Tour write-up in The Times
When the Renga ensemble travelled to India, journalist Igor Toronyi-Lalic joined the group. He accompanied the musicians to rehearsals, workshops and concerts, and has written an overview of the visit in The Times:
‘One of the most intriguing aspects of the trip is the ensemble’s attempt to forge a viable and uncompromised musical hybrid made up of jazz harmonies and structures, classical instruments and Eastern melodies and rhythms. The bouncy, clean themes from the traditional Carnatic singer Ramamani are filled out by the jazz pianist Mike Herting and then coloured in by the other Renga members. The integrity is kept in check by long and slow rehearsals, in which a musical compromise is slowly hammered out. KCP4 coax riffs from their reluctant LPO colleagues, some of whom are visibly terrified (“I can’t, I’ll have nightmares”) and Scott Stroman tries to get his head around Ramamani’s entries during her complicated talas, or rhythmic riffs: “Seventeen beats times by three minus seven?” “We’re all discovering day by day what works and what doesn’t,” Stroman says. “We come from two cultures with very clear practices. You’re always trying to find out how far you can go— and that’s a lot of the delight in it for us. ” ‘
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