'Facing East' is the newest of fusion music in town. A six member fusion-band with master artistes like John Wubbenhorst, Dave Pietro and our own Subash Chandran, playing jazz and carnatic music instruments, took the Chennai music crowd on a yatra which was unique in many ways.

John Wubbenhorst took the bamboo flute and at times moved on to a brass one, though he did use his long bamboo quite a lot. Steve Zerlin, not only performed as an accompanying bass-guitarist, but also doubled as a lead guitarist using his bass. His undisputed 'jazz' mixed Indian classical music was so distinct that he was able to get himself noticed throughout.

T. H. Subash Chandran took the ghatam lead and also performed the traditional 'konnakol'. Very few performers are learning and also performing with the 'konnakol'. Contrary to fact this human voice based jati-rendering method does not fit well in any standard concert, but fusion concerts have a special place for this kind of art form. Subash, the younger brother of T. H. Vinayakaram (Vickku), has carved a niche for himself by performing this unique art form.

Sundip Burman, the tabla artiste, stole the limelight both during his accompaniments and also during solo chances. He did provide a fabulous support to the instrumentalists. One important point of this unique concert is the fact that the lead performers were all Americans or from the West, while the accompaniments and the percussionists were all Indians. Still, without any primary tinge of a 'western' flavor, they certainly blew up the air with a strong flavor of Swaras and Ragas rather than cliffs, neutrals and allegro.

The sax composer Dave Pietro's own compositions "Irish Raga', 'Facing East' and 'Phoenix Rising' were also performed. Pietro has to his credit more than a dozen Grammy Award nominations.

Special mention has to be made of an item that was based on the Hindustani Raga Jog. John Wubbenhorst explored this raga in depth on his long bamboo flute in the 'classical way'. Later, the sax artiste Dave Pietro took over this raga and explored rare 'jazz' oriented touches featured in this traditional raga. Steve Zerlin produced some stunning music with his Bass. Together they ended the item with a jugalbandi style of rendering and raised the crescendo to a stunning level.

N. Ganesh Kumar played the kanjira in this fusion concert. Our own Illayaraja, and his daughter Bavadharani attended the programme and Illayaraja honored the artistes. He said, 'I am enjoying this concert,' but ran out of words.

Arvind R Krishna
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