came across a book on "south indian music"..all the scales were translated into A minor and G and B major etc etc. It felt really strange. There's a lot more to it than scales, isnt there..
I've never really been a great fan of musically fusing indian and western music. It rarely EVER works even in the dance world.
Actually, it can work wonderfully if the musicians involved aren't sitting on some high horse or/and aren't deluded into feeling that they're bridging some major cultural gap.
It's quite simple, there are seven notes (12 including sharps and flats) no matter how western, eastern, old or new the music.
Rhythm translates even more easily.
So fusing the two worlds isn't the problem, it's the individual musicians that can make things good or bad.
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