Band adapts sacred Sufi music to Western jazz instruments
Thursday, February 16, 2012
By Brian McElhiney (Contact)
Gazette Reporter
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Proctors, 432 State St., Schenectady
How Much: $15
More Info: 346-6204, www.proctors.org
“In the beginning I was very nervous taking this sacred music and adapting it to people who aren’t in the actual culture, me and my jazz musician friends,” he said recently from his home in Falls Village, Conn.
“We started small in local clubs in Brooklyn, just as an experiment — we wanted to play this music, this beautiful music, but we didn’t want to offend anyone. If I had received letters saying, ‘Man, you guys can’t be doing this; it’s really disrespectful,’ we would have stopped.”
Instead, the opposite happened, as Brooklyn’s South Asian community ended up embracing the group’s unique take on the songs. The band has been branching out of Brooklyn, where Martinez first formed the group — on Friday night the band performs at Helsinki Hudson, and then heads to Proctors on Saturday night for the latest installment of the NYC Party Horns series.
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http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2012/feb/16/0216_partyhorns/