Brief description of what I remember, before I forget.
Night of the Fireflies
We reached only when Shabnam Virmani was saying her thanks, and telling people to come for the Kabir festival organized by Srishti (perfect timing). Following her was Prakash Sontakke and Group. The fireflies poster slates them as Hawaiian folk fusion. Now Prakash Sontakke was playing an electric slide guitar. His sounds were very Jeff Beck Space Blues (Angel and Deccan from Jeff Beck, Who Else?) Obviously, there was a nice Hindustani classical touch that affected his sitar sound hawaiian guitar, especially in the song like Himalayan Spring. But the defining and most enjoyable moment while watching Prakash Sontakke and group, was watching the group jugalbandi. All four percussionists were astounding. Rating: 1. Guy on little drum 2. Guy on mrindagam 3/4. Table/Drums. Prakash was cool.. but more like a father figure/mentor. Guy on the keys was also cool accompaniest.
Followed by Jazz dude. Came in a breeze…like a summer breeze.. left like a summer breeze. guy was good, played tight. only bass was inaudible, and dint add that spunk it shud hv. the drums were good, but the snare had a harsh metallic sound. i’m not a huge fan of fast jazz, so didn’t care too much for the first two songs. the last song, how insensitive (and how beautiful you are???) was cool. slower pace, the drums did their thing, much better.
Followed by Swaratma. Wat can i say? Afro’s with pajamas, purple shirt, bald head, yellow army pajamas wiht a violin, guitarist iwth leather pants, bassist in a blue dhoti purple kurta, mrindagist in nehru topi lookin like ambedkar with his chashma. any band that gives in so much for the show-sharaaba is one thing. an entertainer. entertain they did. crowds loved them. singer comes in as a horse! .. shaank in their songs. fire throwers come on stage. its all about show.
the music wasn’t spectacular. it was tight. the guitarist had flow (but looked completley out of place from the rest of the band in his attire n behavoiur). the bassist played the comic fool while the singer sang out kabir. that was one song that worked. reggae version of sant kabir. wah. and bringing in lines like ‘sant kabir, agar abhi aaya, to 500 varsh mein koi fark nahi dikha. 500 saal pehle duryodhan drupadhi ke vastra nikalta tha. aaj hamari rama sena mangalore mein ladki ko chedh rahi hain hindustani sanskriti ke naam pe.’ .. wah . crowds loved it.
the songs .. khol sim sim re.. flat . starts of with a tribal instrument. which is cool. put just cos you have it doesn’t mean you have to play it.. or you realy know how to play it. it needs a little mroe skill before you start diong jugalbandi.
what really fell flat was their jugalbandi between mridanga, singer with tribal instrument and drums. perhaps because it followed prakash solanktee’s group which kicked ass.
music didn’t have much depth to it. pretty much stuck to one riff pattern. not much layering. singer started off weak, grew as the performance went by. struggled slightly on the higher notes, but their stage presence and enthusiasm – hats off! wonderful!
Follwed by what the MC said ‘lets bring it down a notch” .. kannada folk music. they kicked ass too.
then came
order
shabnam virmani
prakash sontankee
jazz – rex rossario n quintet??
swaratma
kannada folk – veeraghese
gustav marin
accapella – solviteur canedo
kerela – vayali
qawaali – shahid parvez of nagpur
geeta navale n the esperanto project
missed… bhumi thayi balaga, anasuya kulkarni n ranjankumar group
