SFJAZZ presents The Pulse of the World featuring Zakir Hussain's Celtic Connections
2015-04-02
Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
7:30 PM, Thursday, April 2, 2015

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

[7:33 PM lights down, announcements from RK, then welcome and descriptive comments from Zakir]

1. [7:43 PM] ? (Celtic piece)
2. [7:49 PM] ? (Breton flute piece)
3. [7:59 PM] ? (Celtic piece)
4. [8:02 PM] ?
5. [8:12 PM] ?
6. [8:30 PM] ?
7. [8:37 PM] ?
8. [8:42 PM] ?
9. [8:47 PM] ?
10. [9:03 PM] ?
11. [9:05 PM] ?
12. [9:08 PM] ?
13. [9:18 PM] ?
14. [9:21 PM] ?
15. [9:23 PM] ?
    [set ends 9:25 PM]
     
    Encore
16. [9:26 PM] ?
    [show ends 9:30 PM, all off after a minute or so]

• Tony Byrne: acoustic guitar;
• Rakesh Chaurasia: bansuri flute;
• Fraser Fifield: Uilleann pipes, low flutes;
• Zakir Hussain: tabla, percussion, vox;
• John Joe Kelly: bodhrán;
• Charlie McKerron: violin;
• Ganesh Rajagopalan: carnatic violin;
• Patsy Reid: violin;
• Jean-Michel Veillon: wooden flutes.

Tonight's show was splendidly good, but it's far-fetched to call it jazz. Zakir began the night by telling us a story about listening to drum and pipes music as a kid in Mumbai – apparently the legacy of musicians posted there from the period of British colonial rule. He went on to tell us that during a residency in Scotland, he had further opportunity to draw parallels between folk-tales of his youth and the stories behind various tunes being shared by the local musicians who were also in residence. After a bit more chit-chat, Zakir walked offstage, and the piper marched in, keening and wailing on his pipes as he strode in through the main entrance, while the others came in from the regular stage entrances.

The band proceeded to romp their way through an assortment of mostly unidentified celtic tunes, embellished in varying degrees by the contributions of the three Indian musicians.

Roughly a third of the night was given over to Indian classical forms, with one raga each from the two instrumentalists, accompanied only by Zakir on tabla.

Separately, the celtic tunes were interspersed with solo sections of varying length to feature each of the band members, beginning with the previously noted entrance by the piper, and followed up later by the others. The bodhran solo was quite good, though like most drum solos, it outlasted my attention span, and I found myself drifting off midway through.

Likewise, Ganesh Ragopalan's introductory solo section to the raga he shared deserved extra accolades. This work was performed exquisitely slowly, with great tenderness and depth of feeling. Superb!

As you can tell, I was pretty impressed, and I thought the combination worked well. Hopefully Zakir will revive this project for another turn sometime down the line!

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