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Central
Star of Facing East Casts Far-Reaching Spell
by Don Heckman
The all-star
world jazz ensemble Facing East, performing at the Skirball Cultural
Center on Thursday night, featured drummer Jack DeJohnette,
woodwind specialist Paul McCandless and guitarist Paul
Bollenback among its personnel. But, for many in the audience,
it was Indian tabla player Sandip Burman who was the real
center of attention at the fifth of the Skirball's six free Sunset
Concerts.
Seated in
the center of the ensemble, a radiant smile on his face, Burman
kicked off the program with a whirlwind display of the solfege-like
syllable singing that is at the core of Indian classical drumming.
The sounds and rhythms came so fast, with such precision, uttered
with such a visible sense of joy, that both the crowd and the
other players were utterly spellbound.
DeJohnette
was superb in his solo work, executed with a sensitive ear for
the fine tonal nuances of percussion, and his duet improvisations
with Burman were as technically adroit as they were witty and
engaging.
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