Jeff Lang, Bobby Singh & Mamadou Diabate – The Basement (8th Jan, 2009)

9 January 2009 by Max Easton

You’d struggle to find three places on the globe more separate from each other. Draw a triangle from South-East Australia to Western Africa, complete it in West India and you’ve covered around 30% of the planet. Now minimize that triangle so that three of the finest examples of the respective countries folk music combine for a single show at a packed venue nestled in Sydney’s Circular Quay. The result is Mamadou Diabate (Mali grown, US based master of the traditional West African, 21-string Kora,) Bobby Singh (British born, Mumbai trained lord of the tabla) and Jeff Lang; widely regarded as Australia’s finest Blues musician. Descending upon Sydney, the three have established a show that highlights their individual strengths whilst drawing upon their creativity to splice three instruments rarely seen together for an amazing demonstration of skill and musicianship.  

Mamadou Diabate opens the gig, his 7-foot frame towering over his Kora; a 21-string, 4-foot tall instrument resembling a harp wedged into a pow pow drum. He spends some time taming the beast, sliding bands across its shaft to tune before beginning a fleet-fingered demonstration of skill and awareness of the limits of his instrument. The sound is hauntingly beautiful and the manner of playing visually stunning; his hands gripping two handles, with 10 strings either side of a single bass string played (somehow) by only his index finger and thumb. He plays mostly instrumentals, the songs losing their novelty as the limits of either the Kora, or Mamadou’s creativity are reached, resulting in repetitive examples of what the Kora can do. This stumbling block is jumped for a short song where he introduces vocals in Malian tongue to impressive results. He seems hesitant to sing though, and occasionally sings away from the microphone where he feels more comfortable. He finishes off with a couple more instrumentals before departing with the introduction of Jeff Lang and Bobby Singh. 

Jeff Lang begins his signature banter and storytelling as he hoists his resonator to his shoulder and tunes alongside Bobby Singh who sits cross-legged atop a carpeted platform in front of an impressive array of Tabla. Then the night reaches its highlight, with Jeff playing three tracks from his catalogue to the backing of Bobby Singh. He moves from resonator, to acoustic, to slide guitar, through ‘I Still See You’ to ‘Copper mine’ from his recent album, ‘Half Seas Over.’ The Tabla is a fantastic and unexpectedly suited backing to Lang’s eccentric guitar solos and lyrical content coated with Australiana. In three songs, the price of admission pays for itself; this is Jeff Lang as he’s never been heard before and the result is nothing short of stunning.

With the final chord of ‘Copper Mine’ struck, Jeff Lang takes a backseat as he and Bobby Singh play a Tabla focused track found on their collaboration ‘Djan Djan.’ After these two share their moment, Mamadou returns for more tracks from the aforementioned album, with Mamadou’s elaborate Kora taking center stage. The show takes a steep drop in mood and the resulting 30 or so minutes take on a laidback feel as Jeff Lang’s slide guitar mingles with Mamadou’s Kora to the backing of Tabla. As hauntingly beautiful as the three instruments sound together, the absence of vocals and domination of the limited range of the Kora result in an experience which is very similar from song to song. While the sound itself is beautiful, the development of each song is rarely cohesive, feeling more like a demonstration of the range of each instrument rather than an experience in melding three styles of music together. The result, at 11:50pm on a Thursday night is a soft nudge from my neighbour as I fall into unconsciousness.  

The show is a fantastic experience. It’s a prime example of three absolute masters of their respective styles of music coming together to demonstrate exactly why you should give up trying to learn ‘Smoke on the Water.’ After you see this show and experience the skill of these artists, it’s pretty much time to throw out the dusty old guitar you were given for your 13th birthday, the Djembe you drunkenly purchased at your first festival, the trumpet you stole from high school music class and the bass guitar you found at a garage sale, yet never played. These three men are master’s of their craft and demonstrate the result of countless hours of study and practice in a single strum, pick or strike (which can be nothing short of disheartening.) It’s most definitely worth seeing if you get a chance to catch the tour as it continues throughout the country, but it may not be everything you were hoping for.

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