Recently, a super group of exceptional musicians leading different bands were brought into the country by the Swarnabhoomi Academy as faculty and later to tour a few cities with a performance. In Bangalore, they found themselves entertaining the Jazz theatre at Windmills Craftworks.
The line up consists of Jake Hertzog on guitar, Dario Boente on keyboard, Andres Rormistrovsky on bass and Jovol “bam bam” Bell on drums. From the start, they each establish the highest mastery over their respective instruments. Even when they get unruly and loud, it’s a trained unruliness with a perfect coating of translucent noise such that it never intrudes. A keyboard solo leads to a guitar solo that’s followed by a drum solo. The claps halt when the drum solo picks up again from where it seemed to have ended.
“Wow, I see a full house. Thank you for having made it. We
have a lot of surprises lined up for you,” says Boente. Everyone in the band
except Bell have their eyes peeled on sheet music as they run through the theme
melody. Bell, though confirmed to be human, is what you would imagine from a
groove machine, switching styles and moods with amazing dexterity and ease. On
‘Suite No. 2,’ Hertzog stuns everyone with a show of remarkable virtuosity. The
song ends with a swelling of sound and peaks with fanfare, but its lost on the
crowd who are at this instant lost to their tables. Hertzog’s ‘Common Ground’ is
a saccharine soft rock piece, withdrawn like a background score, which they
carry through with such perfection that you couldn’t help but wonder at how
powerful is elevator music.
It’s finally time to call the special guest on stage, Jordan’s musical Ambassadress, Farah Siraj. The band swiftly alters its style to support a Middle Eastern tune, electric guitar gets replaced by a Spanish guitar and drums turning minimal, while Farah sings with gesture and sway to complement her song. She now gets to work on the audience by splitting them down the middle into two groups and teaching each a variation of a flamenco clap. When both groups are ready she gets them clapping in sync and they love it. “In Spain, when we like something, we say ‘ole,’” and the crowd shouts in delight, “Ole!” With all attention focused on her, Farah sings ‘Laila,’ her popular revival of an old Arabic piece, accompanied by Andres on Bass. It’s an almost devotional love song whose words translate “If I had one night left on Earth, I’d spend it with you.”
It’s finally time to call the special guest on stage, Jordan’s musical Ambassadress, Farah Siraj. The band swiftly alters its style to support a Middle Eastern tune, electric guitar gets replaced by a Spanish guitar and drums turning minimal, while Farah sings with gesture and sway to complement her song. She now gets to work on the audience by splitting them down the middle into two groups and teaching each a variation of a flamenco clap. When both groups are ready she gets them clapping in sync and they love it. “In Spain, when we like something, we say ‘ole,’” and the crowd shouts in delight, “Ole!” With all attention focused on her, Farah sings ‘Laila,’ her popular revival of an old Arabic piece, accompanied by Andres on Bass. It’s an almost devotional love song whose words translate “If I had one night left on Earth, I’d spend it with you.”
The band steps back in with an instrumental piece to shake
up the softened house, Hertzog’s “Gloria,” a bi-polar track that picks up with
a rocky riff before it dissolves into a soft jazz reverie. Hertzog accompanies
Farah on Ray Charles’ ‘You Don’t Know Me,’ before everyone steps in for another
of Farah’s originals, a song about a gypsy. The great tenor saxophonist Sonny
Rollins describes jazz as an improvisational umbrella sheltering all forms of
music, an adaptable grammar worthy of a truly universal language. By the end of
the night, time has slipped pleasantly away leaving the mind brimming with a
world full of wordless ideas.
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