Auto ecstatic

AUTORICKSHAW as part of DirectAid at Harbourfront Centre Theatre, January 28. Tickets: $25. Attendance: sold out.

I wish I could convey the golden quality of Autorickshaw's recent Harbourfront Centre Theatre appearance as passionately as the gentleman to my left, who moaned during the performance's peak points like Frasier Crane on the brink of orgasm. Then again, he seemed equally enraptured during interludes by CBC Global Village's easy-mannered host, Jowi Taylor . It was all for a good cause: the sold-out formal show was a benefit for the direct long-term rebuilding of a community in Tamil Nadu, India, following the tsunami disaster.

Taylor stretched his patter following indigenous foursome Spirit Wind 's meditative set so Autorickshaw could set up. Vocalist Suba Sankaran , adorned in a vibrant orange tunic, and tabla player Ed Hanley , sporting a blue sweatshirt, sat cross-legged in the middle of the stage. The South Asian jazz band's logo blinked onto a screen behind them, and Sankaran twiddled with a box that transmitted ambient sitar while introducing Maa, a song about the duplicitous goddess Durga.

Sankaran, her face full of drama, navigated the runs of the complex Eastern vocal lines, revealing both her technical virtuosity and a higher-level grasp of the work.

Then Hanley transformed song to spectacle with a brain-liquifying tabla solo, an onslaught of percussive sixteenth notes and syncopated shifts hammered out by his wrists and fingers with such precision that… well, you really had to be there.

Let's just say that as Hanley's beat went on, the man on my left purred like a cat savouring a sumptuous can of tuna.
For the second number of their 10-minute set, Rich Brown brought out a rich-sounding bass. As dextrous as the other two members (percussionist Debashis Sinha was absent), his plucking synchronized perfectly with Sankaran's more staccato dance-suited vocals, Hanley's tabla work knitting it all together into something authentic and – spiritually – nearly overwhelming.
With a parade of performances by the Marimba Band , Kiyoshi Nagata Taiko Ensemble and the Toronto Tabla Ensemble , among others, DirectAid felt like some kind of cultural detoxifier.

My neighbour summed up the night simply: "Cool."
NOW | FEB 3 - 9, 2005 | VOL. 24 NO. 23
-Jason Richards

A high-quality concert full of originality, verve and energy

The star of the show was Sankaran, who used both jazz and Carnatic improvisation, including scat singing and vocal percussion, to offer the audience a range of musical experiences. Her renditions of Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli's "A Night in Tunisia" and Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol's "Caravan", two of the greatest jazz standards, was strongly evocative of Ella Fitzgerald, for whom both were favourites.
But she was no clone of the legendary Fitzgerald, as her Carnatic techniques proved, especially on "So the Journey Goes'' (the title track of Autorickshaw's latest CD) and the Thyagaraja classic "Ganamurthy".

Ed Hanley's tabla work was nothing short of brilliant, integrating very well with the jazz pieces and standing out on solo percussion exchanges with Sankaran (vocal percussion) and Graham.

He also shone in the intro to "A Night in Tunisia" alongside Sankaran's scat work. Bell, shouldering the melodic department with Sankaran, was strong in support of her and played a couple of outstanding solos, particularly on "So the Journey Goes".
All in all, this was a high-quality concert full of originality, verve and energy. I can only wish I'd caught them in a setting where they got more time, as I believe audiences in Chennai (and perhaps Jaipur) have.

JAZZEBEL-The Hindu, Bangalore, India

New ensemble shows why acclaim is merited

With just two CDs to their credit, autorickshaw are a relatively new ensemble that have almost instantly gained acclaim from audiences, critics and peers.

Nominated for a Juno Award for world music album of the year in 2005, they won the 2005 Canadian Independent Music Award for world music artist of the year. Those impressive credentials, combined with the hip, exotic appeal, have made them the current darlings of CBC radio.

On Friday night, at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener, the Toronto-based quartet’s live performance justified the uber-hype they’ve been receiving. The ensemble consists of a mash-up of four of Canada’s most exciting and musically interesting young musicians: vocalist Suba Sankaran, tabla player

Ed Hanley, bassist Rich Brown and exotic percussionist Debashis Sinha. All four have achieved excellence on their respective instruments. When their forces are combined, the results are utterly unique and musically pioneering.

Autorickshaw’s music lies on the cultural cutting edge. It parallels sociological trends in minority youth culture. The firm basis in classical ethnic tradition is given an overhaul through an infusion of popular culture style, with influences from other far-ranging and exotic cultures. The whole mix is the musical and cultural equivalent of a masala. autorickshaw’s live set consisted of traditional Indian compositions, the jazz standard

A Night in Tunisia, a wild and exotic Indo-jazz cover of the Leonard Cohen classic Bird on a Wire, and various original compositions. However, this description doesn’t do their set justice. Their music is so much about how they infuse traditional material with current musical styles.

The quartet bill themselves as an Indo-jazz ensemble. Cleverly, the jazz influence goes beyond a retouching and into the realm of the process. The music moves past rigid Indian classical music structures and into jazz performance methods of improvisation. Using Indian classical music rhythms and melodies as a departure point, their compositions build through improv, which includes jazz solo techniques.
Interestingly, through Sankaran’s vocal work, the similarities between Indian music and jazz are highlighted. When singing south Indian traditional music, Sankaran vocalizes syllables, which correspond to Sanskrit. When juxtaposed with her jazz vocal scatting passages, the connection between the two vocal styles becomes apparent.

Ultimately, autorickshaw are the current voice of Canadian culture. Their eclectic cultural blend speaks volumes about this country’s identity. They are truly an ensemble that could only come from Canada.

-By Daniel Ariaratnam for The Record Kitchener • Cambridge • Waterloo
 Monday, June 20, 2005

Autorickshaw delights with unique mix of jazz, traditional Indian music

In a disturbing time when cultural clashes have many questioning Canada's commitment to diversity, art has a way of coming to the rescue. There could not be a better example of music as a bridge between cultures -- in this case India and Canada -- than the superb music group Autorickshaw.

This was clearly demonstrated in their Friday evening performance at the Registry Theatre, the first concert in the Our World Festival of Music -- Lawrence McNaught, artistic director (presented in conjunction with the City of Kitchener's Tapestry Celebrations of Diversity).

Aside from their sheer delight in making music, what makes Autorickshaw so irresistible is a deep commitment to their art forms, most prominently, traditional Indian and jazz.

Rather than a mainstream blending of thin cultural references, their sound is a highly cultivated juxtaposition of authentic traditions, making for a unique, challenging and ultimately satisfying artistic offering.

Each musician performed with virtuosic flare. Ed Hanley, was both fluid and precise on Indian tabla. On six-string bass, Rich Brown managed to be both tunefully rich and rhythmically solid; he often seemed to be playing two instruments (bass and guitar) at once.

Debashis Sinha was a master of eclectic, percussion kit -- never overplaying and always interesting. Of course the centrepiece was lead singer, Suba Sankara, very much the heart of the band, with her supple vocal variety, infectious smile, and entrancing musicality.

The evening's offerings gravitated either towards more traditional Indian pieces, or innovative interpretations of traditional jazz or pop standards (Caravan, Night in Tunisia, Bird on a Wire).

For the uninitiated, it takes a while to know how to listen to the traditional Indian tunes. In some ways they don't seem to go anywhere.

Expressions ranged from slow, trancelike musical meditations, to frenetic and flowing unison lines, often involving all musicians riffing together at virtuosic lightning speed.

A highlight of the concert was Sankaran's autobiographical song entitled So the Journey Goes. During studies in India, she found herself reflecting on how she is perceived as a "foreign alien" in that country, straddling cultures, very much similar to the music she pursues.

As a kickoff to Kitchener's multicultural celebration, Autorickshaw delivered the very best one could hope for -- not just a highly engaging and entertaining musical evening, but also a wonderful tribute to the overall art of diversity.

Our World Festival of Music continues June 16 with Muna Mingole at the Registry Theatre, and June 22 with Sashar Zarif & Maryem Tollar Group.

STEPHEN PREECE for The Record Kitchener • Cambridge • Waterloo
Jun 12, 2006

The cultural presence of Canada’s South Asian population has given rise to a wave of Indo-Canadian fusion bands; Tandava in Vancouver, Tasa in Toronto and Galitcha in Ottawa each have different takes on fusing Indian traditions with other musical impulses. Based in Toronto, Autorickshaw is the busiest of these, having toured the country four times and released three discs since 2003.

Initially the partnership of vocalist Suba Sankaran and tabla player Ed Hanley yielded a blend of South Indian classical forms with jazz and a touch of funk. Constant activity in the last few years has seen them add two band members, electric bassist Rich Brown and percussionist Patrick Graham, and their new album So The Journey Goes is their most ambitious work yet. “The last few years have seemed like we were running to catch up,” Sankaran says. “[This is] very much an audio snapshot of where we’re at so far. It speaks to having gone through process a couple times before, but without as much experience and repertoire.”

The inspiration for the existential title track came from Sankaran’s trip to India a few years ago. “That was the first time I went to India without my family, to study on my own. Even though I dressed the part and had the same skin, I was pegged as a foreigner instantly. It’s like I had this bizarre alien radar. It was a bit of a culture shock.” Now, having toured India with the band last November, both Sankaran and Hanley have gained new appreciation for the dual cultural impulses in their work. “It was amazing,” Sanakran says. “I think we carried some paranoia with us — is it presumptuous to take their music back to them in a completely different package that they may not be expecting? But that ended up being the point of entry for them to understand what they were doing. Specifically the comments to me were that they were overjoyed that I was embracing the Indian culture and doing it in a way that made sense to me.” The most ambitious song on the album is its closer, the digitally composed “Heavy Traffic.” “The song was commissioned by [Toronto’s] Harbourfront Centre,” Hanley explains, “but the only part of the tune that was left when we got to the studio was the vocal part. Suba laid it down to a click and we overdubbed drums and bass, then everyone just started overdubbing their parts.” The final result distilled 64 tracks into a tripped-out, free form groove. It is their most abstract statement on record, and brilliantly solves the problem of how to incorporate electronics into their sound while building on the band’s foundation.

The opposing forces of tradition and experimentation can be difficult to balance, and Suba’s father, master percussionist and professor Trichy Sankaran, was initially cautious of Autorickshaw. “He will always say he’s a purist,” according to the younger Sankaran. “He’s done experimental music, electronic music, and jazz but his heart is with South India. At first he didn’t know what to make of us. I’ve studied with him my whole life; it was like cutting the umbilical cord. He saw us perform and realised ‘they’re not diluting the music in any way, they’re creating this fusion in a way that makes sense to them coming out of this culture where a lot of things are blended.’ As long as it’s done in a meaningful way, that’s what he was concerned with.”

Ever heard someone scatting Sanskrit syllables while remaining true to both traditions — Carnatic and Jazz? Suba Sankaran, in her Canadian world-music ensemble, Autorickshaw, does it with a child's sense of wonder and virtuosity, in effect highlighting the similarities between the two forms.

She keeps the listener hooked, not merely with the panache with which she balances her hybrid vocals but also with her strong south Indian looks and a contagious smile.

Suba's musical talents and interests span a dazzling range: European Renaissance, jazz, Bollywood and Indian classical to vocals, piano and percussion. Daughter of the famed mridanga maestro Trichy Sankaran, Suba's family could safely be called the first family of Indian Classical music in Canada. "I was born with a perfect pitch," says Suba, who was able to identify and reproduce tunes from the age of two.

Starting young

"My dad used to come up with these complicated compositions on the mridangam and the kanjira. He'd then ask me to `Name that Nadai'," she says with a laugh.

Her first experience on stage was in the U.S. when she was only four. "It was for a Navarathri festival at the Wesleyan University when I was one of the four children selected for a solo-performance on stage, and I sang the hymn Santhanam Pahiman."

Suba carved her own path at an early age. Her musical identity is derived from her Indian roots (her mother is Telugu and father Tamil) as well as the diversity of Canadian culture.

Starting at age six, she studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto for over 15 years. Her vocal virtuosity comes from singing with madrigal choirs; she is part of Voyces Past, a Renaissance music group. She shared the stage with her father from the age of 16 and they formed an Indo-jazz fusion ensemble called Trichy's Trio.

But he wasn't the only one who led her to Indian classical. "Throughout the year, visiting artistes from India stayed at our place during festivals and performances. I had the privilege of studying under many of them."

Among these artistes are celebrated musicians like T. Vishwanathan, K. Subramaniam and N. Ramani. She studied jazz at York University and completed her M.A. in ethnomusicology in 2002. As if that weren't enough she sings 80s pop hits in a-cappella (voice without instrumental accompaniment) with Retrocity, and Bollywood numbers with the Hannaford Street Silver band. Oh, and she loves busking (those informal street performances). "It's such a fun thing to do! We even used to sing Christmas carols. " A few years ago, though, she busked for a purpose. "It helped me make money to release my first album (with Autorickshaw)."

"Autorickshaw is a dream come true for me and Ed Hanley," says Suba, whose husband Dylan Bell is the touring India with the band. "It is our musical vehicle."

Ed, who plays the tabla, had approached Suba with the idea of forming a world-music ensemble. "It took us about 30 seconds to realise that it was like looking in a mirror."

This ability to analogise various traditions from a classical perspective chiefly came from a solid four-year training in Carnatic vocals by Sankari Krishnan in Chennai.

"I was able to paint more of a picture of where the music came from rather than just read notes on a page."

She is strongly influenced by R.D. Burman and Asha Bhosle apart from fusion artists like Trilok Gurtu, U. Shrinivas and Shakti.

The song "Ganamurthy," from Autorickshaw's second album Four Higher (yes, a take on For Hire) was inspired by U. Shrinivas's rendition of the paean for Lord Krishna.

Suba also composes music for radio and has worked with Deepa Mehta on a radio play called Funny Boy. She directs choirs, performs jingles, sings for films, and even doubles as a part-time faculty at York University.

BHARADWAJ M. V.