SFJAZZ presents Zakir Hussain with Mark de Clive-Lowe, Eric Harland & Abbos Kosimov
Robert M. Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:30 PM, Friday, September 24, 2021

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[7:32 PM] {lights down, welcome, announcements & introductions from Randall Kline}
[7:36 PM] {Zakir out alone, at center stage with very small kanjira}

1. [7:37 PM] Sri Ganesh (Zakir Hussain) » [7:38 PM] {add AK on qayroq} » [7:40 PM] {add EH: nut shell shaker, high hat}
   [7:43 PM] {1st tune ends: ZH moves to his L-side tabla riser; AK off; EH moves to his trap set; add MdCL}
2. [7:43 pm] Sabar (Zakir Hussain)
3. [8:07 PM] {AK back onstage} > [8:20 PM] {EH solo}
   {AK heads offstage}
4. [8:23 PM] E M (Eric Harland, Mark de Clive-Lowe)
5. [8:38 PM] Neel (Zakir Hussain) » {ZH/EH trade vocalization}
   [9:04 PM] {ZH introduces the others; set ends; separate uncoordinated bows, then all offstage; back in a minute}
   
   Encore
6. [9:06 PM] Mind Ecology (Shakti)
   [9:14 PM] {show ends; applause for a minute or two; separate bows, then all off; house lights up}

• Mark de Clive-Lowe: piano, keyboards, electronics;
• Eric Harland: drums, percussion, vox;
• Zakir Hussain: tabla, kanjira, percussion, vox;
• Abbos Kosimov: doyra, qayroq, percussion.

Wow! My first show at SFJAZZ since the Hot Club of Cowtown/Davina & the Vagabonds double bill that was my last show before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down life-as-we-knew-it. It's nice to be back! And thanks to them for treating the audience to complimentary drinks and snacks – that's what I call a welcome!!

Supposedly the HVAC was upgraded during the pandemic. Sitting back by the soundboard, I couldn't really tell. Maybe it's quieter upstairs in the balcony?

House lights we're kept nearly off throughout the show tonight. That's great for helping focus attention on the performers, but it terribly impaired my ability to take notes so I kinda gave up after the first ten minutes or so.

Overall, I thought tonight's show seemed somewhat bit different than ZH gigs of the past few years: less emphasis on solo segments and show-off sequences, more instances of dynamic interplay between the performers. I wonder if that's a result of the pandemic too, with the musician's feeling less desire to make solo statements and greater interest in listening and responding too their peers. If so, it's really interesting that there was almost zero verbal communication throughout the event: just talking through the instruments.

Mark de Clive-Lowe played the part of the accompanist the entire night. There may have been a few segments designated to showcase him, but if so, it was done so subtly as to miss my attention to that! I generally enjoyed his varying contributions, from straight piano fills to funky keyboard burbles to multi-layered loops to very abstract electronic glitch-noise effects. I'm pretty sure that he was sometimes sampling the mics from the other performers and then layering processed echoes of their sounds into loops that he was messing around with on-the-fly. Pretty cool!

Happily, SFJAZZ streamed the show after-the-fact as part of their Friday’s Live series. In the now-removed web page announcing that stream, they gave the tune titles I’ve posted above. Seems provisional or incomplete compared to what I noted – maybe that’s the nature of trying to pin words onto nonverbal improvisation. Hopefully someday they’ll make the video available again for on-demand viewing.

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2021 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2021 event list! ☸ On to the next event!