SFJAZZ presents Kiran Ahluwalia
2015-03-20
Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
7:30 PM, Friday, March 20, 2015

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:28 PM lights down, announcements from Randall Kline]

1. [7:32 PM] ?
2. [7:36 PM] ?
3. [7:45 PM] ?
4. [7:51 PM] ?
5. [8:00 PM] ?
6. [8:09 PM] ?
7. [8:18 PM] ?
8. [8:29 PM] ?
9. [8:38 PM] ?
10. [8:50 PM] ?
11. [8:56 PM] ?
    [set ends 9:01 PM]
     
    Encore
12. [9:03 PM] ?
    [show ends 9:15 PM]

• Rez Abassi: acoustic guitar, guitar;
• Kiran Ahluwalia: shruti box, vox;
• Julien Labro: bayan;
• Nitin Mitta: drums, tabla, percussion;
• Nikku Nayar: bass.

Great show tonight, too bad the place was not much more than half full at best.

I hadn't seen Kiran perform before, though I'd seen and heard her husband, Rez Abassi in a couple different contexts over the past few years. Kiran has a goofy personality, and while I can imagine that some folks might find that she shares a little too much, I liked her song introductions and banter. Too bad I was a dummy, and neglected to write down the titles as she shared that info. Must have been a case of Friday night food stupor, no? And Kiran's voice? Oh my, she can really, really wail! Definitely earned a place on my list of musicians to see again!

The music was a curious blend of rock with various Indian folk music forms, all pretty unfamiliar to me, yet all reasonably interesting. Julien Labro, the button accordion player – a bayan? – was really good too, though his contributions didn't always mesh all that well with the more Indian-flavored works… not enough microtone or something like that. Still, always good to add a little more variety to the mix, right? Although the bassist and drummer were dressed ethnically (in kurtas?, like Rez and Kiran), their rigs were decidedly western, and that contributed much to the rock element in the sound of the group.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!