Global Spirit

global spirit, originally uploaded by mincaye.

The most exciting thing about live music is the experience of raw energy and communication between the musicians and the audience; this is evident in everything from large orchestra concerts and solo classical recitals to marching band shows and U2’s live performances. But for sheer elasticity of time and sonic texture, nothing comes close to jazz, and Global Spirit’s concerts at the KL Performing Arts Centre from 16 to 18 March were about as good as it gets.

Global Spirit is led by saxophonist Greg Lyons of the United Kingdom, and boasts a cast of international musicians with roots and backgrounds as diverse and eclectic as their brand of music. Trumpeter Damon Brown hails from the UK, but lives in France; Finnish pianist Jarmo Savolainen studied with Lyons in the United States; bassist Christy Smith is an African-American with roots in two continents; and Lewis Pragasam, hailed by some as Malaysia’s God of Drums, traces his heritage back to India. Greg Lyons himself lives and performs in Malaysia.

In true Malaysian fashion, the concert on the 17th (which I attended) began some fifteen minutes late. But though there were false starts (when the lights dimmed several times) before the band actually took to the stage, we were not to be disappointed once they did. Leaving enough room only for a brief round of applause, the band took a bow and launched right into their first piece, a ten-minute blues number which immediately set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Altogether, they played some nine or ten pieces (a relatively good number for contemporary jazz) ending with Suraya, which capped the night at 11 p.m., forty minutes later than scheduled. But after all, that’s the wonderful thing about jazz: it’s impossible to tell when the show will end, what with flexible room for improvisations and solos, signature features of the genre.

In this, Global Spirit followed a rather predictable (but highly exhilarating!) pattern in most of their songs. Lyons and Brown led with the melody on wind and brass, while Smith and Pragasam formed the rhythmic backbone, with Savolainen playing something in between rhythmic back-up and melodic counterpoint. At some point, the saxophonist and trumpeter would take a breather, leaving the Finn to tickle the ivories with a subtle, icy humour. In turn, the rhythm section would take centrestage, with Smith developing the groove (and stretching time as if it were bass strings) and Pragasam heightening the tension with his highly energetic drum solos, before the return of the entire band.

Three things I immensely enjoyed above all. The first was their third number, a composition by Greg Lyons entitled ‘Built to Last,’ whose central melodic theme very much resembles the folk classic ‘Turkey in the Straw.’ (Lyons later mentioned that all folk music across the globe share similar pentatonic features, so it might have also sounded quasi-Chinese) The second was the informal, inviting setting: the hall (KLPAC’s Pentas 2) is a simple box, very much like a small cineplex, with terraced plastic seats. In fact, there wasn’t even a stage! Nevertheless, this simplicity only served to highlight the excellent music, and complemented by seamless lighting changes and dry ice, raised the overall performance to ethereal proportions.

However, it was the third element that lingers most: these musicians had no airs about them. During the interval and after the concert, they would mingle with the audience, chatting over a couple of beers or so. In a world defined by glamour and limelight, these highly-experienced international performers proved that what makes music resonate with an audience is its heart, which beats in simple and compound time alike across various continents, and whose soul is broad enough to encompass the world, yet small enough to gently warm the lives of its listeners.


(Thanks Soo Tian for inviting me, and thanks for being my date. It was great!)