Gig review/ Kirk MacDonald - jazz



By Narendra Kusnur

 Concert: Generations Quartet
Artistes: Kirk MacDonald, Virginia MacDonald
Genre: Jazz
Details: Experimental Theatre, NCPA, March 8
Rating: ****
Barring a few instances, one hasn’t seen the clarinet played much too often in a jazz show in Mumbai. While old-timers would have heard records of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Jimmy Giuffre, one clarinettist one remembers watching live in the past two decades is the brilliant Eddie Daniels. More recently, Dallas Smith performed on flute and clarinet, but this blogger missed the gig.

Naturally, the combination of tenor saxophone and clarinet was the major attraction at Kirk MacDonald’s Generations Quartet show at NCPA’s Experimental Theatre on Sunday. With Canadian star MacDonald on saxophone and his 25-year-old daughter Virginia on clarinet, the mood was just right for a fabulous evening.

With the experienced Neil Swainson on double bass and the effervescent Morgan Childs on drums, the quartet played a mix of MacDonald-composed originals and popular old tunes. As a dedication to their tour of India, which also covered New Delhi, Jaipur and Pune, they chose to play saxophone legend John Coltrane’s ‘India’, which had in its original recording featured Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet.

The Coltrane influence was evident both in MacDonald's playing and composition style. Beginning with his original ‘Eleven’, the band moved on to the standard ‘The End Of A Love Affair’. While MacDonald displayed a warm tone and immaculate phrasing, Virginia showed wonderful control and improvisation.

A highlight was ‘Silent Voices’, an original dedicated to departed souls who have continued to influence us. A solemn drum beat was followed by simultaneous playing of the saxophone and clarinet, followed by a bass solo till the sax returned. After this beautifully rendered piece came the uptempo ‘You See What You Don't Hear’, a tongue-in-cheek take on those who watch music rather than listen to it.

Post-interval, MacDonald began with the standard ‘On Green Dolphin Street’. With its sheer energy and flexibility, ‘The Power Of Four’ saw remarkable contributions from all four members. The mellower ‘Shadows’ provided a contrast.

The quartet has been playing regularly for the past four or five years, and the understanding and coordination of the musicians was perfect, as they constantly gave room for each other. They were aided by flawless sound, and a knowledgeable audience which seemed involved with every nuance. And this is something one finds at more intimate venues like Experimental.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gig review/ Deep Purple in Bengaluru

Image
BY NARENDRA KUSNUR  Deep Purple at Bandland  Genre : Rock Details : Bandland rock festival, Embassy International Riding School, Bengaluru, December 17 Organisers : BookMyShow Live  Rating : **** 1/2 We all came out to Bandland, on a Bengaluru riding ground, to shoot videos on a mobile, yeah, capture the classic rock sound. Ian Gillan and the Purples, were at the best place around, space-truckin' on a black night, we danced on dusty ground.. singing, Smoke On The Water, drones in the sky, Smoke On The Water... taan taan taan, taan taan tadaan, taan taan tadaan, taan taan... Three days after British rockers Deep Purple enchanted the crowd at the Bandland rock festival in Bengaluru, the gooseflesh lingers like the whiff of cologne. For many, they have been college heroes, cocktail companions, the kings of melodic power, the epitome of hard rock. Older-generation fans or youngsters, they knew many of these songs by heart. Every word, every instrumental passage, every back-up vocal lin
Read more

Gig review/ Sting @ Lollapalooza

Image
BY NARENDRA KUSNUR   Sting @   Lollapalooza   Genre : Rock/ pop-rock Details : Mahalakshmi Race Course, Mumbai, January 28 Rating : **** You'll forget the sun in its jealous sky, as we walk on fields of gold... The sun had set a long ago, and the walk had been tiring and endless. But everything changed around 8.20 pm when Gordon Sumner aka Sting marched on to the Budweiser stage with a message in a bottle. For the next 85 minutes, every little thing the Englishman in Mumbai did was magic. The green carpet in front of the stage had been converted into fields of gold. The hardcore Sting fans should get those puns, and there were plenty of them who watched his concluding act at the two-day Lollapalooza music festival at the Mahalakshmi Race Course, Mumbai, on Sunday. Some had attended his shows abroad, some were seeing him for the first time, and others had been present at Mumbai's Rang Bhavan in 1980, when he played with his band The Police, or at the Amnesty International festiv
Read more

Gig review/ L. Shankar

Image
BY NARENDRA KUSNUR Artiste : L Shankar & Group Concert : Aditya Birla Group Masters of Music  Genre : Fusion/ Carnatic  Details : June 16, Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, Mumbai  Rating : ***** The sudden excitement was palpable when violinist L. Shankar announced that he and his group would play many Shakti tunes at Sunday's concert in Mumbai. He had already opened the evening with a dazzling rendition of Carnatic composer Muthuswamy Dikshitar's 'Vathapi Ganapathim', and if one thought he would focus on classical fare, that was not to be. Five of the remaining six pieces belonged to the repertoire of the original Shakti line-up, comprising him, guitarist John McLaughlin, tabla genius Zakir Hussain and ghatam maestro Vikku Vinayakram. Together, they had pioneered the Indo-jazz fusion sound in the 1970s, before going different paths over a decade later. Playing those old Shakti classics had a major issue though, at least for fans. They had originally been written for two mel
Read more