Volume 23 Issue 7 - April 2018

Beat by Beat | World View
Transcultural
Musical Health
ANDREW TIMAR
Oversimplifying a complex subject, I believe that all music is
essentially hybrid, reflecting the diversity and the hybridity
of our own music-loving species. What fuels the hybridizing
impulse when staying with the tried and true often seems the safer
musical choice?
The continual process propelling the evolution of musical culture
can be witnessed in seemingly small things. I’ve seen it sparked by
casual jams and offstage exchanges between musicians from different
cultures, for example. Such explorations have also occasionally been
instigated by adventurous composers eager to incorporate new sounds
or cultural sound-views in their scores and recording projects. I see
this kind of cultural transfusion as
a hallmark of the healthiest scenes,
those which will continue to thrive
among future music creators, interpreters
and audiences.
Relevant to this discussion is the
evolving notion of transculturalism.
Simply put, it is “involving, encompassing,
or combining elements of
more than one culture.”
The idea of the transcultural
society was developed
by the German cultural philosopher
Wolfgang Welsch. In
Transculturality – the Puzzling
Form of Cultures Today (1999) he
asserts that the notion of transculturality
takes into account “the
internal complexities and constant
variations characteristic of every
culture, as well as recognizing
the degree to which cultures are
becoming inseparably linked with
one another.” According to Welsch,
cultures today are no longer
homogenous and monolithic but rather have multiple intersections
and interdependencies which exhibit network characteristics.
A number of Toronto musicians and music groups have creatively
embraced the practices of cultural hybridity and transculturality (with
or without using that tag), putting the social reality we experience
every day on centre stage.
For this month’s column I’ve sought out music creators and
presenters among us who seek to combine instruments, melodies and
modes, musical forms, song lyrics, performance genres and practices,
presenting concerts mixing two or more musical cultures. Here are
just a few I’ve found.
KUNÉ – Canada’s Global Orchestra
Launched last year as The New Canadian Global Music Orchestra by
the RCM’s Mervon Mehta, and recently rebranded as the more mellifluous-sounding
KUNÉ (“together” in Esperanto), this Toronto world
music supergroup could be transcultural music’s poster family. (I
wrote extensively on KUNÉ’s origin story in my May 2017 column in
The WholeNote (NCGMO Explores the Power of the Collective) and
recommend a visit there for those who would like to know more
about this ambitious project.)
Directed by David Buchbinder, KUNÉ releases its debut album in
concert on April 7 in its Koerner Hall home. As I mention in my review
of the album elsewhere in this issue, it is a milestone in the group’s
“journey to create a band that looks and sounds like Canada today.”
After intermission David Buchbinder is joined by Grammy Awardnominated
Cuban piano master Hilario Durán along with their band
Odessa/Havana. They skillfully mash up the worlds of klezmer and
Latin music, creating new lyrical and swinging transcultural music
along the way.
Kiran Ahluwalia’s “LOVEfest: Welcome the Stranger”
Two-time JUNO Award-winning singer and songwriter Kiran
Ahluwalia’s concert “LOVEfest: Welcome the Stranger” is a case
study in transcultural performance. The production tours eight North
American cities in April. Its sole Toronto stop is on April 14 at the
Harbourfront Centre Theatre, part of Small World Music’s 16th Annual
Asian Music Series which runs April 6 to May 25.
Born in India, raised in Canada and currently living in New York
City, Ahluwalia makes songs deeply rooted in Indian and Pakistani
classical music and ghazal traditions. Her songs and arrangements
draw from her rich South Asian heritage but they are also
heavily influenced by African desert blues and American jazz. In
these disparate elements we can trace Ahluwalia’s own multicontinental
life journey, witnessing how she has morphed musical influences
from each into a sweet sounding emblem of
transculturality.
Kiran Ahluwalia Tagged as “an eclectic celebration of love and
diversity through music and dance,” LOVEfest
includes sacred and secular performers from both
Muslim and Sikh traditions. In an impromptu text
chat with me, Ahluwalia pointed out with concern
that these “two communities are currently experiencing
an alarming rise in hate crimes.” It’s an issue
evidently front of mind. The April tour supports her
new album 7 Billion; its second track Saat (Seven)
explores the faces of cultural intolerance. Says
Ahluwalia, “It is a theme close to my personal experience.
My story is that of an immigrant born in India
and raised in Canada. As an immigrant child the
hardships we faced were touted as temporary – the
effects were permanent.”
Onstage, Ahluwalia is supported by her crack fivepiece
band on electric guitar, electric bass, tabla,
accordion and voice. Affirming cultural diversity,
she welcomes to the show Souad Massi (Algeria),
the most successful female singer-songwriter in the
Arabic-speaking world today. Massi’s lyrics are about
creativity and tolerance, and the common human
yearning for freedom.
Adding cultural layers and spiritual dimensions to the concert,
the Bhai Kabal Singh trio of tabla, two harmoniums and three voices
performs songs in their Sikh temple kirtan tradition. Then Egyptian
dancer Yasser Darwish renders the tanoura, a colourful whirling
Dervish dance featuring multicoloured skirts that symbolically
demonstrate core values of Sufi spiritual belief, such as unconditional
forgiveness.
Now for an exclusive insider tip just for WholeNote readers. In
our recent text exchange Ahluwalia hinted she and Massi may be
singing a cover of a song by a renowned world music diva. After some
prompting, she revealed they’re working on Gracias a la Vida, the
song made famous by Mercedes Sosa, the late Argentinian giant of
Latin American song. It’s a telling choice. Written in 1966 by Violeta
Parra, a founder of Nueva Canción Chilena, the song stands as a
defiant, life-affirming response to political injustice while unblinkingly
reflecting on the bittersweet nature of life’s joy and sadness.
To a generation of Chileans Gracias a la Vida became an anthem
uniting people in times of trouble. For audiences on both sides of the
world’s longest peaceful border, LOVEfest’s program aims to demonstrate,
employing elements from diverse global cultures, what it feels
like to “welcome the stranger” though heartfelt music and dance.
“LOVEfest: Welcome the Stranger” also plays April 12 at the Oakville
Centre for the Performing Arts and April 13 at FirstOntario Performing
26 | April 2018 thewholenote.com
SWATHI REDDY