Belated Concert Reviews

Eeks! whats happened to blogger- its regular format has been changed, and now looks like i'm typing an email...

These last two weeks have been nicely punctuated by a rash of concerts, really excellent ones too.

It all started on May 1st with abe laboriel and friends. They did some clinic and stuff in the morning followed by a concert at night. Pretty simply stupendous, breath-taking stuff. For the concert, the team (abe plus paul jackson jr plus tom brooks plus sheila e) did a whole bunch of spontaneous stuff, while technically perfect (with sizzling solos), did not fatigue the ear. It was a wonderful balance of good ol' musicianship and friendship. They were nicely transparent about their love for God and their use of their talent. Bought a CD.

And then last friday, I listened to an australian-italian-scott-burmese folk-singer lady from perth. I believe she must be the first purely folksong singer-songwriter person i've seen; singing about life, with simple tunes, lyrics and accompaniment. Singing stuff ranging from 18th century napolitan parlor songs to songs about the palestinian situation to growing up in Oz as migrants. Haunting lyrics and poetry, accented with musical nuances ranging from venetian to flamenco to turkish to celtic to middle eastern to country. Pretty rich and diverse musical landscape that she drew. In addition to the guitar (what else would folk music be accompanied by?), kevish mazzella was joined by a mandolin (or cittern) and a bouzouki (a greek/napolitan instrument directly related to the turkish saz), used to great effect on the song about jerusalem and the ensuing palestinian issue- the bouzouki took on various arabic maqam (modes), shifting maqam with each verse. Pretty simple but powerful stuff. Nicely earthy and not too famous (incidentally, i dun think folk singers can ever get too famous, else it becomes pop, that's the irony), she'll prolly be singing well into her 80s. Bought a CD.

Tonight, I drove down to cornerstone church in katong to catch rivertribe in concert. They're a qwerky bunch of musicians from australia, playing ethnic instruments (yay!) from the world over fusing it with techno rhythms, in the process tearing up known songs or hymns into musical shreds, building their soundscape syncretically. Among the 4 of them, they played the didgeridu, tabla, darabougha, various gongs and bell chimes, shakeres, tabor drum, djembe, duduk, LP + dj scratches, melodica, synthesizers and a whole bunch of electronic effects and techno noise. They were last in town for arts fest a few years ago, and are here this time at the invitation of the tourism board, and on their way to india, then belfast (to play on the peace line dividing the orange and green) and finally to toronto. Kinda neat stuff they do. They're out to share the message and person of Christ through their music and life. Got to catch them abit after it was over and got to try the duduk (i can play!) and had a slight crash course on the didg. Now I just need to practice =). Bought a CD.

I wonder what's next... all this just makes nice distraction from my thesis (i've started writing... woohoo!)