Monday, May 9, 2005

Friends invited us Saturday to a concert at the Painted Bride by the Dakshina Ensemble, led by Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto sax) with Kadri Gopalnath (alto sax) and a gifted ensemble of musicians: Kanya Kumari (violin), Rez Abassi (guitar/sitar), Carlo de Rosa (acoustic bass), Gautam Siram (mrdangam), Eliot Humberto Kavee (drums). Free jazz and South Indian Carnatic music danced around each other, collided, merged, rose on each other to states way beyond our expectations. It was in turns mesmeric, playful, dense, almost painfully intense. We could not stop talking about the concert yesterday, or today. They plan to do a live recording. Get it when it comes out. But the direct experience will always be something else. The best live jazz I've been to in a long, long time. Maybe because the musicians were new to me, maybe because of the total immersion it induced, it stands out relative even to two excellent Dave Holland sessions at the same venue. 10:26:09 PM