Galitcha: a musical feast and afternoon of love
By Bruce Mason, Gabriola Sounder
Monday, March 24 2008
Translated, its name means “tapestry,” and this is one group that has quite literally played all over the world, at festivals and concerts, house concerts, and school performances, workshops, weddings and community halls, from Montreal to Morocco, and yes, even Tombouctou.
A Galitcha performance at New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts was described as “an evening of love… Galitcha is that rare blending of superb musicianship and emotional connection.”
Their appearance here on Gabriola will be an “afternoon of love” - Saturday, March 29th at 3 pm in the Roxy - but still feature a unique and fascinating blend of original compositions based on North India music, combined with influences from jazz, world and North American folk, and instrumentation also from all over the place.
When was the last time you heard vocalists accompanied by tabla, saxophone, harmonium, guitar, ik tara and other instruments?
Think of the group as a movable feast and the matinee as a rare opportunity to taste the music now being played all over the Global Village, one of the most hopeful and exciting signs that life on the planet is evolving as it should and must.
An intriguing feature is this is a versatile and visionary Canadian band touring the world and inviting audiences to experience a host of musical sensations - from love songs to lively dance tunes, alternating between French and English, with explanations of the meaning of songs sung in the Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi languages.
Leader Kujlit Sodhi was born into a musical family in Amritsar in the Punjab region of India and raised in Montreal.
Based in Ottawa, he formed the ensemble in 1996 with highly accomplished musicians and performers who studied jazz and classical music at universities in Eastern Canada.
The current tour includes Pender and Salt Spring, performances at schools in Surrey, Delta and Squamish and concerts in Vancouver.
On Gabriola you will enjoy Sodhi, on vocals and East Indian dholki drum, joined by Chris MacLean singing and playing the guitar, the accordion-like harmonium, Appalachian dulcimer and a one-stringed banjo called a gopichand; Linsey Wellman on saxophones and flutes; and Shawn Mativetsky on East Indian tabla drum, dhol (barrel drum) and percussion.
The matinee provides a rare opportunity to experience a culturally diverse Canadian sound performed by top-ranked musicians engaged in the creation of a truly international art form
But the performance will be about much more than the music, impressive as that is.
Galitcha has earned an international reputation for its inspiring sense of devotion - to the muse, to each other, to the audience - which is consistently part of their presence on and off stage.
Admission is $12 by reservation, or $15 at the door. To reserve call 247-7123 or email hey@zula.ca.
For more information on the group, visit: www.galitcha.com.
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