MONTREAL JAZZ FEST: MELODY IS KING
I didn't know what to expect of Toronto-based Autorickshaw and was quite thoroughly pleased. Their music is a mixture of traditional Carnatic music of South India, more modern bhangra and Bollywood-inspired Indian music, and American jazz and pop. Often when ethnic music is fused with Western music, the connection with the tradition is blurred - not so with Autorickshaw. The Carnatic tradition was preserved and commingled with the Western elements, to the point of singer Suba Sankaran clapping the talum over "Bird On A Wire" and using traditional Carnatic rhythmic syllables to interact with tabla player Ed Hanley. No surprise, given that she's the daughter of one of the most renowned practitioners of Indian music in Canada, percussionist Trichy Sankaran. Bassist Rich Brown was stirring as well, using his ample technique to serve the music, sans flash. He turned his fretted six-string bass into something nearly traditionally Indian, almost a deeper electric saranghi. Suba scatted over changes better than many strictly jazz singers I've heard, and the group's reworkings of "A Night In Tunisia" and "Caravan" were thrilling as well, substituting modern Indian beats for the Latin tinge.
-David Ryshpan www.jambase.com