Yesterday afternoon Old First Concerts (O1C) presented a second program inspired by Indian Classical sources, this time from South India. As was the case on Friday evening, a percussionist, Rohan Krishnamurthy, accompanied an instrumental soloist, performing, this time, on what appeared to be a member of the dhol family. However, he also had a basic jazz drum kit at his disposal.
The “solo” instrument, however, was far from traditional. Vishnu R played an instrument of his own invention called a NAVTAR. This appears to have been a product of cross-breeding a guitar with a sitar. The motivation behind this instrument appeared to be a desire to play both traditional South Indian Classical music and other genres, such as jazz and traditional Spanish music. To some extent the instrument reminded me of the old joke that a camel was a horse designed by a committee.
Vishnu had a lot to say about his instrument. Unfortunately, the microphone he used did not register much audibility at any site attending this concert through streaming. Ironically, when Krishnamurthy spoke from his drum kit without using any microphone, he was clearly audible, as was Vishnu on the one occasion that he forgot to use that microphone.
Sadly, these technical difficulties undermined the performance, as did the absence of the usual PDF of the program book available for download at just about all other O1C offerings. Had the music had the strength to speak for itself, one could have benefitted from the performance without the support of any background material. However, the musicians seemed to be far more self-absorbed than the North Indian duo that played on Friday. My guess is that the disappointments of yesterday afternoon had more to do with the performers failing to work effectively with the O1C technical support than with any of the problems that technical support team had encountered.
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