Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The auditorium inside the Capstone Theatre has been one which has opened its extensive arms to the world of Jazz beyond its normally perceived conceptions, it has enlightened in such a way that to think of an International Jazz Festival in Liverpool without the Capstone’s involvement is to commit an act of musical treachery.
It is in its offerings that the music has flowed, it has been greatly received and has been enhanced by the surprise packages that make up the early Saturday afternoon, the tantalising glimpses into a realm of fusion, of discovery, of Jazz but in not in a sense of the normal but in the glowing sphere of breathtaking blend and union.
It might seem a strange combination to the less open minded, a label that can never be truly bandied around as a form of derogatory unpleasantness to anyone who lives in the world of Jazz, but the idea of Balkan Jazz mixing it up in the cool shaded areas of the floor with Indian music might be profoundly confusing to some, yet it is with delight, a sense of Progressive wonder that it works with unashamed glee and one that is taken head on by Maya Jazz.
Daphna Sadeh and Jyotsna Srikanth take their wonderfully combined spirits and their love of music on an adventure, true music for the soul in which to be Progressive is to be aware that pleasure is to be derived from seeking out the new, the glory and the satisfying. It is a pleasure harnessed by Maya Jazz and one that the listener, the pleasure seeker, cannot but help be enraptured by.
As the two one hour sets take the capacity crowd inside the Capstone’s main theatre on that voyage of self discovery and beautiful arrangements, pieces such as Middle Eastern Tango, Sprint, the fantastic My Russian Heart and Reconciliation are allowed to fly, to make the wings beat harder and the soul resonate with a different, unexpected beat; it is that acceptance of another world even beyond all that you think you know which makes Maya Jazz such an enticing and beautifully heart breaking prospect.
In Daphna Sadeh and Jyotsna Srikanth, the music is all, a combination of separate worlds which meld seamlessly, which remind us that we are not truly poles apart when it comes to appreciating art played by masters.
Ian D. Hall