SFJAZZ presents Jazz—A Musical Bridge East to West featuring Zakir Hussain
2015-10-01
Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
7:30 PM, Thursday, October 1, 2015

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

[7:34 PM] lights down, announcements from Randall Kline
[7:38 PM] Zakir talks awhile about this project

1. [7:43 PM] Dove Flies $
2. [7:56 PM] Shadows $
3. [8:07 PM] ? (unidentified ancient kriti with multiple sections: Pallavi » Anupallavi » Charana. Perhaps a praise song for Rama, as introduced by Zakir on Sunday?)
4. [8:34 PM] Encounter $
   [set ends 8:51 PM]

[9:12 PM] lights down, we start with a trio: ZH DH CP

1. [9:12 PM] Finding the Light $
   [9:24 PM: add SD EH SM while Zakir yacks]
2. [9:28 PM] ?J ?Fly
3. [9:40 PM +LB] Ina Mina Dika
4. [9:44 PM -SM] Solstice $&
5. [9:52 PM -LB SD] Good Hope
6. [10:02 PM +LB SD SM] ? (unidentified tune) $
   [set ends 10:18 PM]
    
   Encore
7. [10:21 PM] Breathless
   [show ends 10:26 PM; bow, then all off after a minute or two]

• Eric Harland: drums, percussion;
• Dave Holland: contrabass;
• Zakir Hussain: tabla, percussion;
• Chris Potter: tenor saxophone, $ soprano saxophone;

• Louiz Banks: keyboards;
• Sanjay Divecha: guitar, & electroacoustic guitar;
• Shankar Mahadevan: vox.

Worked at home today, but found myself flumoxxed with terrible traffic heading into SF, so it's a BART trip from Rockridge tonight instead. Waiting on the platform or in the train car is far less stressful than inching forward in heavy westbound traffic, half-blinded by the setting sun! Anyways, arrived plenty early, then settled in to relax and enjoy the show.

After Randall Kline's usual “Welcome to SFJAZZ” talk, Zakir spent a few minutes telling us about the genesis of tonight's program: How jazz, blues and swing in Hollywood films from the period between the World Wars influenced the music of Bollywood and started a small jazz scene in India. The fruit of that seed was represented tonight by Zakir and his Indian guest artists. Mixing these ingredients up with contributions from Eric Harland, Dave Holland and Chris Potter, Zakir aimed to cook us a tasty musical stew.

And indeed, the entire repast was a delight. What with visa problems and airport travel issues, the assemblage had hardly any time for rehearsal – only a few hours in the afternoon immediately before the show. Nonetheless, pros that they all are, the players rose to the challenge, sight reading a few pieces contributed by Louiz or Zakir, listening and improving as the moment called for, and generally delighting us all with their effort. It seemed clear to me that they were skating on thin ice (to introduce a new metaphor), but I didn't hear any big train wrecks, and by the first half hour they'd relaxed and appeared to be having fun.

I was surprised that Chris Potter chose to play soprano saxophone most of the night; perhaps this was an aural accomodation in order to keep out of the way of Shankar Madhevan's rich voice? I was also surprised to hear Dave Holland taking nimble, raga-ish runs on his bass – I don't recall ever hearing him play in that particular style; I'm guessing it's something he picked up in rehearsal.

Finding the Light, the second set opener that featured Zakir in a trio setting with Chris Potter and Dave Holland, was probably my favorite tune of the night, but really, it was all spectacularly good. And everyone else I've talked to who was there agreed that it was a magical night. I'd be curious to know how things went over the rest of the weekend – guess I'll have to poke around the Internet to try and find out!

As a final aside, Amit Chatterjee was originally billed as guitarist; no word given on the reason he got subbed out, but Sanjay Divecha certainly picked up the slack in fine fashion. His piece, Solace, performed on electroacoustic guitar with support from the rest of the band, was another excellent standout tonight!

Rusty Aceves posted a nice article in early September on the SFJAZZ blog titled 'East meets West: Indian Classical Music and Jazz' – worth a few minutes to read if you're curious!

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