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| Sunday, 30 January 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Virtuosity on a high plane by Mahes Perera
Jazz with a serious intensity of musical virtuosity was displayed by the trio 'Red Zone' at their performance last Tuesday January 25 at the Lionel Went presented by the Geothe Institut. Led by guitarist Frank Moebus who performed in Sri Lanka with the acoustic bassist Carlos Bica's Azul, 'Red Zone' or to give the group its authentic German name 'Der Rote Bereich' was more avant garde in the expression of their music. The combination of the hard driving bass-clarinet blown by Rudi Mahall, the punkish rock laced with improvised abstraction mingled with many flashes of percussive sounds from the young drummer Oliver Bernd Steidle, with direction and control from Frank Moebus portrayed the upper plane that jazz has shifted to in the current scene in Germany.
Technique reigned high in most of the selection of tunes presented by Red Zone. The opener in swing shifted to the percussive creativity of the drummer before bass clarinet and guitar moved in to carry the piece onto an avant garde track. Masters of their craft the second piece 'Berlin' symbolised the aura of the town with hard sounding and driving experimental jazz, the drummer reaching out to keep the two instrumentalists together. However the tune from Carlos Bica's repertoire was quite the opposite. A Portuguese tune, it was soothing and melodic with Rudi Mahall's clarinet in the spotlight, haunting in its melodic expression, with the guitar of Frank Moebus in sympathetic support. If the audience came along to hear mainstream jazz this was not the evening for them. This evening of jazz from 'Red Zone' was an evening of technique and virtuosity that was triggered by the crusader German trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff in the past years. The music contained subtle rhythmic shifts, creative electronic expressions from the leader Frank Moebus. The surprise introduced by the Goethe Institut was the performance of fusion by pianist Harsha Makalanda and Khrome, comprising Ravi Bandu and Nesan Thiagarajan - Sri Lankan percussion and vocalese, Rukshan Perera - guitar and vocals, Timal Jayamanne - bass and Shiraaz Noor Amith - drums. 'Take Five' was the ideal vehicle for the fusion expression and for the exchanges which were carried off with aplomb by the musicians. 'Red Zone' then joined the Sri Lankan team, as announced by the Director of the Institute, for a jam that took the concert to a rousing finale. All proceeds from the concert is to be donated to the Tsunami Relief Fund. COUNTRY ROAD concert for displaced children Its back on the road again for the COUNTRY ROAD concert series presented by the Country Music Foundation (CMF) all for the sake of needy children in Sri Lanka. Top local and foreign entertainers will figure at COUNTRY ROAD Concert for Displaced Children to be held at the Mount Lavinia Hotel on Sunday, February 13.
Among the performers are the Cosmic Rays, Suresh, Flame and Mariazelle supported by Dirk Maverick & Wolfgang (the Mavericks duo from Germany) and Bob Livingston (US). World Bank Country Director, Sri Lanka, Peter Harrold and CARE Director Sri Lanka, Scott Faiia, who are incidentally good guitarist/singers, will also be performing for a good cause. Proceeds of the show will go towards a project for displaced children. The CMF is discussing some projects with UNICEF and other agencies and among some possibilities is to fund a primary health care centre focussing on providing trauma counselling to children and women among other needs.This is the CMFs 13 annual concert and follows last years event also held in February at the Taj Airport Gardens Hotel. Partners in the project are the Standard Chartered Bank (main sponsor), Mount Lavinia Hotel, UNICEF, Gulf Air, SriLankan Airlines, the US Cultural Office in Colombo and MBC. I dont know why - now on track Sitting on the top rung of popularity singer/guitarist Sunil Perera and his band of men the fabulous Gypsies recently released their much awaited album 'I Don't Know Why'.
"Apart from the love songs Oba Kemathi Nam, Adaredo Venvela, Kelle which are handled by Piyal, the other songs of mine reflect the shortcomings in society, the deterioration of the general structure of society, the exploitation of innocent people by not only administrators in the country but also others including relatives. So 'I Dont Know Why' tries to figure out why it is so?" comments Sunil. The CD is dedicated to Sunil and Piyal's mother Doreen Perera. an emotion packed Amma is written and sung by Piyal. The infectious rhythm arrangements of the tracks are in true Gypsies style. Some of the lyrics of the songs were written by Chandradasa Fernando. Hemasiri Halpita, Ajantha Ranasinghe and Mahesh de Silva. The CD was digitally mastered and produced by Torana Music Box who are responsible for the distribution. - MP |
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To music lovers the song is quite familiar as Sunil in his charismatic
manner has performed the song at most of his live shows accompanied by
rousing applause. The CD besides the title track contains a collection of
fifteen songs which includes an English one titled 'B My Valentine' sung
by Ricky, Piyal and Kevin, composed by Sunil and Piyal.
