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Stories   >   Kavita Shah - Visions / About.com review

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Kavita Shah - Visions / About.com review

Posted: May 27, 2014

Diversity is the watchword of today's young artists, whether they're piano players from Cuba or singers from New York City. Kavita Shah is the latter, a third generation New Yorker of Indian descent who speaks four languages, has sung in many more, has studied ethnomusicology at Harvard and who considers NYC hip hop radio station HOT97 among her many influences.

All those many elements of her musical personality come together on this set, produced by guitarist Lionel Loueke and released on Greg Osby's Inner Circle Music. The title cut is her vision of Stevie Wonder's Visions portrayed as a tabla driven funk.

The repeating chime and piano figure on Joni Mitchell's Little Green effectively distills the song's pastoral essence; the tabla interlude that follows sets the table for Shah's interpretation of rapper M.I.A.'s Paper Planes, also stripped of its adornments and distilled to its very core. Jobim's Triste, one of three Latin pieces here, is also quite beautiful, a nice pairing of Shah's light voice and the flute contribution of Steve Wilson.

Don't be fooled by the abundnt use of the tabla or Shah's willingness to explore the music of her ancestry. This is not an Indian music record; it's a jazz record though and through.