I got Nellie McKay’s latest album on release day. I actually pre-ordered it. I don’t think I’ve ever pre-ordered a CD before.

This album couldn’t be more different [...]]]> I’ve always thought Nellie McKay was fantastic, and not just because she posed for my Photo of the Day site (I got a rare non-smiling photo!).

I got Nellie McKay’s latest album on release day. I actually pre-ordered it. I don’t think I’ve ever pre-ordered a CD before.

This album couldn’t be more different than her previous album, but that’s hardly surprising as it was a Doris Day tribute, which would pretty much enforce a certain style. So I’ll ignore that album for now that her previous album is 2007′s Obligatory Villagers.

This album couldn’t be more different than her previous album.

Alright, that might not be completely true. The album definitely has a very Nellie McKay feel to it, but it’s… almost gratifying to see that she continues to grow musically. I don’t think any of the tracks on this album would fit in on any of her previous albums, but it might not be very surprising to find them there – they’d just seem different.

Nellie is definitely exploring some new sounds on this album. From the caribbean almost-reggae Caribbean Time (not to mention Unknown Regge), to the New Orleans sounding Dispossessed and the more mellow , to the South American-ish ¡Bodega!. It also includes songs like Please and The Portal, which sounds to me like modern day incarnation of a Doris Day kind of song. There are also songs like Bruise on the Sky, which is straight-up current, but somehow without most current music’s inherent horribleness.

It was sheer luck that Nellie was playing a local venue this close to the album’s release. She played here not too long ago (right at the beginning of the year) so I didn’t expect to see her again for a while. We actually had tickets to see Richie Havens that night, but he had to cancel and Nellie came in on very short notice.

Now I have to mention that I really have no idea what her concerts elsewhere are like. I gather that the venue is probably similar (smallish jazz club), but she plays with an extremely local band. And I mean extremely local – they’re usually the house-bad for A Prairie Home Companion, which is an olde-timey-radio-variety-show and could not be more Minnesotan. I’d love to see her play somewhere else, just for curiosity’s sake, but my review is based on the local shows.

This was the third time we’ve seen Nellie play at The Dakota, which is pretty much the only place I really get to see live music at since they’re not insane volume. We had the worst seats we’ve ever had there, which meant we were three tables from the stage. We were kind of behind most the musicians, but the nice thing about that is you can follow along on the sheet music. Anyway.

Some of the songs from the new album (notably the aforementioned Bruise on the Sky) have reached a level of complexity that makes them suffer slightly when played live. This is a stark contrast to many of the songs from her earlier albums, like Sari off 2004′s Get Away From Me which sounds phenomenally better live, with just Nellie and a piano, than the overly-complex rap/slam style on the album.

Those are the only things I can think of that are even remotely close to negative, though.

(Although I can think of something funny – the second keyboard player had an electric piano set to vibraphone for much of the concert… but the opening act had an actual vibraphone player, and he was fantastic, bow-tie and all.)

One thing that alway surprises me when I hear Nellie McKay live is how amazing her voice is. This surprises me because it’s better than on her albums. She has a range that she just doesn’t use in recordings. I have no idea why. She can blast out volumes that shouldn’t be able to physically come out of someone as tiny as her, and she can turn her voice into a tiny silken thread that just wafts lightly through the room, but you know silk is actually super-strong so it kinda grabs you and I think I’ve beaten this analogy to death so I’ll stop now. It’s worth seeing her live just for that, though – you’re definitely going to hear some things you don’t get in her albums.

Another thing you’ll get that’s not on the albums is the chatter. Nellie is very chatty, and she’s a lot of fun. She talks about the songs, and just about what she’s been doing in general. During our show, she showed us a pair of shoes she got at Target earlier, and how well they go with what some people have dubbed her birth-control coat.

It was also an incredibly long concert, and there seemed to be a fair amount of improvisation. I’m not sure how much of it was planned, but given that this was, as I said, a very local band, they couldn’t have possibly had that much time to rehearse (then again, one thing about being a house-band for a weekly radio variety show is that you have to be pretty good at playing many different styles with not a heck of a lot of practice).

She also made fun of Sarah Palin, which is always a bonus.

And she stayed around after the show to sign autographs, chat with people and pose for incredibly silly art projects.

If Nellie McKay is playing anywhere near where you happen to be, go see her. Especially when she’s still playing small venues. I’d like to think there is a group of people who call themselves Nell Heads who live in a bus and follow her around. She definitely deserves it.

• Nellie McKay’s Official Website, and her tour dates.
• The New Standards Official Website. They were the opening act, and they were pretty good.

So I was sitting at a jazz club in Minneapolis watching Anoushka Shankar. Something about that is really kinda cool.

For those who have no idea who she is, Anoushka Shankar is Ravi Shankar’s daughter, and Nora Jones’ half-sister. Like her father, she is a virtuoso sitar player.

The sitar being one of [...]]]>

So I was sitting at a jazz club in Minneapolis watching Anoushka Shankar. Something about that is really kinda cool.

For those who have no idea who she is, Anoushka Shankar is Ravi Shankar’s daughter, and Nora Jones’ half-sister. Like her father, she is a virtuoso sitar player.

The sitar being one of the more insane musical instruments known to man. At first glance it seems like any other (really ancient) string instrument. In that it has strings, frets, tuning pegs and a resonance chamber. However, the resonance chamber is basically a hollow gourd, the frets are movable and there are over 20 strings. Most of them provide sympathetic resonance, and only a few (six or seven) are playable. Half of those are drone strings, and the rest are used for the melody. To top it off, there’s no standard tuning on the thing! They usually get tuned according to whatever piece is playing at the time.

Oh, and sitar pieces are usually 10-25 minutes long.

Being able to play the thing competently is an achievement in and of itself. Anoushka Shankar is one of (if not THE) best players in the world.

A few words about the venue before I go back to actually writing about the show.

The Dakota Jazz Club is an interesting concert venue. They usually feature, believe it or not, jazz acts. In recent years they’ve been expanding their horizons a bit, which is why I was able to see Nellie McKay (who is a BIT jazzy at times), Suzanne Vega (who’s not really jazz at all) and Judy Collins (a mainstay of folk) there over the past few years.

It’s basically a restaurant – during the show you get to sit at the restaurant tables/booths/bar, and the full menu is available. It’s a bit pricy and sadly very fish-heavy (though they’ve recently become accommodating to vegetarians). You can basically get dinner along with the show.

What I like most about it is that it’s not loud. I don’t know why concerts at ‘real’ venues, even small ones, tend to be so unbelievably loud. The Dakota is a very small place and they use the bare minimum of amplification. After all, it’d almost be possible to hear the music with NO amplification.

Being a small restaurant-ish place, you also get to sit pretty close to the action. We’ve gone to a couple of shows there where we literally had our feet on the stage.

They also seem to be pretty much OK with cameras. Most shows I’ve been to had people taking photos (with the flash on!) all night long. I hate being intrusive so I tend not to do that. Today I actually brought the REAL camera, which should be able to take decent photos without a flash (50mm f/1.4 lens, high ISO, this should be on the other blog).

And of course today they ask people to please not take photographs. I’d have tried to sneak some anyway, but it’s hard to be subtle with a huge camera. I did take one ‘photo’, and yeah, that’s it up in the corner. Great photo if you’re a ghost hunter.

Oh yeah, there was a concert in there somewhere, too.

The first thing you notice when Anoushka Shankar walks onto the stage is that she’s tiny. Really tiny. I had no idea. And sitars are HUGE, and played whilst sitting cross-legged (did I mention THAT up there?).

She had an ensemble of musicians playing other traditional Indian instruments. Two percussionists, a guy playing various flutes, and a guy playing a… uh. A drone instrument that’s very similar to a sitar (stop me if I’m getting too technical). They all got to feature their own solos (except for drone-guy) and were all amazingly talented musicians in their own right. The vocal percussion demonstration was especially impressive.

Anoushka was definitely headlining the thing, though. It’s always great to watch someone who’s just so good at something that they make it look easy, and this was no exception. Oh, another thing about the sitar, you play it while it’s basically facing away from you so you can’t actually see the strings or frets. Not that it really matters, since she had her eyes closed for a lot of it.

They played some of her own compositions, one of her father’s (though re-arranged by her), and a couple of traditional tunes.

One of her compositions was a collaboration she did with a flamenco pianist who’s name escapes me even though I was going to look him up when I got home. There was no piano in this show (The Dakota usually has a near-ubiquitous grand piano on stage, but sadly did not this time) so the composition was rearranged for the current group of instruments, and is apparently still evolving. It was very interesting to hear recognisable flamenco strands coming out of a sitar!

Another composition was a collaboration between Anoushka and the two percussionists. That was the one that had the vocal percussion. Vocal percussions is exactly what it sounds like, and yet it sounds nothing like you’d think. It was presented almost like a musical discussion between the two.

They played for a bit over an hour, and I think they only played five different pieces!

If you enjoy sitar music, or even if you’re not sure you do and are curious to find out, and this tour ends up anywhere near you, I highly recommend it. Or you can buy some of Anoushka Shankar’s CDs (her “Live At Carnegie Hall” album is my favourite). Or look her up on youtube!