Aaron Choulai – a New York-based jazz musician who was born in Papua New Guinea and spent his teenage years in Australia – brought together his past and present in ‘We Don’t Dance For No Reason’.
The cross-cultural performance featured the Tatana Village Choir from Papua New Guinea, and Melbourne jazz outfit ‘Vada’ and the outcome was an enriching experience of the lush, traditional songs of Papua New Guinea and subtle yet complex harmonies of Aaron Choulai.
Vada and the Tatana Village Choir, dressed in traditional Papuan costume, explored a range of musical colours, blending contemporary melodic sounds with traditional Papua rhythms and melodies.
At first, it appeared that the Tatana Village Choir might be suffering from first-night nerves, but they relaxed quickly, and we were treated to 16 stunning, unique voices, exposing rich harmonies distinctive to Papua New Guinea.
Accompanying video documentation of Papua New Guinea illuminated the strains of political, social and cultural modern life, and the people’s yearning to sing and dance for a reason.
Choulai arranged the music to feature the individual members of Vada. One interesting method involved Vada individually improvising to the choir singing, a crossing of genres gave the performance a real sense of the old and new combined.
Read the full review on the ABC Online website
