Maithree: The Music of Friendship

This album finds celebrated Indian veena player and vocalist Nirmala Rajasekar gathering a few friends to make an acoustic fusion of strings and percussion. Said friends include celebrated mridangam (lap drum) player Murugaboopathi (aka Boopathi), cellist Michelle Kinney, brothers Pat O'Keefe (saxophone, clarinet, cowbell) and Tim O'Keefe (percussion). The musicians gathered in the US Midwest – not somewhere previously considered a centre of East-West musical fusion – with the idea of asserting cross-cultural friendship; in our era of Trump and populist nationalists (including India's ruling party) this is a valuable message. Thankfully, the ensemble do not sing slogans of unity but play in harmony. Elements of Western classical feed off Indian classical – with Pat's clarinet and saxophone travelling between the two – while never sounding forced. The album begins with ‘Mary O'Neil’, an Irish song reimagined through a Midwestern cultural fusion. The album's title-track is an Indian composition written for a 1966 United Nations concert that emphasised peace and friendship and here it sparkles as the ensemble explore its textures. My favourite is ‘Nihavent Oyun Havası’, a Turkish tune that finds Pat playing sublime, silvery clarinet. This album deserves wide attention for both its beautiful music and message.