Autorickshaw. Four Higher. Tala-Wallah Records, Reviews – Recordings TW 002. Festival Distribution, 1351 Grant St., Van- couver, B.C. V5L 2X7; 1-800-633-8282; <www.festival.bc.ca>; Andrews + Lawrence. old time gospel. GRASS <[email protected]>. 002. 4045 Livingstone Ave. N., Victoria, BC, V8N 3A7; <www.andrewsandlawrence.com>. This is a Toronto-based World Music ensemble, inte- grating the South Asian tradition with jazz and other Andrews + Lawrence is a Victoria, BC-based blue- popular music forms. It comprises vocalist and pian- grass gospel duo made up of Andy Ruszel and Larry ist Suba Sankaran, whose origins are in South India, Lawrence. Ruszel sings lead and plays rhythm guitar, tabla player Ed Hanley, bassist Rich Brown and per- as well as writing three of the disc's ten songs. A na- cussionist Debashis Sinha. The attempt is clearly to tive of Toronto, Ruszel's songs have been performed appeal to an Asian as well as to a western audience. by such artists as The Rovers and Charlotte Diamond. The CD includes a booklet of words (transliterated Lawrence, originally from Kansas, plays lead guitar Asian text as well as English translation) as well as and sings tenor, and is an experienced producer, ar- brief notes on each track. During the last two years, ranger and choral singer. The disc was recorded at autorickshaw have appeared at jazz festivals in To- 3rd Lake Studio, Victoria, BC, and produced by Law- ronto, Guelph and Halifax, at Vancouver Folk Festiv- rence. In addition to Ruszel's contribution there are al, and at other venues in Toronto, Owen Sound, five traditional works and one each by I. & C. Louvin Winnipeg, and in B.C. and the Yukon. and A. Brumley. The tracks range from the serene, slow “Saraswati”, old time gospel is a lesson in simplicity. Liner notes featuring the voices of Suba and two bass vocalists, are minimal, and the clean layout and toned black-&- tabla, percussion and bass in a number based on a white graphics give it a very streamlined look. All prayer to the East Indian goddess Saraswati, to the songs were recorded live in the studio, in the spirit of quick, rhythmic “Purvi Tillana”, inspired by South "the great traditional records of the past". With no Indian classical dance music and based on the Indian more than two voices and two guitars, the arrange- raga “Purvikalyani”. Some tracks are more or less ments are deliciously sparse, giving the listener direct heavily influenced by jazz; for example, Suba’s contact with the essence of the songs. Three of these, “scat”-type, jazz-inflected singing in “Unjalur”, com- "Ezekiel Saw The Wheel", "Down In The Valley To posed by Suba for her mother, who came from the Pray" and "Old Dirt Road" (composed by Ruszel) are Indian village of Onjalur to Toronto, and “Chennai presented as unaccompanied vocal tracks with ring- five-o”, the last section of a four-part suite which has ing vocal harmonies. The remainder add acoustic guest George Koller on dilruba joining the group and guitars, but the lyrics are prominent throughout the some attractive vocal improvisations by Suba. I don’t album. This is the sort of disc that invites the listener know if the note “departing from the traditional He- to sing/play along. mavati raga” means that this section of the suite is based on that raga, or that the musical journey here Despite all these positives, there is one major flaw departs from the raga to follow other musical influ- with the CD, and that is its duration, around 26 1/2 ences – the wording could have been clearer. Some minutes. Given the choice between adding second- tracks owe even more to jazz: for example, Suba’s rate filler and keeping the CD short, brevity was the arrangement of Dizzy Gillespie’s jazz standard “A right choice. Having said that, Andrews + Lawrence Night in Tunisia”. Incidentally, the instrumental might have been well advised to wait until a few backing on this track includes multi-kit, doumbek, more songs were ready in order to issue a full-length riqq, bass drum, sudo, daouli, bass, tabla and udu, release. As it stands, listeners may not be willing to and it would have been nice if the booklet notes had pay full price for such a short disc, something reflect- “explained” some of the more obscure of these. The ed in (and somewhat mitigated by) the $12 price. last two tracks on the CD feature a very short bass solo by Rich Brown, “Across the Sands”, leading into Andrews + Lawrence have put together a collection the jazz standard “Caravan” (Duke Elling- of well-chosen, cleanly recorded and beautifully per- ton/Mills/Tizol), which is here arranged by autorick- formed material. The CD is a treat to listen to. If shaw and sung by Suba in a distinctly jazz-vocalist only there were more! style. Paul Guise, St. John's, Newfoundland Suba has the voice to sing both numbers inspired by East Indian classical music and jazz. It is chiefly an 25 indication of my own musical preferences that I got ship, bringing out the characters of the people who more enjoyment from the tracks with East Indian stay and those who leave. roots than the jazz-inspired offerings. My favourites were “Ganamurthy” and “Ragam” and “Tanam”, the Kim’s pleasant, warm voice starts the CD with first two sections of the four-track Hemavati suite “Preamble” (live at Keno City snack bar, where most based on South Indian ragas “Tanam Pallavi” and of the partying in the town seems to take place), a “Hemavati” of which “Chennai five-o” is the con- musical introduction to the “rugged little resource cluding section. “Ganamurthy” is an 18th century town”, where, amongst others, “Milos from Yugosla- South Indian classical composition, and a showcase via grows the prettiest flowers around”. At the end for Suba’s flexible, controlled voice. Lovers of Kiran she gets lots of applause and whistles from an appre- Ahluwalia’s singing may find Suba’s style a little too ciative local audience. The second track, “Madonna “westernized” for their liking; for others it may be mia” (aka the “Italian wedding song”), throws a spe- exactly what they need to bridge the gap between culative but unsentimental glance at the plight of the East and West. young bride fresh from sunny Italy who finds herself in “a desolate, windblown, frozen and empty space” This group performs well together; the instrumental but finally develops the courage to make it feel like a playing is imaginative, tight and crisp, Suba’s voice, home to raise her children in. though not to my mind exceptional, is very musical and pleasant to listen to. I would like to hear them And so the impressions continue; simple, evocative live, when I think they would generate more fire. My lyrics supported by good melody lines and under- overall impression of this CD is that it would make stated instrumental accompaniments, through the excellent background music for a candle-lit South bush pilot (“The forest here goes on for ever”, “it’s Asian dinner date, but I don’t know that I would be not a very smooth ride, but usually she gets there”), choosing it frequently to play at home. to the young woman in “Lonely Mountain”, “No-one Rosaleen Gregory, Athabasca, Alberta. here to talk to but my babies, no-one here to braid my hair…the wind is always howling”, whose common sense prevails over her temporary desire to do some- Kim Barlow. Luckyburden. CRCD018. Caribou thing crazy like throwing knives across the room to Records, Box 31471, Whitehorse, Y.T. Y1A break the monotony of a lonely life. In “Silver under 6K8;<[email protected]> (no addresses on packag- the ground” a driving rhythm evokes the silver min- ing); <www.caribourecords.com>; Festival Distribu- ers without fuss or sentimentality, and there are fur- tion (addresses above). ther vignettes of Keno City merrymaking in “Dance- This recording celebrates Keno City, the centre of hall” and “Snackbar piano”, the closing number, in Yukon silver mining from 1914 to 1989. After the which Justin Haynes carries us away from Keno on boom came the shutdown and the population dwin- the notes of an old honky-tonk piano. dled to 14. The entire CD is an evocation of Keno I found this CD very appealing. The images it evokes City, its inhabitants and their ethnic diversity. Kim of Keno City are honest and direct, whether it is de- Barlow provides the vocals, plus banjo and guitar, scribing those who stay or those who leave. “Keno and there is an assortment of accompanying instru- City Blues” celebrates those who stay, admitting that ments including electric guitar, drums, bass, accor- the Keno City blues “never go away”, but for the dion, harmonium and back-up vocals. Kim’s clear singer who “sits up all night in the shack, look(ing) at enunciation makes the absence of the words to the the snow” “this is the only place that I belong – I songs not such a big deal, although it is always nice gotta stay”. Others, though, don’t want to stay; apart to have them, especially since Kim has a deceptively from “Fires”, a goodbye song with a dark tinge to it, simple but often striking way with words, for exam- the most somber track on the CD for me is “Get in ple in one of her best numbers, “Butterflies and drunk the car”, a song about teenagers after their graduation men”, where she describes the butterflies and drunk piling into a car and trying to get to L.A.