Inner Circle Music
Rating: Four stars
In this New York recording vocalist Kavita Shah has no fewer than 14 musicians supporting and the music reflects her background in Mumbai and Brazil. There are several Ragas, a tabla interlude and songs in Portuguese. Co-produced by Shah and guitarist Lionel Louecke the songs range across Shah’s arrangements of numbers by well-known composers together with several of her own compositions. The title track like the original by Stevie Wonder is delivered in a Latin rhythm but there’s more rhythmic emphasis here using drums, percussion and tabla. A vocal chorus is included in Visions and ex-Australian pianist Steve Newcombe provides a flashing solo.
The blues-inflected Joni Mitchell song Little Green also features Newcombe’s piano along with Michael Valeanu’s guitar and a pretty kora (African harp) solo from Yacouba Sissoko as Shah’s voice, softly at first, gains force and climactic strength and then modulates to a gentle conclusion. Wayne Shorter’s Deluge with Shah’s lyrics includes an appropriate alto sax solo from Steve Wilson and features the vocalist’s scat over tabla, kora and percussion. Three ragas each add a string quartet to traditional-sounding Indian music and there’s some outstanding tabla from Stephen Cellucci in passages alternating with the vocalist’s Hindi phrasings. A reprise of the anguished Portuguese opener Sodade (Sadness) is the final track delivered in a very slow, delicate arrangement for vocal and acoustic guitar.
This is an unusually varied collection in both content and arrangements, bridging influences from Africa, India and Portugal. In addition to Shah’s vocals, Special attention, is given to her arrangements which achieve a quite grand, sweeping quality.
