It was almost like the guitars played themselves when Dylan Fowler, Dave Goodman, Eric Vaarson Morel and Frank Wingold locked strings with each other with their effortless strumming at the musical night organised by Black Dog. Interestingly, the invite had described this musical event as a jugalbandi. What struck me odd at that
moment was the fact that traditionally a jugalbandi is played with two different instruments in a friendly competition with each other. So how was this going to work with just the guitar at play? As it turns out, the four maestros had all the answers.
The evening opened with Dylan Fowler’s gentle ballads of Welsh origin with slightly Balkan influences. He got playful with some Macedonian rhythms and then again mellowed down with the soulful tune of a song titled Black is the colour of my true love’s hair. Soon after it was Eric Vaarson Morel’s turn to add some more life with some heavy dose of flamenco. While he parted with trivia about how the flamenco had its roots in the gypsies of Rajasthan, his furious strumming kept painting a picture of an exotic Mediterranean landscape in our minds.
And no sooner had we begun to lose ourselves when he decided to have some fun and began tap dancing, much to the audience’s fervent cheering. His feet were as nymph as his fingers and as the rhythms filled up the ballroom, the audience may have wondered: “who needs drums anyway?” But Eric was not done yet. He went on to compare the Indian ragas to the western ones saying, “Our ragas are not as profound as yours. They end in about eight minutes whereas your’s can go on for hours. This particular piece is dedicated to you.” And he went back to his guitar and played some tunes that were reminiscent of the Rajasthani roots of the Flamenco.
But how can a stringed evening go without some jazz? It didn’t. Eric’s exit (only temporarily) marked Frank Wingold’s entry as the “Jazzman” as he’s popularly known. Besides the music, what enthralled the audience further were the funny anecdotes and jokes cracked by these musicians in between. Frank’s skillful strumming went on to show the plethora of sounds that a guitar is capable of reproducing. After a few solos, he played one of his original compositions — a medley that combined some classical, jazz and rock oriented techniques.
We would have been really sad to let go of Frank, were it not for the very witty Dave Goodman who soon took the centrestage, without giving the audience a moment to ponder. His high energy and humour, coupled with a stylish voice and first class strumming made for the perfect last solo act of the evening. He took the audience through an array of emotions with soft ballads and high-powered blues, with an acoustic adaptation of the electric guitar.
The moment Dave rounded up his solo act, the three other maestros made a return to take back their seats for the finale performance of the evening, that had Dave crooning My Only Friend and on stage unleashed a battle of strings, the jazz vs. the blues. But the moment Eric turned on his flamenco charm, with his signature tap dance, the Jazz-man and the Goodman had to give in, albeit for a short while. What took the audience completely by surprise was when, the four of them resumed strumming suddenly after the standing ovation they got, leaving the audience only too glad to resume their seats. And the last few closing minutes was sheer musical insanity, beautiful in its spontaneity yet amusing in its playfulness.
Somewhere in the middle of his performance Frank had said, “When you put four guitarists with 24 strings on stage, one of them is sure to fall out of tune. Hard thing is to find out which one.” May be he was right. May be he was wrong. We shall never know. And gladly so.