Crossing boundaries ...
I started out talking about jazz, so it’s only fair I end off that way with the Toronto band, Autorickshaw and the new CD, So The Journey Goes (autorickshaw.ca). This is a tremendously talented Toronto band that blends the North American funk with the sounds of India. It features the wonderful jazz vocals of Suba Sankaran, who was trained in south Indian classical music but has a voice that could easily fit in with the Manhattan Transfer as she demonstrates on the title track of So the Journey Goes. There’s plenty of stuff on this CD that may be a little too Bollywood for western ears and a little too jazzy for friends of Indian classical music. When it works — as it does on Leonard Cohen’s Bird on a Wire — it does it in grand style. Thanks for crossing the boundaries.
-Graham Rockingham, Music Editor, The Hamilton Spectator