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Playing For The Planet - Combining Musical Diversity With Social Activism
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Staff Writer
06/13/2019
Combining musical diversity with social activism, the 19th “Playing For The Planet†concert unfolded over three hours this past Saturday, June 8, at the Community Church of Boston in Copley Square. Founded in 2009 by Hindustani singer and environmentalist Warren Senders, the concert series — always organized to benefit the climate-change awareness group 350MA.org — has regularly featured many of the finest representatives of Indian musical traditions in the United States (Durga Krishnan, Tara Bangalore, Aparna Balaji, Shuchita Rao, Swati Panda, George Ruckert, Amit Kavthekar, Jawwad Noor, Warren Senders, and many others), along with luminaries from an extraordinary range of musical genres. Among previous performers have been star jazz musicians like Mili Bermejo, Dominique Eade, RaKalam Bob Moses and Matt Glaser, artists from the Middle East like Mehmet Ali Sanlikol (Turkey), Nima Janmohammadi (Iran) and Mal Barsamian (Armenia), the Western art tradition (classical guitar virtuosi Eliot Fisk and Zaira Meneses), African dance and drumming (the Agbekor Society), and folk musicians from all over the world.
This Saturday’s concert was no exception, featuring spellbinding performances from the Celtic/Swedish duet of Sunniva Brynnel and Yaniv Yacobi, the groundbreaking multi-instrumentalist (and sometime Hindustani slide guitarist) Lloyd Thayer, and the brilliant young khyalya from New York, Samarth Nagarkar.
The evening began with the enchanting Brynnel/Yacobi duet, in which delicate melodic traceries were outlined by the artists’ accordion and bouzouki. Sometimes sprightly and joyful, sometimes melancholy and meditative, the two artists created a haunting and tender mood, full of lyrical beauty. They were followed by Lloyd Thayer, who shifted instruments at a dizzying speed, moving from a “National Steel†guitar to a Turkish saz to a harmonica (played through a special microphone), finally concluding with several pieces played on the Chaturangui, a version of the Indian slide guitar. Thayer's music included biting social commentary, raucous blues inflections, and several adaptations of songs by the rap artist Run-DMC — not what a first-time listener might expect from the array of strings onstage! — all delivered with gentle humor and dazzling virtuosity.
The evening came to its finale with a 50-minute set by Samarth Nagarkar. Accompanied on tabla by Naikaj Pandya, and on harmonium by Ramchandra Joshi, Nagarkar begin with a lilting vilambit khyal in the popular evening raga Yaman. Set to Tilwada taal, the composition served as a showcase for the singer’s varied improvisations, which moved gracefully through the slow tabla strokes, gradually building a complete picture of the raag. A disciple of both Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar and Pt. Dinkar Kaikini, Samarth on Saturday chose to showcase his Gwalior gharana foundation, offering curving meends, captivating bol-taans, and the typically engaging layakari of this tradition. His rendition of Yaman was followed by a short khyal in Desh, and an exquisitely emotive Kabir bhajan in the uncommon raga Saurashtra Mand, in which some of the characteristic inflections of his guru Kaikiniji could be detected.
As the artists themselves agreed, these events are unlike any other concerts, offering unparalleled musical variety with the unifying force of conscience. Senders spoke to the gathering during the second intermission, reminding the attendees that climate change threatens not just the world’s ecosystems, agriculture, and biodiversity, but also the survival of the many musical traditions which are some of humankind’s finest accomplishments. “Let this music bring us together in beauty,†he remarked, “...and let it remind us both of what is at risk, and what we are fighting to preserve."
The twentieth concert in the series is scheduled to take place in early December of this year.
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Samarth Nagarkar, with Naikaj Pandya (tabla), Ramchandra Joshi (harmonium), Vijaya Sundaram & Andre Fludd (tambouras).
Lloyd Thayer.
Sunniva Brynnel & Yaniv Yacobi.
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