Jazz update

I must admit, I had severely underestimated the prowess of a five-string bass until I watched that Flecktones concert video yesterday. Now because Victor Wooten is an unbelievably demented and probably the most brilliant cat ever to hold a five string, he can do to harmonics what Wodehouse can do to the idyllic British life.

There are at least 5 harmonics hidden on each string below the fifth fret, adding up to some 25 on a five-stringer, which can be used to construct a fairly complex piece with a simultaneous bassline no the E and A strings. Who'd have thunk! You have to see Victor do it to believe it. Besides Victor, the only bass player who has experimented so extensively with harmonics is Jaco Pastorius, expecially in the latter half of his career.

Hazaar magajmaari later, I laid my hands on five bootlegs of the Jonas Hellborg-Shawn Lane-Andrea Marchesini India Tour. While the Delhi concert, which I had incidentally attended in 2003, is a tight set featuring a spunky Time is the Enemy. The Someplace Else and Tripura House concerts are quite similar but a little predictable. The two-disc Aizawl concert is probably the most complex and best technically speaking.

Meanwhile, the Sunny Jain Collective is touring India and I hope to catch them while in Delhi.