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High five >>
World-class talent at the 5H Music for
For the fine people at the International Association for Human Values, and their confrères at Canada’s Art of Living Foundation, the word “holistic” is spelt with five Hs. They stand for health, homes, hygiene, human values and harmony in diversity. And for the IAHV and the ALF, these five mutually inclusive goals aren’t just a matter of theory, of letter writing and armchair activism. They’re about practical application—getting out in the field, getting one’s hands dirty. It’s called the 5H Program. An overview of what good works the 5H people have accomplished could begin close to home, about a year ago. Not only did they bring sandwiches down to the site of the WTC attacks, they set up trauma tents to help ease those present through the ordeal. And they’d had practice—a similar trauma-relief program had been conducted in Kosovo, where the 5Hers also delivered food and clothing to those in need. On to Indonesia, specifically Tanjung Priok and Kampung Bahari, where 5H built two schools with potable running water and toilet facilities. These sturdier, better-protected edifices also mean school isn’t called off every other day over monsoon rains. Indonesian kids, 31 of them, also benefited from craniofacial surgery, again a 5H effort. Now, India—in the Bihar province, 5H has established 15 schools for 1,000 tribal youths. In Kwazulu Natal, Africa, a handicrafts workshop has afforded rural women economic self-sufficiency and self-esteem. Now, these efforts require funds, which is why the 5H Program has a project cooking here in Montreal. No, it’s not clean water, Brita’s got that covered. And it ain’t housing, though God knows we could use it. It’s a benefit concert, and a fancy one at that. Previous 5H concerts have showcased no less than tabla master Zakir Hussain and dhrupad singers the Gundecha Brothers. An obvious slant toward Indian music, which remains in place—just expanded by some Balkanization. The Music for Peace concert at Theatre Outremont this Friday features the talents of Pandit Swapan Chauduri on tabla and Aashish Khan on sarod, and also the guitar skills of Vlatko Stefanovski and Miroslav Tadic, as well as the percussion of Randy Gloss. Gloss, a hand-drum specialist and teacher at the Los Angeles Music Academy, has worked with artists from India, Turkey and Romania, as well as film-score composers Danny Elfman and Gray Chang. The two Yugoslavs, Stefanovski and Tadic, have already worked together on the album Krushevo. Stefanovski kickstarted his carrer with the band Leb i Sol, fusing Macedonian notions with contemporary rock, before going solo (the ’96 Unicef-benefit CD Sarajevo was one result). As for Tadic, he’s been pegged by Guitar Player as one of the most radical and inventive six-stringers out there. He’s worked with everyone from Terry Riley to Placido Domingo. Pandit Swapan Chauduri has won national awards in both India and the States in the same year, ’98. He’s also been nominated for Grammys, for work with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Asha Bhosle (as in Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha”). And Khan, son of Ustad Ali Akbar, helped get world-beat rolling at the turn of the ’70s with the Indo-American crossover band Shanti. Since then, he’s been seen in the company of Alice Coltrane, Ravi Shankar, Charles Lloyd and George Harrison (on whose Wonder Wall album/film he performed). : At Theatre Outremont on Friday, Sept. 13,
7:30pm, $25-50 (reserve at 528-0365 or >> Music Listings |
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