Allash
On
Wednesday, October 1st I was fortunate to have had the amazing rare
opportunity to enjoy a live performance at the Isis music hall and Restaurant
in West Asheville of famed Tuvan Throat singing from the internationally
acclaimed group called Alash. Each musician in the ensemble had won individual
prestigious awards and the ensemble had played in every single one of the
forty-eight continuous United States. In fact, they had done so much traveling
that when they were asked what their favorite place in the United States was,
they could not give a concise answer. The music itself was extremely unique and certainly was not
something to be taken for granted.
It’s a
given that it must take years of training to master that impeccable skill of
singing up to four notes at the same time with your throat. If anything, the
intricacies of them doing just that, made me actively pay attention for the
entirety of the show. One of the many “icing on the cake” moments was when I
actually got the opportunity to meet one of the band members and he relayed to
me that he has been training since he was a little boy and has won some of the
top awards in Tuvan throat singing. I also thought it was really impressive
that this individual from Tuva (a state in Russia) has been to all of the
continuous 48 United States. I have been to 37 states, and I thought that was
impressive!
As far
focusing on their repertoire, I could not help focusing on their impressive
dynamic range in all of the tones that they produced and their talents as multi-instrumentalists.
It
was also intriguing to see both how their instruments differed in their various
timbres and sounds depending on the many ways that they chose to play them; For
example: if the drummer stroke his drum in different area of the instrument, it
made a different sound and thus brought a different “flavor” to the specific
piece. The stringed instruments
were similar to the types that we are familiar with in America (banjo, guitar
and violin) but with less strings and therefore less options to tune them with.
They also brought a specific style of accordion that is specific to the culture
of Tuva and one of the members performed a solo number on this particular
instrument. I did notice that they did have a traditional acoustic guitar with
them, but they definitely focused on using the Tuvan instruments. One other
interesting flair that added to the overall status of the gig was that they
brought out a local fiddle player to play with them for one number. In my
opinion, this both showed how cultured Allash is, and showed the diversity of
the talent in the city of Asheville.
As far as
the band communicating with their audience, they didn’t. They had an interpreter/manager that
came out explained the culture of the state of Tuva and the context of
virtually every number of the eager crowd of about forty people. Some of his explanations
were quite humorous and they all were informative in some way. Overall, I felt
very lucky to have had experienced a live Allash concert for only $12. That’s
much cheaper than a trip to Tuva.
No comments:
Post a Comment