Velvet Grind 02 is the second edition of an event series in Hyderabad hosted by Dark vibe society and George Hull Collective.
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| George Hull Collective |
The musicians in the George Hull Collective: George on Saxophone. Nirvan on keyboards and arrangements, Isabelle on Cello, Keith on acoustic guitar, 3 bass guitar players were on stage at different times, most of the time it was Nigel Geiles, and at other points, Praharsha and Patrick Dempsey. Isabelle on Cello. Lead Guitar was Danny Geiles and on the drums, Kaivalya. Nathalie on Oboe.
Some rooms change you a little. This is
one of them. And this city has one night that doesn't get talked about loudly —
you're looking at it.
*The Velvet
Grind — Edition 02.*
This was the most intriguing and well written set of invitation messages to an event I’d ever received.
Dark vibes are not my thing, I like vibes to be light, airy and welcoming. But I like music, especially jazz, though I didn’t feel that jazz could be dirty or had any innocence to lose, so, I went, as the song ‘Cabaret’ inspired me to do:
"What
good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.
Come hear the band.
Come blow a horn, start celebrating;
Right this way, your table's waiting.
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| Shakila |
commanding the room with her stage presence singing the first song of the evening. It is then that I realised why the messages I had been getting had said that this evenings’ show was only for adults.
The next song that Shakila sang, six songs later, at the end of the first half/session was another suggestive, humorously indecent song called ‘Just Stroke It’, which she also sang with expressive good humour and control. Neither of the songs Shakila sang was jazz, though George Hull’s tenor saxophone and Nirvan’s keyboard playing and good arrangement of the music made it seem so.
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| Nathalie |
The next
singer was Nathalie, singing, ‘I Want to Come Again’. Nathalie who plays
Oboe and usually sings in French, sang this song in English and did a rousing
job of it, singing with elan; she probably sang the song better than the
original, as Shakila did her two songs.
Nathalie was then joined by Julie and they sang a French Carla Bruni song called ‘Quelqu'un m'a dit’. The duo performed this good, sweet and evocative song very well, we liked it even though we didn’t understand the words.
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| Julie |
Julie, whom
we had never heard before, sang a song called ‘I’ll Give You a happy ending’,
An unremarkable, mildly suggestive ‘pop type’ of song that even Julie’s
agreeable voice couldn’t make better, but she made a good attempt.
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| Nathan Malini |
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| Malini |
Malini and Nathan sang a duet called ‘Horny Angry Tango’, and made a valiant attempt to dance some basic tango moves while singing, despite the fact that both of the singers have good voices and can sing well, for this song, they lacked conviction. Yet they deserve a high five for making a serious attempt to pull off this short but interesting song that uses the tango type of music to express the desire two ex-lovers still have for each other.
Nathan had two more songs in the programme ‘The Doggie Style’ for which he was joined by Keertana.
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| Nathan Keertana |
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| Suparna |
Suparna, who sang two songs in the programme, was, and is, one of the singers who left a deep impression. She sang the tritest of songs like ‘Split Me in Two’, which was the first of the two songs she sang which was mildly suggestive but not explicit (to go with the adult theme of the evening), with a naturalness of interpretation that was very individual, and a ‘feel’ that was very mature.
The next song that Suparna sang to open the second session of music was ‘How Does It Feel’, probably an R&B song, which was sympathetically arranged by the George Hull Collective around her way of singing, and Suparna sang this with such heartfelt expression that I felt grateful for being in the audience and getting to listen to her, she made a song that I’d never heard before, sound good. Suparna is an intelligent, thinking singer who would perhaps, one day, hopefully, take to singing jazz.
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| Ashok Verghese |
Before I come to Keertana, we will touch upon a great experience we in the audience had in listening to Ashok Verghese performing Bill Withers ‘Use Me’.
Besides
choosing this fabulous song by Bill Withers, Ashok sang ‘Use Me’
admirably, and with good taste. He was helped by the most appropriate arrangement and accompaniment by the George Hull Collective, which brought out the best in the
singer and the song.
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| Keertana |
And now Keertana: I must admit I’ve have seen and heard Keertana before (mostly on YouTube) and always enjoy the sheer joy she brings to making music. Keertana is so joyous in her approach, her movement, her confidence, that she is compelling, whether she sings a silly song like ‘Big Cock Back’, or the better known songs she sang, like the disco funk, ‘Monkey Business’, and the pop-soul-funk song ‘You Had Me’. Not only does she generate good vibes with the audience, she also inspired the arranger, it could be Nirvan, to create a wonderful funky rhythm for her to perform to. Nirvan was also inspired to play a playful, melodic and inventive jazz-like keyboard solo.
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| Nathalie |
An item in the programme was a Hoedown, in which all the musicians who played or sang on stage, sang or recited a verse of their own making to a particular hoedown rhythm format. Most of the verses were too adolescent to be recited to a paying audience, though the musicians had fun doing so. Keith who played acoustic guitar was the only exception; his verse was actually witty. And while on Keith, it must be mentioned that he does not play lead guitar with this band because Danny, yes Danny, the wonder kid is there, so, in Keith’s accompanying acoustic guitar -- whether he’s comping behind the music, or just playing the rhythm -- his choice of chords and how he plays them is remarkably tasteful and appropriate to the music.
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| All the performers -- Keith - Nirvan - George - Isabelle - Keertana - Suparna - Julie - Malini - Nathan - Patrick - Shakila - Nathalie - Kaivalya - Danny - Nigel behind Suparna - Praharsha behind Julie - Ashok behind Malini |
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| Vaibhav Kumar Modi |
Photographs: Wolfgang Jastrowski
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