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Looper's Delight
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I just got back from a concert featuring: Hariprasad Chauraisa - bansuri (Indian bamboo flute) Egberto Gismonti - piano, 10- and 14-string guitars Vijay Ghate - tabla Siva Mani - assorted percussion First up was the trio of Chauraisa, Ghate, and Mani performing Indian classical music. Chauraisa chose a raag that is common to both North and South Indian traditions, with Ghate coming from the North and Mani from the South. Mani's setup looks a lot like Trilok Gurtu's and uses a lot of the same instruments that Gurtu is known for (Gurtu's snare drum designed to sit on the floor, Gurtu's tom set mounted in a somewhat triangular frame, Gurtu's spring drums for sound effects, a bucket of water for dipping a gong, etc). It could be that like Gurtu, he prefers to play sitting on a rug instead of on a drum throne. However, he also uses other percussion instruments such as a monstrous bass drum and an udu. I don't know much about his background, but I got the impression he has training in Indian classical music - he was always right in sync with Ghate and Chauraisa even through all the precisely timed stops and starts and intricate rhythms that Indian classical is known for. He made his unique array of instruments fit into the classical context. Then Gismonti did a solo set. Then the four played together. They were really having a lot of fun, which showed in the interplay, particularly with lots of call-response between bansuri and piano and between tabla and multi-percussion. Now for the looping part. Towards the end of the show, Mani was given the green light to cut loose with an impresive display of humor-laced theatrics and sheer virtuosic musicianship. There were several places during his solo that he looped a phrase and played on top of it. I understand these guys are touring. They're definitely worth seeing live. Paolo _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.