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Date 3 July 2005 at 21.00 Venue Performance Works on Granville Island

Reviewer Kulpreet Sasan

REZ ABBASI'S SNAKE CHARMER

 


Vancouver International Jazz Festival 2005
During the first two numbers, Rez Abbasi’s Snake Charmer was possibly the most dull and conventional Jazz trio at this year’s TD Canada Trust Vancouver International Jazz Festival. This may seem like a strange statement considering how much press has been given to Abbasi’s attempts to blend Eastern and Western traditions and his use of Kiran Ahluwahlia to add northern Indian folk and classical lyrical inflections to his songs. But beneath his classical tonality and his players’ use of Indian approach to instrumentation, there seemed something very conventionally jazzy about the music Snake Charmer was producing, and not even good jazz, the kind of cluttered, tonally concerned, self-indulgent technique-obsessed jazz, that only other jazz players seem to admire.

The first song sounded like the works of many a high school jazz band trying to learn improvisation. There was an endless amount of overplaying the guitar, and “isn’t this keen” rhythms work. This initial nuisance became an unbearable irritant on the second track, “Pearl,” dedicated to the memory of American journalist Daniel Pearl, killed in Abbasi’s birthplace of Karachi. On a song that was meant to be an eulogy and deal with circumspect emotions of the composer, all that could be heard was melodic improvisation exercises, that created too much of a show piece aspect to ever be haunting.

The addition of Kiran Ahluwahlia’s subtle and haunting Indian folk music accents only worked to create distance between the intended design and the performance. At best the two elements didn’t seem to blend, and the juxtaposition seemed like a tacky addition added on for novelty’s sake. The two modes of music didn’t seem to know how to play with each other.

Kiran’s voice is a subtle and versatile instrument, able to communicate a variety of tones and emotions, without a note of artificiality. It is self-contained perfection and made all the other instrumentations seem unnecessary. You could imagine the notes of a eulogy stretched out with that voice and how much more effective it would have been with the other instruments playing less, instead of trying to clutter the sound.

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All in all, I was preparing myself for a rather disappointing evening when something strange happened. Kiran left the stage, the band reverted to three pieces and began turning out truly beautifully blended jams. Gary Versace on the organ tried to use his instrument as a substitute for an Indian harmonium and at times achieved this effect. Dan Weiss on drums created amazing rhythms and had a variety of sounds that effectively emphasized a successful blend of East and West. On his drum kit he created many a poly-rhythm not likely to be observed outside a Ravi Shankar concert. And Abbasi’s guitar’s tone became warmer and cleaner.

Rez Abassi
Rez Abassi

After the intermission when Kiran rejoined the band, none of the original dissonance seemed on display. The two worlds blended eloquently and created some very haunting and memorable moments. The instrumentation stood with the Kiran’s voice and phrasing, and worked together to create a greater whole. Abbasi’s guitar playing was on the spot: parts laid back, part brilliant and part inspired, yet always appropriate.

The band had found its groove: they were sensitive each other, communicated well, and played to strengths, making each track more memorable than the last. By the end of the evening Snake Charmer had done the impossible, having made this fusion of classical Indian music and jazz seamless. Banished was the sense of exotic, and Indian inflections had been brought into mainstream of jazz sounds.

© 2005 Kulpreet Sasan


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