Joseph Tawadros
Truth Seekers Lovers & Warriors (ABC)
The Bridge Project
Peace by Peace (http://www.bridgeprojecttrio.com/)
Horse & Wood
Horse & Wood (http://www.horsefiddle.com/)
Scoffed any Turkish delight, lately? Banh xeo? Falafel? Peking duck? Spanakopita? Chicken tikka? What about just biscotti and good coffee? Such are the blessings of Australia’s multiculturalism, yet, as improbable as it now seems, many dishes from around the world were once much too exotic for staunchly parochial palates. That same multiculturalism has offered up a similar breadth of possible musical experiences, but these we have been infinitely slower to embrace, generally settling for the sonic equivalent steak and chips.
Various festivals and venues (most notably Camelot) have tried to address this, and while the tide is turning, many people are still afraid to dip their toes in the water, no thanks to that wretched term “world music” with its “them and us” connotations. Yet without travelling overseas or even attending concerts by international touring artists you can hear entirely credible and often exceptional examples of the music of just about every culture in the world. Flamenco, tango, Indian, West African and Balkan are just some of the musical idioms on tap as part of a seemingly infinite variety.
Something potentially even more interesting is afoot, however: a development that results in entirely new sounds, rather than simply the worthy maintenance of the traditions from far-flung homelands. Just as Tetsuya fused Japanese and French influences in his cuisine, so disparate musical traditions are being fused in Australia as players of differing interests and ethnicities intermingle, listen, learn and ask that emancipating “what if” question. The common element facilitating this cosmopolitan musical dialogue is the magic of improvisation, and these three albums represent the tip of a cross-cultural iceberg that is gradually swamping our shores in musical idioms of which no one has previously dreamt.
Egyptian-born oud player Joseph Tawadros is blessed with one of the most inquisitive musical minds around, evident just by a casual glance at his past collaborations. These have ranged from the Australian Chamber Orchestra to Zakir Hussain, from Neil Finn and Katie Noonan to Jack DeJohnette and Bela Fleck.
Tawadros’s music may be steeped in rich Arabic traditions dating back centuries, but he has sought to take the oud (which rhymes with “wood”) into less sandy pastures. He has shown that even while continuing to employ some scalar, rhythmic and colouristic elements of Arabic music the instrument (and his own abundant musicality) can be as versatile in terms of the scope of settings in which it will work as a guitar.
Where Tawadros’s last three albums were recorded in New York with some of the heavy hitters of jazz and creative music more generally, Truth Seekers Lovers & Warriors was recorded in Sydney with his two most consistent collaborators (his percussionist-brother James and pianist Matt McMahon) and two newcomers: accordionist James Crabb and trombonist James Greening. To debate about whether it is more jazzy or Arabic would be to miss the point that Tawadros has once again achieved his goal of escaping the straightjacket of style to compose and play the music that he hears. Nor has the standard of musicianship dropped an iota by exclusively using local musicians, and the eccentric combination of instruments makes for some fascinating and delightfully foreign colours. This is a world-class band by any measure, making music without borders.
By chance both the other albums also feature the oud. You cannot get much more cross-cultural than the Bridge Project, with the three key musicians making their second album by once again recording their individual contributions in three different countries. The Australian connection is Andy Busuttil, a migrant from Malta who plays a host of wind and percussion instruments from around the planet. Umit Ceyhan, a Turk who resides in France, is another multi-instrumentalist (strings, wind and percussion) while Ittai Shaked is an Israeli who plays violin, viola and cello.
The resultant music hovers around the eastern end of the Mediterranean, the layers of hand-drumming inlaid with filigree melodies, often from multi-tracked strings and exotic wind instruments. The more the idiom of the compositions and textures is folk-based the more successful they are. When synthesizer programming and dance beats become prominent the music loses some of its distinctive flavour. Pieces such as Shaked’s Chess in the Negev swiftly dispel any idea that some intensity might be checkmated by collaborating via the internet.
The oud on the Bridge Project’s album is played by guest artist Doron Furman. On Horse & Wood’s 2015 the oud (played by John Robinson) is the wood and the horse is the Mongolian horse fiddle played by Bukchuluun Ganburged (or just “Bukhu”). The duo represents multiculturalism running amok. Anglo-Australian John Robinson (once a celebrity in the rock world with the band Blackfeather) plays Arabic and Turkish instruments (plus guitar) while Mongolian Australian Bukhu not only plays his homeland’s two-string fiddle, but also unleashes traditional throat singing. At a stroke the pair shrink about 8,000 kilometres of the vast expanse of Asia to nothing, and in the process invent a whole new sonic colour combination that arguably could only have happened in Australia. The remarkable thing is that it works, the oud and horse fiddle sharing a timbre of mellow sonorousness, while Bukhu’s singing is as gravelly as a mountain pass. Perhaps we could have done without the ten-thousandth version of Dark Eyes, however.
Joseph Tawadros
Truth Seekers Lovers & Warriors (ABC)
4 stars
The Bridge Project
Peace by Peace (bridgeprojecttrio.com)
3.5 stars
Horse & Wood
2015 (horsefiddle.com)
3.5 stars