What A Gas

Saturday night, the small Gerrard Art Space hosted an evening of Indian music. The room was packed with around 50 people, leading to a slow increase in the room temperature to the point where someone wryly noted that it almost felt like being in India. Though only a handful were ethnically South Asians, numerous people wore traditional Indian garbs.

The music was equally hot. There were 3 acts scheduled, but they flowed from one to another instead of 3 separate sets. First up was Ed Hanley (Autorickshaw) and Chris Hale. Hanley was a dynamo on the tabla throughout the evening, keeping complex rhythms to unusual Indian time signatures, and bursting into furious solos. Hale's work on the sitar was more sedate, though he did also engage in extended riffs and solos. Near the end of the first half, they were joined by Suba Sankaran and Dylan Bell, both of Autorickshaw, for some traditional Indian songs and two Bollywood numbers: Silsila Ye Chaahat Ka (Lamp of Love) from Devdas and 80s classic Kabhi Kabhi (Sometimes, Sometimes).

After a short break, Sankaran and Bell as Freeplay Duo sang more familiar Western songs a cappella-style with a looping station to help layer multiple voice tracks. Though they started with a technical Bach adagio, Sankofa (Cassandra Wilson), Butterfly (Michael Jackson), and Fireflies (Owl City) were catchy hits. Hanley then joined them as Autorickshaw, an Indo-Jazz trio. With Bell providing virtuoso electric bass playing and some vocal percussions and Hanley on tabla, Sankaran sang and scat her way through interesting arrangements of Bird on a Wire (Leonard Cohen), Me and Julio (Paul Simon), an Indian folk song called Snake Charmer, and the Jazz classic Caravan. The Indo-Jazz compositions were at once familiar, strange, and exhilarating.

Most of the audience had never heard these performers. So reactions afterwards were incredulity at their talent and skill. The most commonly heard phrase was variations of "I didn't know that was humanly possible."