REVIEW: YO YO MA & THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE
ROY THOMSON HALL, TORONTO, MARCH 20
ROY THOMSON HALL, TORONTO, MARCH 20
It's Chinese, Japanese, Central Asian, Indian, Persian, Arabian. It's jazz, classical, avant-garde, gypsy and "world". And it's definitely exotic.
The Silk Road Ensemble ended its latest world tour on Friday night with a stunning performance in Toronto.
This is a band with a wide circle of members - 41 in all - who come from locales as far-flung as Canada, Iran, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Switzerland and places in between. What they bring to the group are their combined cultural and musical influences. You rarely, if ever, see the entire ensemble playing at the same time. In the Toronto show, there were a dozen members.
The concert opened with a duet of simple beauty involving a shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute played by Kojiro Umezaki, and a bawu, a Chinese reed flute played by the incomparable Wu Tong. They strolled down the aisles from the back of the auditorium trading passages until they reached the stage. Then the ensemble went into a medley of sweeping musical vision comprising pieces by Iranian, Chinese, Lebanese and American composers.
The renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma is the artistic director of this group. Interestingly, he was about the only musician who did not take a solo, which may have disappointed some. But I saw that as a calculated move. Ma, of all these musicians, is the one true international star. He prevented his stature from overshadowing the others by keeping himself strictly in the role of band member.
Not that there was any shortage of musical virtuosity on the stage. The two violinists, the viola player and the percussionists
(especially Joseph Gramley) delivered brilliant performances.
The set part of the evening ended with a Persian number. Colin Jacobson, one of the violinists, introduced it by telling the audience that whenever the ensemble plays in the home town of a member, they always go to that person's house. He was lucky enough, he said, to go to Iran recently, so he dropped in on one of the ensemble's Iranian members. They listened "to Bach, Radiohead and traditional Persian folk tunes". Jacobson adapted one of those Persian songs for the group. His anecdote struck me because it illustrated the range of musical interests these players have.
There followed three encores, of which the last burned down the house. It featured the delightful, impish Wu Tong on the sheng. It
consists of a brass blowpipe which curves out of the instrument and up. The rest of the instrument is a vertical stack of at least 17 bamboo or metal pipes emerging from a base. Each pipe has a hole covered by a metal tongue, which interrupts the air flow from the player blowing into the instrument. It sounds like a combination harmonica and accordion.
Wu's performance was dazzling, ranging from a Chinese musical style,
to a jazz-inspired call and response with one of the percussionists, to a rocked-out frenzy that sounded like it was coming from a Louisiana Zydeco road house. The audience can rest content that they witnessed a virtuoso performance by maybe the greatest sheng player in the world.
This band is not only inventive, it knows how to have fun.
The Silk Road's recorded albums offer engaging listening but they don't quite communicate the infectious, brilliant, imaginative and exuberant musicianship the band shows live. If you ever have a chance to see them perform, jump at it. You'll never see anything quite like it.
I feel like I've had my brain washed, aired out and massaged.
The Silk Road Ensemble ended its latest world tour on Friday night with a stunning performance in Toronto.
This is a band with a wide circle of members - 41 in all - who come from locales as far-flung as Canada, Iran, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Switzerland and places in between. What they bring to the group are their combined cultural and musical influences. You rarely, if ever, see the entire ensemble playing at the same time. In the Toronto show, there were a dozen members.
The concert opened with a duet of simple beauty involving a shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute played by Kojiro Umezaki, and a bawu, a Chinese reed flute played by the incomparable Wu Tong. They strolled down the aisles from the back of the auditorium trading passages until they reached the stage. Then the ensemble went into a medley of sweeping musical vision comprising pieces by Iranian, Chinese, Lebanese and American composers.
Not that there was any shortage of musical virtuosity on the stage. The two violinists, the viola player and the percussionists
The set part of the evening ended with a Persian number. Colin Jacobson, one of the violinists, introduced it by telling the audience that whenever the ensemble plays in the home town of a member, they always go to that person's house. He was lucky enough, he said, to go to Iran recently, so he dropped in on one of the ensemble's Iranian members. They listened "to Bach, Radiohead and traditional Persian folk tunes". Jacobson adapted one of those Persian songs for the group. His anecdote struck me because it illustrated the range of musical interests these players have.
There followed three encores, of which the last burned down the house. It featured the delightful, impish Wu Tong on the sheng. It
Wu's performance was dazzling, ranging from a Chinese musical style,
This band is not only inventive, it knows how to have fun.
The Silk Road's recorded albums offer engaging listening but they don't quite communicate the infectious, brilliant, imaginative and exuberant musicianship the band shows live. If you ever have a chance to see them perform, jump at it. You'll never see anything quite like it.
I feel like I've had my brain washed, aired out and massaged.
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