I had just finished listening to Jacob Collier improvise with the National Symphony Orchestra, when YouTube presented me with another video before I could stop it from doing so. This is what it gave me:
That it involves Jacob Collier makes sense, since I’d just listened to a Jacob Collier video. But the other two musicians were ... intriguing. I’d heard of Anoushka Shankar (sitar), daughter of Ravi Shankar, but I’d never heard her play. And Varijashree Venugopal (vocal), she was a surprise. Why? Because I’d just listened to her singing John Coltrane tenor sax solos, which she did, apparently, to become more familiar with jazz. The solos? "Giant Steps" and "Countdown". Those are very difficult, and to sing them, astonishing! Is the YouTube algorithm that subtle?
Anyhow, this is an interesting trio. Shankar and Venugopal are Indian and Indian music has pitches that don’t exist in the diatonic music of the West. These microtones are obvious in the melodies they play and sing. Collier was playing that piano, a diatonic instrument that is made in such a way that you can’t get microtones from it. He also sang. His finely tuned ears allow him to sing anything, though to my ear is singing was almost entirely diatonic, but worked against microtones from Shankar and Venugopal.
Listen to the unison between Collier and Shankar at 6:39, Collier and Venugopal at 6:47, quickly joined by Shankar, and then Shankar and Venugopal in unison at 6:59, to call-and-response between them starting at 7:03 (Collier supporting with simple chords). Look at Collier’s smile. Me? I’m laughing. This is so much fun! Climax at 7:48, Collier on rippling chords, Venugopal flying. Then we drop down to Collier’s vocal (8:02). Some quiet gentle call and response among them takes us to a tranquil ending (9:54).
We’ve come a long way from Kipling’s “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet” (1889).
Very far indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment