Spirits rejoice
Gigs in Dublin and London
Extraordinary spiritual jazz and beyond influenced by Alice and John Coltrane, what a listening journey of weight and significance this all proves.
And the good news if in Dublin tonight or in London tomorrow there are new chances to hear this incredible US-South Indian singer-composer in person.
You may be familiar with Ganavya for her work on Shabaka Hutchings’ Native Rebel label – Like the Sky I’ve Been Too Quiet resonated with us for instance.
And yet this new album is even better. Shabaka is here among the collaborators. And notably this new work features some of the last work of the vastly influential Wayne Shorter who died last year. Piano icon Vijay Iyer, the great bassist-singer Esperanza Spalding and incredible new alto star Immanuel Wilkins also contribute meaningfully.
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Devotional grace and Coltrane influences
But the whole cosmos of the record revolves around the unique style and compositional method of Ganavya beyond all absorption and immersion in all manner of cultural and musical vibrations.
There’s a very good piece on the artist by Michael J. Moore run in The New York Times recently entitled ‘The Singer Whose Work Feels Like Prayer‘.
In it Moore explains that Ganavya was raised in the Hindu Harikatha storytelling tradition and that this album of meditative chants and devotional deepness is based on a Houston week long recording session.
Wayne and his wife Carolina contributed Buddhist chanting and the album is significantly and meaningfully infused with the spirit of Alice and John Coltrane.
Ganavya – one who was born to spread music
Born in New York, Ganavya was raised in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu before returning to the States in her teens. Her name Moore says means “one who was born to spread music.” He says the album ”has the air of an intimate field recording steeped in gospel, ambient and South Asian devotional music, not unlike Alice Coltrane’s ambient works of the late 1970s and early ’80s.”
There’s an incredible grace here and formidable mastery of mood and mystery.
The whole album is a continuum. We didn’t want to switch it off at all. If you are into spiritual jazz even if beginning to dip your toes in these waters of renewal and humility for the first time you may very well feel the same.
As long time Vijay Iyer fans we liked the pianist’s contributions a good deal and it takes us back a little to an album of his lesser known Tirtha days. There’s a 10-minute plus epic ‘Om Supreme’ featuring Iyer and Wilkins included in today’s playlist drawn from this newly released album which is – it would be completely remiss of us to neglect to mention, finally – a must.
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