Nitin Sawhney: Royal Albert Hall, London
Gigs are back! In the luxurious surroundings of the Royal Albert Hall with an impressive lighting display, Nitin Sawhney and band celebrated diversity, humanity and musical craft as well as new tunes from Identity.
Ofcourse he did chillout club classic, Sunset — cue in seat bopping! At the same time, newer works were covered, also celebrating global music, collaborative talents and global artistry. I Am Roze sang beautifully — what a voice! YVA brought power and emotional punch to Cuban and jazz-influenced songs. We also got to hear Natty and Jazzi Sirius perform too; more personally, Nitin Sawhney’s dad and brother were sampled into one track. SPEK was unfortunately unwell, so we got to hear just his voice, which he’d kindly given permission to be used at the live event. Choir, London Contemporary Voices, provided sublime backing vocals.
Personally I preferred the more dancey numbers — but there was a lot of time here for beauty and reflection. The short interview with Niki Bedi plugging his latest album and the wider Journey events was a bit naff — the questions just weren’t very good (i.e. how would you like people to listen to your album?) There seemed to be a lot of buzz words in here without any substance. Thankfully this was short and then the music could continue!
Loved seeing Nitin Sawhney live — just playing away, whether on guitar or keyboard, literally being blinded by the lights in the vertigo-inducing cheap seats and appreciating all the performances, so many musicians here. Darling Boy and Because You’re A Woman (showcasing Shapla Salique’s vocal range) were both moving and amazing to listen to. Fantastic violinist too and the pressure when Nitin Sawhney had to remember the words during a Raga inspired song, which tremendously played with sounds and word lengths.
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