Monday, June 18, 2012

Sandeep Das with Matt Small and the Crushing Spiral Ensemble; ODC/Dance Commons, SF, CA 6/17/2012

Humorous, talented bass player Matt Small assembled a great band around tabla master Sandeep Das.
Disaster Amnesiac was glad to be in attendance at the beautiful ODC/Dance Commons building in San Francisco's Mission district.
Small and Das' compositions fused Jazz and traditional music from Eastern Europe and India (and that's just scratching the surface) to make for sublime musical mixtures. The horn section, made up of Steve Adams (saxes and flute), Chris Grady (trumpet), and Sheldon Brown (saxes and clarinet), added great accents and even greater solos. This was especially the case for Brown; the man is on fire these days. Pianist Kymry Esainko, along with subtle accompaniment, played a fine solo piece. Das's solo tabla piece, paired with an exposition of Indian rhythmic tal, was fiery and impressive.
The chemistry between Small and Das was clearly evident, and the two seemed to have had a great time leading the band through the complexities of their compositions. Truly a world-class musical event!





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