Live World Music: “India Calling!” at the Hollywood Bowl

By Don Heckman

Indian culture has created one of the world’s most sophisticated forms of musical expression. The raga/tala system, with its juxtaposition of ragas (similar to, but far more complex, than Western modes) and talas (rhythmic cycles) is a unique combining of melody, rhythm, composition, improvisation, spirituality and history. Beyond a few similarities in some Middle Eastern musics, there’s nothing quite like it.

The “India Calling!” concert at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday night promised to present the broader outlines of that music via a program nominally reaching from traditional and classical to Bollywood and pop. In doing so, it displayed both the beauty of Indian music as well as the distractions that have been caused by the infusion of international pop styles.

Anoushka Shankar

The first half of the program was far and away the most intriguing, despite its virtual absence of any purely classical offerings. A thirty minute piece, composed by the great Indian master Ravi Shankar, (who was in the audience), performed by members of the Ravi Shankar Centre Ensemble and conducted by his daughter Anoushka Shankar, was a splendid example of Shankar’s capacity to marry Indian and Western forms without sacrificing the integrity of either. Although the piece did not rove into the more complex rhythmic areas of Indian classical music, its composed accents inferred those complexities while still remaining accessible to Western ears. The roving melodies, performed superbly by a large group of singers, soloists and instrumentalists, were rich in lyricism and emotional intensity.

The Rhythm of Rajasthan, a six member ensemble consisting of five musicians and a dancer, fused traditional music reaching across Hindu and Muslim cultures in a performance that offered the evening’s most convincing connection with the roots of Indian music. Among the highlights — the remarkable double flute playing of Habib Khan Langa and Sesh Nath and the spinning, dervish-like dancing of Suva Devi.

Anousha Shankar’s set, closing the program’s first half, for the most part concentrated upon the fusion music that has occupied her thinking over the past few years. To her credit, she has found ways to believably synchronize seemingly contradictory musical forms, matching her own skills with equally adept performers from other genres. Even within this blended conceptual package, however, Shankar’s virtuosic sitar playing, combined with her lifelong immersion in the subtleties of Indian classical playing, invested her every note with layers of musical substance. The most memorable moment in her set was a brief passage in which the other players laid out, while Shankar’s sitar and Ravichandra Kulur’s tabla playing engaged in a too-brief exchange in the classic style.

The second half of the program was an animal of an entirely different stripe. The opening entry — a performance by Yogen’s Bollywood Step Dance Troupe — was an entertaining example of the sort of Busby Berkeley-revisited choreography typical of Indian musical films.

Kailash Kher

Kailash Kher, one of the most popular singers on Indian soundtracks, offered a dynamic set, backed by his group Kailasa (led by his two brothers, Naresh and Paresh). By this point in the program, however, the connection with Indian classical and traditional musics had largely disappeared, despite the presence of some Indian and Middle Eastern percussion and stringed instruments in Kailasa. Kher’s voice, rich with warm timbres, arching across a rumbling, rhythmic undercurrent, affirmed his success as an international pop act.

Malkit Singh

Punjabi singer Malkit Singh, a star of Bhangra music for more than two decades, closed the show with a collection of the genre’s current rock-infused qualities. Despite his popularity, the music — for the casual Western listener — was filled with endless repetitions of short phrases, a characteristic of the style’s tendency to employ short couplets in the lyrics. A few segments of male Bhangra dancing added some visual interest. But for the most part, the lack of variation in Singh’s set pretty much gave it the character of a one-trick pony.

“India Calling!” was preceded by an extensive set up of Indian craft booths from different parts of the country, as well as areas featuring Indian dancers and musicians. The stage lighting (despite a caustically critical remark from Kailash Kher at the close of his set) was richly atmospheric, showcasing the Bowl itself at one point with an illumination suggesting the sculptures and textures of a Hindu temple.

So give credit to KCRW’s World Festival for having created a rare opportunity to experience many aspects of Indian culture. Too bad that — as KCRW has done with much of its world music coverage — more emphasis was placed upon contemporary pop elements than the vital heritage of a great creative culture.

Live World Music: Ceu, Andrea Ferraz, Patrizia Laquidara at the Roxy

By Devon Wendell

It was Brazil across the board at the Roxy Friday night, with a program featuring three very different, but very entertaining singers: the hip, much-praised Céu, singer-actress/Andrea Ferraz, and Sicilian-born Patrizia Laquidara.

First up, Laquidaria, whose interests embrace the rich musical cultures of Brazil, Spain and her native Italy, shyly took the stage accompanied only by acoustic guitarist Antonio “Tony” Canto. Her program primarily featured material from her two most recent CD’s – 2003’s Indrizzo Portoghese (Genius/Virgin) and 2007’s Funambola (Ponderosa Music & Art).

Patrizia Laquidara

Sporting pigtails, she opened with an Italian translation of Mexican composer Tomas Mendez’s classic “Cuccurruccu,” she began the piece a cappella, backed by the gentle accompaniment of Canto’s Brazilian-flavored guitar. Pausing to gently grasp the microphone stand, she then danced with a childlike sensuality and a playful nature perfectly accentuating her delicate vocal delivery, and setting the stage for the entire evening.

By the second number, “Kanzi,” Laquidara had relaxed into her program. Her unique musical choices and personal mannerisms — playing the kazoo, brushing her lips with her index finger, and even the use of a triangle — were perfect tools for her sexy, schoolgirl, savant image (think a younger, less brutal Bjork meets Gwen Steffani). Laquidara’s most captivating performance was a dedication to French tightrope walker Philip Petit, “Oppure no,” with an interesting percussive triangle effect which laced Canto’s bare-wire picking.

Ending the set was the up-tempo Brazilian-tinged “Personaggio.” Though performed with a small group on the original recording, this version took on a haunting and mournful quality, with Laquidara tugging on her black dress and dancing along with the minor key progression laid down by Canto’s guitar. She then politely thanked the crowd, apologizing for not speaking English. It was easy to see why Laquidara is one of the most renowned artists in Italy, even though she’s relatively unknown in this country. Her music may have often seem understated at first, but ultimately it was her subtlety and soft, theatrical command of the music and the stage that made her set powerful. We’ll be hearing a lot more from her in the future, I suspect.

Andrea Ferraz

Next on the bill, and definitely the most traditional, was Brazilian singer/actress Andrea Ferraz with her group D’Agua. Ferraz came out dancing with a wild and wooly seven piece band with two back-up singers – blowing bubbles into the audience, with Simon Carrol and Rodney D’Assis playing drums, shakers, zabumba, pandeiro, and a full array of traditional Brazilian percussion instruments, locking firmly into the groove of James Hazley’s pocket bass. The set kicked off with “Pegapacapa” and “Told You So” and it was evident from Ferraz’s first hip-shake that this was true-to-the-game Brazilian party music.

D’agua’s samba beats did, however, occasionally add some modern r&b flavored bounce accented by Gubish’s trip-hop/Electronica keyboard work, without going too far off the Brazilian map. Robinson’s guitar was at times the only element that didn’t fit, with an overt, late 60’s, psychedelic shrill tone that was often intrusive upon Ferraz’s vocals, as well as the background singing – especially when he used overpowering wah-wah on “Patchungue” and the ballad “Vida.” But Ferraz’s enthusiasm and the sheer energy of the interaction with her band made the set full of fun and eminently suitable for dancing.

Ceu

In the headliner role, critically acclaimed, Latin Grammy winning Céu’s return to the States after an entire year away was the most anticipated moment of the evening. After the success of her debut album and her new CD Vagarosa, this 29 year-old Sao Paulo native was ready to take no prisoners in a fashion that cannot be experienced when simply hearing her songs in a local Starbucks.

Where Laquidara had a more youthful sensuality, Cèu pranced on the stage in a wildly seductive and wickedly confident manner, wearing a flowered hat and a short, tight black dress barely covering her shapely figure. Guilherme Ribeiro’s sinister, post-60’s, Sly Stone funk-drenched keyboard work cued the band and complemented Ceu’s predatory, snake-like moves. The rest of her band — Guilherme Ribeiro playing keyboards, accordion, guitar, and backing vocals, DJ Marco on scratches and samples, Lucas Martins on bass, and Samuel Fraga on drums – easily covered the wide stylistic range of Céu’s music.

“Espaconave” fused hip-hop-flavored fusion (think Jill Scott), 70’s funk, and even reggae stylings to her samba, bossa nova and soul. On “Comandi” and “Malemolencia” it was Martins’ dub bass feeling and DJ Martin’s hip-hop scratches that wove the framework for Céu’s lush vocals and relaxed, sexy dance moves. For some listeners, Céu’s music may have come across as less than traditional. But it is the music embraced by the Brazilian youth of today — music for, among other uses, hypnotic, trance, all-night dance party grooves. And her look matches the sound in every way, leading the musical tribe with each beat-driven wiggle.

The combination of Céu’s singing, her band and her set list seemed crafted to put a spell on her devout following. “Buibuia” and “Ponteiro” displayed great accordion work by keyboardist Ribeiro, which worked perfectly with the DJ loops of Marco, and the modern soul drumming of Fraga. The ease of the group’s interplay, and Céu’s often half opened eyes and swaying body, were indulgent in all the best ways. Even her dedication to Ray Charles and Betty Carter with “Two To Tango” was so confident and relaxed that it had to work.

Finally, “Rainha,” with Céu’s take on Fela Kuti African rhythms, closed the show, wrapping this culturally diverse and sexually-charged performance in an upbeat, happy manner – a perfect ending for a colorful, entertaining evening.

To read more posts by Devon Wendell click here.

Live World Music: Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Orchestra at Royce Hall

By Don Heckman

UCLA Live couldn’t have made a better choice to wrap its 2008-2009 concert series than Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Orchestra. The large, celebratory ensemble of the Sarajevo-born Bregovic – a composer, guitarist, singer and actor – delivered a 2 ½ hour, non-stop collection of music from the Balkans and Eastern Europe that filled Royce Hall’s aisles Saturday night with wildly enthusiastic members of the audience, eager to express their familiarity with the dance steps of Serbia, Croatia, Romania and beyond.

Bregovic has been a prominent figure in European music for more than three decades, initially with the rock group White Button in the country once known as Yugoslavia, later as a film composer and leader of an immensely popular touring ensemble that has drawn huge crowds in Europe, the Middle East and South America. His successes – in other parts of the world as well as at Royce on Saturday – may well trace to the fact that his music represents a collective expression of the disparate cultural elements that fragmented in all directions with the demise of Yugoslavia.

For his debut appearance in Los Angeles, Bregovic arrived with a group consisting of a string quartet, a six piece Gypsy brass band (which made its entrance marching down Royce’s aisles), a male vocal sextet and a pair of female Bulgarian singers. And it was enough to cover all the high points in a collection of music reaching from passionately keening Romany gypsy sounds to utterly irresistible rhythmic party music. Selections – most composed by Bregovic – often began with something approaching Serbian blues, expressed in slowly unfolding legato fashion before erupting into pounding, propulsive rhythms. Satire occasionally surfaced in pieces such as “Kalashnikov” (with a chorus that said “Boom, boom, boom!”), occasional phrases recalled Bregovic’s rock ‘n’ roll background, and a song or two – rendered in his surprisingly sweet-toned voice – shifted gears into contemporary singer/songwriter style.

Along the way, each of the horn players had a chance to shine: Stojan Dimov with his fast-fingered alto saxophone and wailing, klezmer-like clarinet; Bokan Stankovic and Dalibor Lukic, playing rotary valve trumpets with heart-rending emotional cries; and the baritone horn pair of Milos Mihajlovic and Aleksandar Rajkovic alternating pumped out rhythmic figures with occasional martial blasts. The string quartet added fragments of sound tinctured with traces of Bartok, and the male vocal ensemble did everything from gentle harmonies to operatic dramatics.

Amid all this extraordinary array of music, the most remarkable stand-out was drummer/singer Alen Ademovic, playing a minimal set-up featuring the traditional goc drum. His percussion work was the driving heart beat of the music, his accordion playing added occasional atmospheric timbres. And, beyond that, his singing, clearly inspired by the microtonal melismas of Middle Eastern vocal styles, provided fascinating improvisational  enhancements to many of the songs. At only 22, Ademovic is clearly a star in the making. .

By the time the program ended, Bregovic, Ademovic and company had transformed the venerable auditorium into an all-join in celebration. Only UCLA Live’s David Sefton, always eager to surprise his audiences, could have come up with the notion of winding up a season with a Serbo-Croatian dance party.

Live: Lila Downs at Royce Hall

By Don Heckman

 Lila Downs is a performer in her prime.  Her appearance in a UCLA Live program at Royce Hall Thursday night was a stunning display of musical stagecraft.  Singing, dancing, engaging her audience in Spanish and English, moving with commanding ease across the stage,  she gave a performance that was masterful in every sense.  I can’t recall experiencing a comparably impressive, across-the-board presentation by a world music artist since Daniela Mercury’s superlative concert at Royce in 2005.

Lila Downs

Downs has come a long way since her first L.A. appearances a decade or so ago.  Always fascinating for the authenticity of her explorations through Mexican ranchera music, she revealed — even then — a desire to re-cast traditional styles and themes in a contemporary fashion, without losing their inherent values.   She did all that, and more, on Thursday, backed by a superb band led by her husband, saxophonist/arranger Paul Cohen. 

Born in Oaxaca to a Mixtec Indian mother — who was also a singer — and an Anglo-American father, raised and schooled in Mexico, California and Minnesota, she has taken on the role of crusader for the Pan American cultures of North America.  Toward that end, much of her program was devoted to the eclectic selection of material on her recent album, “Shake Away.”

There was, for example, her spot on version of Lucinda Williams’ blues-drenched ballad, “I Envy the Wind,” sung passionately in Spanish as “Yo Envidio El Viento.”  Her own song, “Tierra de Luz” (sung as a duet with Mercedes Sosa on the CD) was delivered with all of Sosa’s dark, intimate intensity.  There was more, much more — some so familiar that the audience erupted in cheers at the sounding of the first phrases — all of it sung in a voice that ranged freely from piercing high notes to chest rumbling low tenor sounds.  And, the final touch, each number was  framed by Downs’ atmospheric costuming and evocative dancing. 

Watching this remarkable performance, I couldn’t help but wonder how soon the folks at the Philharmonic will bring Downs back again to the Hollywood Bowl, this time for a  mid-summer showcase booking , rather than the all-join-in late September appearance she made in 2008.  Performers this convincing, this believable, and this electrifying should be given the best high season visibility.

Live – World Music: The Klezmatics

By Don Heckman

The Klezmatics have become, over the past two decades, one of the music world’s most dependably entertaining franchises.  Their performance at UCLA’s Royce Hall Thursday night provided plenty of reasons why their audiences have expanded well beyond the arena of klezmer music.

The Klezmatics

A substantial part of the program, in fact, was dedicated to songs they created to Woody Guthrie lyrics for the 2006 Grammy-winning CD, “Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie.”  Other selections ranged from numbers commissioned by the Pilobolus Dance Company and the punk references of “Man in A Hat” to invigorating Eastern European wedding music.

Despite the diversity of styles – many of which reflected the Klezmatics’ frequent creative partnerships with the likes of Itzhak Perlman, Chava Alberstein and Marc Ribot – the filter of klezmer, the sense of pride in the music’s Jewish heritage, was a constant factor.  This, despite the fact that the mixture of elements often threw seemingly unlikely genres into dauntingly creative encounters.

The wedding music numbers, for example, were rapid displays of startling virtuosity.  Fast-fingered passages — sometimes in unison, sometimes in unexpectedly harmonic, even contrapuntal, movement – were negotiated with ease by trumpeter Frank London, alto saxophonist/clarinetist Matt Darriau, violinist Lisa Gutkin and pianist/accordionist Lorin Sklamberg.  But when the improvised sections were opened up, both London and Darriau charged boldly into free-flying areas distinctly reminiscent of avant-garde jazz. At their best, they called up images of Ornette Coleman transforming a wedding party into a no holds celebration of new found possibilities.  Gutkin, on the other hand, often verged buoyantly into the rhythms of Celtic phrasing in her soloing, while Sklamberg’s accordion kept the freylich links alive and well.

The Guthrie material, on the other hand, walked the line between folk and klezmer via lyrics recalling the pleasures of Brooklyn Americana and, especially, of Mermaid Avenue, where Guthrie once lived.  Here, as elsewhere, Sklamberg’s cantoresque vocalizing was gripping, as was the very different, but very lyrical singing of Gutkin.  Bassist Paul Morrissett, who also doubled on the hammered dulcimer-like cimbalom, and guest star drummer Richie Barshay provided the propulsion to energize the evening’s broad array of sounds and styles.

Despite their versatility, however, despite the smooth, almost casual technical ease of their playing, what really made the Klezmatics’ UCLA Live program so compelling was the authenticity of the music’s emotional content.  Jewish at its roots, it was nonetheless music that reached out to a broader audience, continuously demonstrating the transcendent powers of music to push aside the often-restrictive boundaries of ethnicity, race, culture and spirituality.

Jon Hassell and the Art of Suggestion

Jon Hassell; photo by Jenafer Gillingham

by Casey Dolan

Jon Hassell has built a lauded career by playing short enigmatic statements on his trumpet, incorporating music from various cultures and gradually enhancing his compositions with a greater use of electronics. The result is rarely a concrete musical statement, but rather a collection of intimations, or, perhaps, intimacies. From his groundbreaking work with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in the early ’80s to his latest recording (released this week on ECM), “Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street,” he has developed a sound that suggests rather than states, gives an impression rather than documents. It’s a very open form of composition and when his band, Maarifa Street, is comprised of electric bassist and laptop practitioner, Peter Freeman, often playing an ostinato figure and sounding like a man schooled in dub, two “live samplers,” Jan Bang and J.A. Deane, who make extensive use of loops and manipulating echo and an Algerian violinist, Kheir-Eddine M’Kachiche, who sounds as much Hindustani as Arabic, and purposefully playing at an almost-inaudible volume at times, the audience is either along for the ride, descending into dream, or irritated at the lack of something going on and leaving in a huff.

Extraordinarily, a surprising number of people did the latter last night at Royce Hall at UCLA. I don’t know what they might have been expecting — Hassell has hardly deviated from his original intentions – but if the simplicity of his compositions seem boring to some, they are missing the point and sheer musicality of the presentation. Simplicity is not necessarily easy.

For example, take Hassell’s tone. No amount of processing can take away the fact that the man possesses one of the clearest trumpet tones around (and by that I do not mean brassy; it is anything but brassy). He may have a large room reverb, an echo with a 15-second tail, but there is little fluffing or flutter-tonguing. Instead, and eerily similar to the impassioned vocal style of opening act, the Tunisian singer and oud player Dhaffer Youssef, the tone is clear, sustained and brilliantly in pitch.

Therein lies the beauty of Jon Hassell. His own training was in both minimalist composition and in taking the exotic, modal melodic ideas of Indian vocalist Pandir Pran Nath and adapting them to trumpet. Because Arabic music and Indian music share certain modal scales, these melodies — brief as some of them are — take on a universality. Add to that the almost primal influence of Miles Davis — not just the obvious “In A Silent Way” Miles, an Ark of the Covenent for all contemporary ambient music, but the Miles of the Gil Evans recordings — and you have a music of mood and of suggestion rather than assertion. 

On the title track of the new CD, performed midway in the set, a simple two chord movement — the flat seven to the tonic — defines the piece. That’s it. But a more ghostly presentation can hardly be imagined as both Bang and Deane add sounds that recall a seagull’s caw hovering over an empty beach, rocks churning in a gentle tide, a distant transistor radio’s static, perhaps the electromagnetic pulses from a dying dwarf star.

This is music to make us drift and those of us who cannot do so are perhaps victims of a culture in which musical ideas mutate so quickly as to obliterate any real comprehension of the sheer beauty in sound. Hassell understands well that every moment contains an infinity of sounds and that sound contains an infinity of moments. In other words, Hassell is encouraging to not merely stop and smell the roses, but to hear them as well. Hear them and remember them.

Dhafer Youssef performed a far more exuberant set with his utterly stellar quartet of  21-year-old Tigran Hamasyan on piano, the ever-reliable and energetic Scott Colley on double bass and Satoshi Takeishi on drums. All three had to negotiate some tricky time signatures and melismatic melodies. Youssef sings with such passion that the audience cannot fail to be involved, and his fluency with Sufi musical traditions has found a communicative vehicle in this hybrid jazz quartet. His oud playing was eloquent and facile, often perfectly synchronous with Hamasyan. But the star of the set, and given an entirely solo moment on stage with the rest of the band departing, was drummer Takeishi who used his kit as hand drums and played with these meters as if they were all 4/4. Takeishi effortlessly kept the flow going.

It was a musical night which demonstrated the easy transgression of boundaries between ethnicities and genres and a challenge to the expectations of what a concert is supposed to be.

Live:Takacs, Muzsikas, Sebestyen and Bartok

By Don Heckman

Bela Bartok was an ethnomusicologist before the term was invented.  His early 20^th century recordings of Magyar folk music are among the first actual documentation of the Asian origins of Eastern European folk music.  Equally important, the material he heard and gathered had a profound impact upon his own compositions, transforming his style from late Romanticism to a unique synthesis of folk elements – especially rhythmically – and the rapidly emerging modernism of the 20^th century.

Takacs String Quartet

All these factors were on full display Friday night in the UCLA Live presentation of the Takács String Quartet, the Muzsikás folk music ensemble and singer Márta Sebestyén at Royce Hall.  The highly imaginative goal of the program was to illustrate — in living, full color fashion — the manner in which Bartok found common cause with Magyar folk music.  And the results were as entertaining as they were informative.

The program’s first half began with several traditional pieces from Muzsikás – including a Transylvanian dance and a Transdanubian ugros and fast csardas.  Sebestyén made her first appearance singing a flute melody with long flute player Peter Eri, displaying the penetrating, emotionally-edged sound that is at the heart of her singing.

Marta Sebestyen and Muzsikas

But the centerpiece of the opening section was a shimmering rendering of Bartok’s String Quartet No. 4, a piece whose folk-derived elements provide a constant subtext to confident, sometimes aggressively dissonant modernism. Along with the String Quartet No. 3, it is among his most technically adventurous works, demanding that the players explore every aspect of their instruments, with movement No. 4’s Allegretto Pizzicato a stunning combination of digital virtuosity at the service of an irresistible musical flow.

The second half of the program dealt more directly with Bartok’s folk music associations by actually blending traditional pieces from Muzsikás and Sebestyén with Bartok’s Violin Duos, Sonatina on Themes From Transylvania and Rumanian Folk Dances. The Sonatina and the Violin Duos were introduced with transcriptions of folk music recorded by Bartok.

The synchronicity was fascinating, especially in passages such as the Violin Duo No. 44, in which the Takács Quartet’s violinist Károly Schranz performed with Mihály Sipos, one of Muzsikás’ violinists.  Sebestyén’s solo vocal version of bagpipes – intriguing on its own – provided a fascinating contrast to the Takács Quartet’s reading of Bartok’s Bagpipers (from the Sonatina). And the frequent interplay between the ensembles – in which one or another player from the Takács Quartet would suddenly turn up with Muzsicás (and vice versa) was a constant highlight of the set.  The final, buoyant individual segments of the Rumanian Folk Dances added a convincing coda to the evening’s compelling account of Bartok’s creative romance with his homeland’s ethnic musical roots.  UCLA Live’s productions are always beguiling, but Artistic Director David Sefton outdid himself with this extraordinary program.

Live: Global Drum Project

By Don Heckman

At first glance, the drum-filled stage at Royce Hall Thursday night for UCLA Live’s presentation of the Global Drum Project appeared to suggest an evening with limited musical potential. Yes, the Project featured Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, Giovanni Hidalgo and Sikiru Adepoju — percussion masters from very different global cultures.  But a ninety minute, non-stop set of drumming?

For ten minutes or so, my initial observation – much as I’d hoped it would be wrong – pretty much held true.  Opening with loops of bird calls, voices and a few pitched instrumental sounds, the four drummers worked and reworked an ordinary back-beat rhythm.  Played well, to be sure, but not in a way that revealed the sort of illuminations one might have hoped for from a band of extraordinary international artists.

Matters improved dramatically when the meter switched to a swifter pulse, led by the dundun (talking drum) playing of Adepoju.  But the real highlights of the concert were largely generated by individual soloing – especially from Hussain and Hidalgo.

Zakir Hussain

Hussain’s mastery of classical Indian tabla playing is a given, but he is also enormously adept with Western rhythms as well as stick and mallet drumming.  Each of his solos was a simmering stew of sounds and style, always driven with a powerful inner propulsion.  And the passage in which he dug into the vocal solfege of Indian drumming, with all the swing and alacrity of Jon Hendricks doing a scat improvisation, was a moment in which the “Global” description of the program was right on target.

Hidalgo’s versatile performance, especially when he was bringing his large battery of conga drums to life, provided another authentication of the evening’s goal. Blessed with astonishing speed and articulateness, he applied both qualities to one startling solo after another.

Hart’s dedication to the universality of drumming was present throughout.  Without his willingness to use his pop world visibility in the support of  projects such as this, they would never take place.  So give him credit for transforming what initially seemed to be a potentially monochromatic evening into an entertaining  showcase for world class drumming.

Live: A Celebration of Rumi — The Sights and Sounds of Mystic Persia

By Don Heckman

Poetry has been an essential element in Persian/Iranian culture for eons, a refuge in times of stress, a joy in periods of plenty.  In turn, the music of that rich society has been almost inseparably linked to the poetry, producing stunning combinations of lyrical imagery and emotionally dense melody.

Surveying the creative product of a culture this rich, this overflowing with imaginative historical development, would be impossible in a single concert.

Kayhan Kalhor and the Silk Road Ensemble

But the “Celebration of Rumi” at the Hollywood Bowl Saturday night, curated by the gifted master of the kumancheh, Kayhan Kalhor, made an impressive effort to open the ornate portals into this extraordinary artistic heritage.

The program ranged far and wide, beginning appropriately with a program of mystical Sufi songs performed by vocalist and dotar player Nour-Mohammad Dorpour.  The mood he created, solely with his passionately intense singing and hypnotically rhythmic accompaniment on the lute-like dotar, was extraordinary.  Undoubtedly it had an even greater impact upon those listeners who understood Farsi.  But by any definition, it was a performance that transcended the specifics of language, allowing the spiritual poetry to come to life as sound and rhythm.

The program of the Qaderi Dervishes — a five member ensemble of Sufis from Kurdistan — was a stunning display of trance music.  Both musically, via mesmerizing melodic and rhythmic repetition, and visually, via physical movements involving hurling their long hair back and forth, they attempted to invoke the ecstatic state of enlightenment that is one of their essential goals.  It was a little difficult to bring off in the clearly secular setting of the Hollywood Bowl, however, for a crowd that became understandably restless halfway through the 30 minute presentation.

The Whirling Dervishes, with their astonishing, feather-light spinning, are always among the most visually compelling elements of Persian music concerts, and this program was no exception.  Their offerings were made even more gripping by the versatile accompaniment of the Al-KIndi Ensemble and the stunning vocals of Sheikh Hamza Chakour.

Most of the evening’s second half was devoted to a pair of splendid ensembles.  The first featured the beautifully integrated playing of Kalhor’s group, which showcased the astonishingly virtuosic singing of Hamid Reza Nourbakhsh.  The second — the marquee act of the program — was Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.  Performing a new composition by Kalhor, the Ensemble further secured their justly earned reputation as one of the most convincing interpreters of music from across the globe.

The program also included simultaneous Persian calligraphy, created by artist Ostad Yadollah Kaboli, and projected on video screens.   And, perhaps best of all, there were the spoken Rumi poems, expressed in Farsi by Iraj Gorgin and — in the concert’s most enraptured moments — told passionately in English by the superb, Academy Award-nominated (for “House of Sand and Fog”) Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Live: Bossa Goes Gold

By Don Heckman

Bossa nova at the half century mark?  Can it really be true?  The floating, rhythmic swing that Joao Gilberto extracted from Brazil’s visceral samba rhythms, and mixed with the soaring melodies and colorful harmonies of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s songs – fifty years old?

But it is true.  The sound that seemed nothing more than the off-center, but amiable product of some hip, beachfront exchanges between jazz-influenced Brazilian players is now celebrating its golden anniversary.  And the Hollywood Bowl acknowledged it Wednesday night with a lavish display of the music’s far reaching influence.  Leading the way, guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, who was a teen-age participant in those innovative Ipanema days, assembled a program encompassing bossa nova’s capacity for seamless relationships with jazz, pop, classical and beyond.

Castro-Neves opened with an intimate rendering of the song that started it all, “Chega de Saudade” (known in the English language version as “No More Blues”), singing and playing guitar, immediately conjuring up bossa nova’s extraordinary blend of romance and rhythm.

Bossa Nova Stories

Jazz pianist and singer Eliane Elias added new qualities — the urban intensity of her native Sao Paulo, her honey and whiskey vocals, and her inventive improvisations – to a trio of tunes reaching well beyond the orbit of bossa nova: the jaunty “Chiclete com Banana,” the Walter Wanderly hit from the ‘70s, “So Nice (Summer Samba)” and Dorival Caymmi’s briskly swinging “Doralice.”

Saudades de Casa

The irrepressible Ivan Lins brought his own musical sophistication to the mix. Although he played acoustic piano rather than the keyboard synth that is so directly associated with his inimitable sound, he was, as always, an utterly convincing musical spokesperson for the subtleties of the Brazilian music that has flowed from the bossa nova wellspring.  “Comecar de Nova” was offered in classic fashion; less familiar, but equally compelling, he sang his own “Desesperar Jamais” and “Lua Soberana.”

Yet another slant on the five decade influence of bossa nova on Brazil’s musical artist was apparent in the presence of Maria Rita, singing “Corcovado” with a feel for phrasing reminiscent of her mother, legendary singer Elis Regina.

Three other participants in this fully packed musical evening were not Brazilian, but their presence added an appropriately eclectic touch to the evening.  Soprano Marisol Montalvo found dramatic qualities in Castro-Neves’ “Onde Esta Voce”; pop star Kenny Rankin applied his relaxed touch to “Desafinado” and “The Girl From Ipanema”; and Polish singer Anna Maria Jopek offered a very different slant to Baden Powell’s “Apelo.”

Arranger/conductor Vince Mendoza led a 40 piece orchestra in several atmospheric settings, and the singers were well served by the all-star backing of pianist Don Grusin, bassist Brian Bromberg, violinist Charlie Bisharat, saxophonist Gary Meek and drummer Alex Acuna.

No, it wasn’t all bossa nova, but it was all good.  By evening’s end, the influence of this beach-inspired music – even beyond the obvious impact of Gilberto and Jobim – was apparent.  As was the feeling that the bossa nova caravan still has many miles to travel.