Where Rivers Meet – IndoJazz Double Header Sells Out At Brit-jazz Fest
Friday, August 7, 2009
Pianist Zoe Rahman headlined last night in the continuing Brit-jazz Fest at Ronnie Scott’s club in Soho which continues tonight with the Filthy Six and The Sunburst Band playing to two houses.
Rahman appeared with her acoustic trio of bassist Davide Mantovani and Partisans drummer Gene Calderazzo, later joined by her brother, reeds player Idris Rahman. Zoe’s modern jazz and Bengali influences were well to the fore as the two performed material from the evocative Where Rivers Meet album plus the scintillating Joanne Brackeen tune ‘Friday the Thirteenth’.
Earlier Idris had provided a stunning foil within the vibrant Arun Ghosh Indo-Jazz Sextet which weighed in with a fine opening set beginning with lead-off track ‘Aurora’ from Ghosh’s Camoci Records debut, Northern Namaste, in a band sound characterised by the lively electric bass of Dr Das, a founding member of the influential 1990s group Asian Dub Foundation, and Ghosh’s characterful clarinet playing and fine writing. The Brit-jazz festival, sponsored by Jazzwise, reaches the half-way point tomorrow with Tony Kofi and Liane Carroll and continues until 15 August.
– Stephen Graham