Oct. 14, 2011 - Light Sweet Crude

8/3/2019 Oct. 14, 2011 - Light Sweet Crude

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The Toronto Sun n Friday, OctOber 14, 2011 SHOWBIZ  63

Credit a non-committalIndian kathak dancer, theNorth Indian drums known asthe tabla, and the revolution-ary, classical Indian-avouredBeatles track Tomorrow Never 

Knows or sparking Jason Stei-dman’s love aair with Indianmusic.

 And it’s quite remarkable

 what he’s accomplished withhis appreciation and knowl-edge o the music, specii-cally, the raga, which is thepattern o notes in classicalIndian music that are used asthe basis o improvisation.

Lightsweetcrude, Stei-dman’s ive-member “ragausion ensemble,” just releasedits debut album, Listen to the

Colour and it’s a solid callingcard. Alternately visceral andmeditative, the music here

 will appeal to ans o groups

like Remember Shakti or theMahavishnu Orchestra. Andadding additional frepower to

the aair are several heavies who are well-versed in clas-

sical Indian music: GuitaristsFareed Haque and Rez Abbasi,tabla player Ravi Naimpally,bassist Ian De Souza and Amir

 Amiri who plays the exquisite-sounding santur, an ancient72-string instrument used inPersian classical music.

Lightsweetcrude will cele-brate the disc’s release at TeSmiling Buddha Tursday.

“A kathak dancer came to visit my studio back in 2000or so and she wanted to do anIndian-dance usion thing, but

she never returned ater ourfrst meeting,” Steidman says,tracing his interest in Indian

music. “Meanwhile, think-ing about this idea, oolingaround with some tabla sam-ples and a tamboura samplerom (he Beatles’) Revolver  (album), some things startedcoming together.”

Steidman conesses that when he embarked on assem-bling a project that would

bring together the best o Westand East, he realized how littlehe really knew about Indianmusic so he sought out aguru.

Steidman linked up withoronto-based Pakistaniilm composer and producerSohail Rana and studied thebasics o North Indian classi-cal music via the harmonium“which, despite the micro-tonalities o the music, madethe most sense since I already played keyboards.

“he more I learned, themore I was awestruck by thismusic and I did tons o listen-

ing,” Steidman recalls. “Tere was a period o several years  where I listened to almostnothing but sitar or sarod per-ormances and cassettes o my teacher or hours each day. So,at a certain point, I elt conf-dent to try writing some stu in raga, and it evolved romthere.”

He says he’s always loved  jazz and other improvisedmusic, adding that “the way North Indian classical musicis organized and executedis connected to jazz in some

 ways, but it’s also working inanother universe.”

Considering quite a ew bands are mixing classicalIndian with other styles o music, I ask Steidman whatsets lightsweetcrude apartrom the pack.

“ W e ’ r e a l l a b o u t r a g ausion, so all written melo-dies are written strictly in araga: Attempting to evoke a

speciic Raga while obeyingthe music’s ‘rules’ — exceptsometimes during improvisa-tion — and using this with anappropriate Western genre ororm that suits the mood andmovement o the raga in ques-tion,” he explains. “I also think the range o this project’s pos-sibilities or usion is wider

than most. here are Indo- jazz projects and projects thatincorporate Indian instru-ments and sounds with elec-tronic music, but lightsweet-crude’s mission is to let eachsong fnd its own way in termso genre or style.

“hat’s why you will hearthings move rom sur-rock toambient to unk to electronic,and I believe that the com-mon source holds all o thistogether and keeps it cohesiveand interesting.”NOTE: he Smiling Bud-

dha is at 961 College St. Doorsopen at 9 p.m. $7 gets you in.

errol

nazarethRhythms N’ Rhymes

Classic reggaeans should headto the StrictlyRockers DJ/MCnight tonight at Li’lyLounge. $5 beore11 p.m./$10 ater.

656 College St.

DJ Serious andDJ Numeric spinhip-hop and R&Bat The Red LightSaturday. No cover.1185 Dundas St. W.416-533-6667.

Guitar god JefBeck plays MasseyHall Tuesday. 7:30p.m. $55-$85. 416-872-4255 or visitmasseyhall.com

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thIS!Errol’s can’t miss list

Fusion reignsLightsweetcrude mixes jazz infuences, raga and the Beatles or a unique sound sensation

lI gH tS Wee t cr ude