Guy Buttery invites Indian virtuosos for a one-off performan ce at NIROX
Just weeks before South Africa went into lockdown\, awar d-winning artist Guy Buttery was invited to perform a concert tour of Indi a. It was on this trip that Buttery collaborated with tabla master\, Mohd. Amjad Khan and sarangi virtuoso\, Mudassir Khan. The tabla is the princip al percussion instrument from the Subcontinent and the sarangi is the 43-s tringed “Indian box cello”. The fruits of this collaboration resulted in their celebrated trio album One Morning in Gurgaon\, which was released in both the UK and on vinyl in Japan. Garnering rave reviews from across the globe\, their record made the Album of the Year list for NPR and also charted at #10 on the World Music Charts in Europe. This Winter Guy is ret urning the favor and has invited both of these artists for a National tour of South Africa\, kicking off at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda b efore moving through the Western Cape\, KwaZulu-Natal\, and Gauteng. Their concert at The NIROX Sculpture Park will be their singular performance in Gauteng. Prior to their first performance in India together\, all three m usicians had never actually met before\, let alone made any music together . Before their first concert\, they had only ’ practiced’ via voice re cordings and exchanged texts somewhere between Hindi and English to break down the various parts of the set. Ultimately it was this unrehearsed appr oach\, combined with the inauspicious and eleventh-hour nature of their fi rst meeting\, which provided the stardust for their collaboration. Guy exp lains\, “Due to Delhi traffic\, our intended dry run was shaved right do wn to a single 60 minutes\, giving us just enough time to shake hands\, sh are a chai and tune our instruments. As a result\, we went in totally blin d to that first concert\, yet what unfolded on stage over the next hour le ft me in complete awe - so much so that after our performance I immediatel y set about asking anyone who would listen how we could track down a local studio to capture our newly formed trio. As luck would have it\, the very place where we had performed that first night had a basic recording set-u p and we somehow managed to secure a single morning to record.”Both Mohd . Amjad Khan and Mudassir Khan are renowned masters of their respective in struments\, steeped in the Indian classical traditions from a young age. A lthough guardians of their musical heritage\, One Morning In Gurgaon highl ights their willingness to push the envelope of their instruments\, expert ly highlighted by Amjad whose tabla playing is marked by uncanny intuition and masterful improvisational dexterity. Likewise\, Mudassir has harnesse d the potential of the rare and notoriously difficult sarangi\, an instrum ent whose sound most resembles that of the human voice\, and an instrument that Guy confesses to\, “Being overly obsessed with.” The combined ex perience of Guy’s acoustic guitar wizardry with these two Indian master musicians culminates in an experience that is as pure and uninhibited an e xample of empathetic collaboration as you’ll find anywhere: A musical co nversation between musicians exchanging each other’s ideas in the spur o f the moment and feeling out the areas of crossover with a depth that goes far beyond mimicry. Since their spontaneous recording session in India\, the trio has not seen each other. These upcoming SA performances will reun ite these three artists in a once-off\, not to be repeated national tour.< /p>
• Date: Sunday\, 10th July 2022
• Venue: NIROX Sculpture Park\, The Cradle of Humankind\, Gauteng\,
• Performance : 14:00-15:30
• Doors Open: 10:00-17:00
• Price: R300
< p>• Contact: info@niroxarts.com or +27 (60) 886-2407 for more informati on“A spontaneous dream. A compendium of enrapturing so nic stories.” - PopMatters
“Dexterous\, defiant and delicate all at once.” - Texx and The City
“Magically spirits you away to th is land of enduring mystery and majesty.” - The Herald
“These ma sterly improvisations weave from strands of several musical traditions a r ich tapestry that is downright mesmerizing.” - Minor7th
NIROX is a private not-for-profit foundation to benefit the arts. All inc ome is used to maintain the grounds\, the artist residency program\, and a rtist support.