PREVIEW
SHANKAR & ZAKIR HUSSAIN
Wednesday, October 17
Jack Singer Concert Hall (CPA)
Indian innovators
Shankar and Zakir Hussain
Shankar is one innovative and eclectic dude. He has sold 10 million albums worldwide in three projects (world music, pop and Indian classical music) that he operates simultaneously. He plays a rare instrument called the double violin – only two of its kind exist – and he sings over a five-octave range in a compelling style of wordless vocals, as striking for its accuracy of pitch inflections as it is soothing to one's inner savage beast.
Shankar and tabla master Zakir Hussain will perform as part of the World Music series that kicked off at the Centre for Performing Arts two weeks ago with the amazing and fiery Angélique Kidjo. The Centre's programmer, John Rutherford says that the venue was looking to add another series to complement its other programming.
"World music, with the popularity of a lot of global rhythms and music from different cultures, seems to be a popular notion, so we thought that we could add to the array of world music presentations that take place throughout the year at the folk festival and the Afrikadey festival."
Shankar and his female pop duo partner, Gingger, are the only musicians that have mastered Shankar’s unique double violin, the 10-string stereophonic instrument that he designed himself. The instrument covers the entire range of the orchestra's double bass, cello, viola and violin. Gingger will appear as a part of the ensemble in the Calgary performance.
Another collaborator on tour is T.H. Vikku Vinayakram, who is India's leading ghatam (clay pot) player – he has played alongside Shankar and Hussain in John McLaughlin's Shakti performances and was also co-composer in former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart's Planet Drum. Although he has most often been associated with South Indian musicians and that area's endemic Carnatic music, he has been involved in North India's Hindustani style of classical drumming as well.
The improvisation that is inherent to Indian music has surely been an asset to these four musicians in forging the various world fusions that they are involved in, projects that have seen collaborations with such diverse artists as George Harrison, Van Morrison, Frank Zappa, Peter Gabriel, Yoko Ono and Bruce Springsteen. |
