Tatopani - Warm, Robust World Rhythms
Tatopani
Absolute Blue
February 23, 2019
Christopher Hardy クリストファー・ハーディ– percussion
Robert Belgrade ロバート・ベオグラード– clarinets, sax, tabla
Andy Bevan アンディ・ベヴァン – saxes, flutes, didgeridoo
Harutoshi Ito 伊藤ハルトシ – cello, guitar
Frederic Viennot フレドリック・ヴィエノ – piano and keyboard
World music often comes off as souvenirs from some trip, but Tatopani has not only traveled the musical roads, but lived in the villages along the way. They’ve spent time soaking up rhythms, immersing themselves in varied textures and tapping diverse springs of musical energy. The five members of Tatopani bring all that together into their own special sound—a potent global blend.
Tatopani, named after a famed hot spring town in Nepal, got its start with the core trio of Hardy, Belgrade and Bevan, but the trio is boosted now with the addition of Viennot and Ito, who expand the original concept with deep musicality and multi-instrumentality.
What’s most intriguing about Tatopani is how difficult the time signatures are to play and how easy they are to hear. Whatever complexity is put into the music comes out as an ear-tickling soundscape from the Middle East, India, Africa, Europe and America. It’s jazz in the sense of constant motion, but it’s world music in feeling, rhythmic refinement and deeply emotive playing.
A song like “New Directions” played in 7/8 time, sounded Turkish, but also brought a layering of European sonorities, with piano and cello broadening the soundscape. “Mukkuri” also in 7/8, sounded entirely different, though, by dividing the time into three plus two plus two patterns that flowed, and swung, as easy as any 4/4 jazz standard.
Tatopani’s music was minimalist at times, with just a note or two from everyone keeping the flow, and with each note adding a fresh idea or feeling that rippled outward to embrace the others. Less is more—but a lot, lot more—when all five members stay out of each other’s way while complementing each other. They mix around rhythms, but also switch instruments to reframe every song, switching cello to electric guitar, sax to didgeridoo, sax to tabla.
The lush, full textures of tunes like “Medio Loco” and “Out of the Blue,” were complex and moving. Everyone one in the group added not just notes, but a full range of experiences, instrumental textures and musical traditions. The music springs not just from instrumental technique nor just from a ranging global vision, but from someplace deep inside the emotional experience of the musicians.
What makes Tatopani so unique is not just the tricky 13/8 or 6/8 switch-ups, but the way they draw on the musicians they’ve met, the places they've made music and the way they still express their actual, musical, and emotional travels into a fresh and evocative sound that is all their own.
Tatopani is recording a new CD, so keep an eye and an ear out for that soon!