Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall this weekend resembled downtown Los Angeles,
crossovers forming clover leaves of heavy musical traffic.

Ravi and Anoushka Shankar held forth here Friday, while I crossed over
the Bay Bridge for the Philharmonia Baroque's sublime "Jephtha," featuring
John Mark Ainsley, crossing over from good tenor to a great one.

Tonight, it was a crossover summit in Zellerbach, with once and future
Shakti members John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain headlining a grand
fusion concert.

And yet, I had eyes (and ears, especially) only for U.  Shrinivas,
a musician so unique that it doesn't matter whence he comes or what
traditions he melds.  He doesn't cross over, being an entity onto himself,
not a representative of a particular culture or genre.

He is Indian, it is true, and at times his performance "sounds Indian,"
but otherwise, he plays the music of Shrinivas.

A shy, serious young man, he sat comfortably between two crossover giants:
McLaughlin (British blues, Miles Davis' partner, founder of Mahavishu,
acoustic guitarist for Shakti, recording with Paco De Lucia, composer
comissioned by the LA Philharmonic and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie,
etc., etc.) and Hussain (of Shakti, partnering everybody from Ali Akhar
Khan, to Yo Yo Ma, George Harrison, Mickey Hart, composer for the Olympics,
of Western and Indian music, even of IndoWestern one).

There Shrinivas sat, immobile, eyes downcast, while McLaughlin and Hussain
jammed vigorously and winningly.  Then, almost imperceptibly, Shrinivas
picked up his instrument, a small, beautifully crafted *mandolin*, and
started playing quietly.  From that moment on, my attention was on him
through the concert.

His production of sound is astonishing. That electric mandolin sounds like
a harpsichord, a saxophone, a flue, a sarod, a sitar... an organ.  Virtuoso
passages are dazzling to the ear, virtually invisible to the eye.  But
the sound is not what is riveting about Shrinivas - it's the music he
makes.

Ever since Indian music was first amplified, 40-50 years ago, even the
great ones have only one volume level: ear-shattering.  Shrinivas often
plays softly, creating a hush. A great fan of Hussain that I am, I would
have liked to slap him down when he started gesturing to the sound booth
during a passage played by Shrinivas to boost the level.  Arrrrgh!

Fortunately, the "mandolinist" went on his merry, soulful way, and played
beautifully, rather than loudly.  His self-effacing stage manner, total
concentration on the music, supportive partnership mask the fact that
he has had two decades of great fame since his emergence as a child
prodigy at age 9.

The concert also featured V.  Selvaganesh, an excellent young percussion
player (on ghatam, kanjira, maretangham), and a fine singer, Shankar
Madadevan, who mixed South Indian rhythms with a light-classical delivery,
a cut above Bollywood standards.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
[log in to unmask]