AND NATALLIA KAPYLOVA - PIANO
Original writing and reviews - Jazz, blues, classical music and Indian classical dance.
Tuesday, 30 August 2016
SIMPLY SCHUBERT
AND NATALLIA KAPYLOVA - PIANO
Wednesday, 3 August 2016
YASHASWI SIRPOTDAR'S SILKEN RIBBONS OF SONG
Of a Sublime & Refined Grace - Kuchipudi by Sindhuja
From the opening verse on Lord Ganesha in a dance composed by Dr.Yashoda Thakore with music by Sri D.S.V. Sastry in Raga Arabhi, Sindhuja was the epitome of delicate grace and refinement.
DANCING TOWARDS KINDNESS, COMPASSION AND RESPONSIBILITY - Nine Kathak Dancers. Six Tibetan Buddhist monks
graceful and energetic Kathak dancers, six female and two male dancers, worked their magic. Swooping and swirling around the monks.
dance ballet with nine Kathak dancers and six Tibetan Buddhist monks on stage, took dance aesthetics to a high point. The mind lingered on the dance theatre that we saw; we enjoyed the visual imagery and the worlds created by the dancers in a series of evocations; we enjoyed the passion and the precision with which the dancers expressed themselves, the difficult rhythms that they exultantly danced through, and we enjoyed the marriage of music, dance and meditation that they presented.
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
SINDHUJA, KUCHIPUDI DANCER - CREATING AN ENCHANTED SPACE ON A SUMMER EVENING
Due to lack of sponsors Sindhuja danced to recorded music and under the fixed, harsh and steady stage lights provided by the venue. Despite not having a live orchestra and a lighting designer, Sindhuja transcended reality and performed without us in audience noticing this absence. Sindhuja was fluidity personified, she created an enchanted space in the open air venue, and danced like she was dancing on moonbeams.
Photographs: Pranay Rupani
FESTIVAL CHORISTERS - LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH. AND LET IT BEGIN WITH ME…
What better way to celebrate the season than with music! And this is how the Christmas season was ushered in by the 40-voice choir, the Festival Choristers, an all-volunteer choir, accompanied by an all-volunteer Orchestra, conducted by Sushil Pakyanadhan to commemorate its tenth anniversary on December 4, at Shilpa Kala Vedika, Hyderabad.
The choir presented a varied programme of uplifting Christmas music that ranged from the classical to the modern. And raised their voices to all the touch-points of good choral singing; a harmonious blending of voices, precise timing, good dynamics — going from loud to soft and back, with every gradation in between — and all this with a tonal quality that was ripe, resonant and well-balanced.
Devotees of choral music had much to savour – because the Festival Choristers really understood the art of singing and executed the programme superbly under the direction of Sushil Pakyanadhan, the conductor of the Festival Choristers, whose direction deftly set the tone and shaped the contours of the performance, and brought all the elements – the Sopranos, the Altos, the Tenors and the Basses and the accompanying piano and orchestra together without one overwhelming the other and instilled emotion, by indicating rhythms, and nuances of tempo - swells and fades, entries and cutoffs.
The programme was a mix of Classical and modern music. Two songs, ‘Gloria’, by Antonio Vivaldi and the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, by G.F. Handel, opened and closed the programme. Both these composers were of the baroque era, and these two ornate and elaborately composed songs, accompanied by piano and orchestra, were executed by the choir with exuberance and precision. Another two songs, ‘Grant Unto us Thy Peace O Lord’ by Felix Mendelsohhn Bartholdy, a composer of the Romantic Era of Classical music, and Gesu Bambino, composed by Pietro A. Yon, a composer of the Modern Era, were the other Classical pieces that the Choir performed, both of which called for expertise from the choir and the conductor to bring out the flowing beauty of these songs.Monday, 1 August 2016
THE FIRST HYDERABAD JAZZ FESTIVAL
JAZZED FRIENDS. The Brass section - George Hull on Alto Saxophone, Humayun Mirza on Trumpet, Joe Koster on Trombone, Raphael Courtay on Clarinet. The Rhythm section had Aman Mahajan replacing Dennis Powell on Piano, Karthik Kalyan on Drums and Triveni Sunkara on Bass. And on Vocals - Shakila. The band played its set pieces with vigour and enthusiasm and did well to open the Jazz Festival with good old Dixieland and Swing standards.
REFUGE is a jazz/world ensemble headed by Aman Mahajan on keyboard, an Alumni of the Berklee School of Music, Boston. All the musicians in Refuge are professionals who have played with major musicians in India and abroad, Matt Littlewood from UK, on Soprano Saxophone, is also a composer and leads his own group performing original works. Abhinav Khokhar of New Delhi, is a fine bass player and also a guitarist, pianist and composer who has performed with several musicians from New York, South America, Spain, Netherlands and of course, India. And critically acclaimed Jeoraj George on drums who has trained at DrumTech, London, and has performed with prominent artists Jazz, Funk and Indian Classical musicians like Sudha Raghunathan and Hariharan.
THE ADRIAN D’SOUZA TRIO – This Trio of consummate musicians regaled the audience with a series of bluesy, funky, sometimes rocking and always swinging Jazz. The first tune, Back at the Chicken-shack, set the tone for their set for the evening. Jimmy Smith’s composition played by Keyboard/Organist
Karan Joseph, combined bluesy "licks" with tasteful improvisation while playing a walking bass line with his left hand. Another tune, ‘Wave’, was beautifully rendered by the Trio, with Sanjay Divecha on guitar, proving to be a sympathetic and exceptionally talented exponent of this beautiful tone poem. And all the tunes that the Trio played was empathetically accompanied by the intellectual of the jazz drum-set, Adrian D’Souza, who, though is the leader of the group, does not impose his drums but keeps an inventive, creative flow of pulses and cadences, with a varied, yet rhythmic logic that is always appropriate and always in the moment.
DECCAN VOICES: As reported in the Times of India, “initiating the jazz journey and setting the mood just right as they sang and clapped on the stage. The audience joined in by clapping with them.” This Hyderabad based vocal ensemble creditably performed Stevie Wonder’s‘Sir Duke’, and ended with ‘Happy’, by Pharrell Williams. The singers were: Soprano: Haritha Govind, Rithvika Prasad, Celsa Almeida, Karthika Vattakavil, Samhita Maha, Sameera, Oxana, Shika Alto: Reena Kurien, Aparajita Gupta, Ramya Smita. Tenor: Vijay Raj, Murali, Suneet. Bass: T. Raghav Rao, Glen Williams, Aditya T.B., Varghese Jacob. Conductor/Accompanist: Joe Koster.
The Vasundhara V Quintet kept the audience riveted, yet tapping their feet and swaying in their seats to the variety of music that they performed with such lyricism and euphony, from Jazz standards and Bossa Nova, to modern standards. One of the highlights was Vasundhara’s rendition of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, as an inconceivably wonderful, six/eights blues. It was a revelation, that a modern classic like ‘Imagine’ could be treated so unusually and so beautifully. And that was only one of the many wonders of the Vasundhara V Quintet. But like all good things the evening had to come to an end. That was end of the First Hyderabad Jazz Festival.
Photographs: Joe Koster
Written For www.hydmusic.com 30th November 2015
WHY WE LOVE THE BLUES & B.B. KING
Taj Mahal - Henry St. Clair Fredericks |
B.B. King - Riley B. King |
Muddy Waters - McKinley Morganfield |
John Lee Hooker |
Lightnin' Hokins - Samuel John Hopkins |
Ry Cooder - Ryland Cooder |
Mike Bloomfield / Al Kooper |
John Mayall / Eric Clapton |
Johnny Winter |
Keb Mo - Kevin Moore |
B.B. King - King of the Blues |