Renowned saxophonist and composer Sandy Evans AO was the musical director and a key performer. She led the 17-piece Sirens Big Band powerhouse (an all-female/non-binary big band comprising piano, double bass, drums, percussion and 13 brass) plus internationally renowned Indian singer Shubha Mudgal, dynamic tabla players Aneesh Pradhan (India) and Bobby Singh (Australia), and harmonium virtuoso Subhir Nayak.
Fusion music is a broad church with numerous intriguing forms. Jazz rock, for instance, is a well-known one, with rock and roll itself already a merging of gospel, blues, soul, R&B and country. Of course, there have been many other marriages blending African, Cuban, and South American music.
Indian music has more recently been drawn into the western mix by musicians and composers. The 1960s arguably saw The Beatles opening that door internationally, while artists like the Mahavishnu Orchestra extended the possibilities. Locally in the 1980s, Adelaide blues guitarist Chris Finnen worked with singer Dyah Singh in the Indo-fusion band Indian Pacific. Guitarist Derek Trucks, who appeared in Adelaide’s first Guitar Festival (2008), is also a brilliant exponent.
The concert started with a celebration of northern Indian folk songs arranged by Sandy Evans. The soft strains of the harmonium introduced the traditional tabla hand drums and then a vocal interlude before the Sirens offered a brief surge of brass. After a lull, a raindrop tinkling of piano ushered in a saxophone solo before three trombones stepped forward in unison. It was a brilliant beginning — complex, tight, and representative of what was to follow.
Fascinating textures unfolded in ‘Beam Arch Suspension’, a piece Evans devised to interpret three different kinds of bridges. Once again, various elements of the ensemble got to flex their stuff. The sweet-sounding harmonium overlaid some reserved tabla playing, which was displaced, in turn, by cowbell, bass and trumpet. Spare and measured piano playing provided a framework for an eventually soaring vocal that trailed away, allowing Jessica Dunn on double bass a solo spotlight until she engaged in lively musical conversation with the ever-smiling Ali Foster on drums. That virtuoso jazzy duet relaxed into a regular beat summoning the whole band and then graduated into an uplifting finale.
The underpinning beat of the tablas was often an irresistible engine in the concert, embellished by the inflections of the big band, especially the horns. Evans’s own playing frequently added honeyed tones such as with its call and response to Mudgal’s vocals in ‘Dharti Ke Darbar’.
There were very satisfying variations and frequent surprises. ‘Tabla Spiral’ involved Pradhan and Singh in a vocal version of their drumming. The piano piece ‘Gratitude’ contained beautiful variations in tempo. ‘Deepening of the Red Sun’ elicited nods and smiles between the players, while the punchy ‘Arms of Imagination’, with its irresistible big beat, made it hard to imagine these two key cultural forces in music ever being let drift apart.
Get InReview in your inbox – free each Saturday. Local arts and culture – covered.
Thanks for signing up to the InReview newsletter.
A short encore that allowed most of the performers to strut their skills individually was rewarded with a standing ovation.
Bridge of Dreams was a brilliant demonstration of the beauty of a meeting between mainly Hindustani and exhilarating big band music. It was a feast; a work of joy.
Bridge of Dreams played at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Thursday October 27.
Support local arts journalism
Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia.
Donate Here
