SHARON ISBIN   AMJAD ALI KHAN

LIVE IN ASPEN

Zoho Records

Sharon Isbin, guitar; Amjad Ali Khan, Amaan Ali Bangash & Ayaan Ali Bangash, sarod; Amit Kavthekar, table.

A Flamenco guitar plays a’ Capella and captures my attention with the very first strains of beautiful music. It’s stunning music coming from Sharon Isbin’s acoustic guitar. There is so much emotion wrapped up in this music.  It pulls not only at the guitar strings, but at my heartstrings. Isbin opens their program at the Aspen Music Festival with a solo, celebrating the 19^th century Spanish guitarist, Francisco Tarrega.  It’s a serenade rich in Moorish influences. You can also hear elements of East Indian classical music in this flamenco music.

Track 2 and 3 are called “Sacred Evening” and Ayaan Ali Bangash joins Isbin in the first of three works composed by Amjad Ali Khan for guitar, sarod, and tabla instruments.  Many people came to this festival to specifically see and experience the sarod, a stringed instrument used specifically in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent.  Along with the sitar, it is one of the most popular instruments of that culture. The sarod is of the lute family, about 39-inches long with a slightly waisted wood body and a skin belly.

Sharon Isbin and Amjad Ali Khan feature three master sarod players on this recording. These second and third songs were composed to musically describe the sunset and the approaching “Sacred Evening.” Maestro Khan represents the sixth generation in his family of sarod players.  Together, the sarod and the guitar explore an intimate spirituality with contemplative improvisations, and they speak to each other musically with spirited dialogue.  Their final work, “Romancing Earth” is created to represent monsoon season.  It unfolds like a rainstorm, at first melancholy and dark, like a cloudy sky, perhaps with thunder rumbling, then joyful as the heavens open up and rain kisses the parched earth with a million wet kisses.

Here is an album of uniqueness and beauty that combines spiritual realization, nature beauty, and cultural roots that will both inspire and entertain.  This may be a musical experience you have never had, but it could also encourage you to appreciate it again and again.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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