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Garaj Mahal has certainly created a serious buzz on the jamband
frontier. Their shows on the west coast have become legendary,
and by many accounts their highly anticipated debut in Chicago last weekend was off the hook. In fact, just about every one of about 10 music mailing lists I read these days has recently seen posts from various music fans gushing about how they had just been blown away by their first Garaj Mahal show.
This rabid fanaticism can be partially attributed to the virtuoso
level of musicianship each member of this band possesses. Guys like
Fareed Haque (guitar) and Kai Eckhardt (bass) are world-class musicians who have been dazzling audiences with their uncanny abilities for years. Eckhardt in particular has performed extensively with some of the most highly regarded musicians in the world, including the likes of guitar wizard John McLaughlin and percussionist extraordinaire Zakir Hussain.
Garaj Mahal was formed when Eckhardt and Haque combined forces with
young prodigies Alan Hertz (drums; formerly of KVHW) and Eric Levy (keys) to play psychedelic improvisational rock comprised of hard-hitting funky beats, deep modal explorations, and astonishing solos. Born a year ago amidst the thriving Bay Area jamband scene, Garaj Mahal quickly separated themselves from the pack. Their rabid fanbase has now spread all the way up the west coast, and they have started attracting the attention of some heavy-hitters in the jamband scene. Les Claypool recently enjoyed a Garaj Mahal show at San Francisco's Last Day Saloon. He enjoyed it so much that, a couple weeks later he steered his buddy Trey Anastasio (who was in CA working on the Oysterhead record) over to see Hertz's Alan Hertz Project at San Rafael's tiny Fourth Street Tavern (where Trey and Les were promptly invited by Alan to jam!).
Now String Cheese Incident's Michael Kang is in on the Garaj Mahal
action. While visiting friends in the Bay Area recently, Kang stopped
by drCrecording studio in San Francisco to lay down some tracks for
Garaj Mahal’s debut studio album.
I had the pleasure of being in the studio while Hertz and Kang reviewed some of the material they had just recorded. What I heard was simply exhilarating. The recording has a very raw, live feel, with a giant force of energy bubbling just beneath the surface, pushing the envelope at every twist and turn. Added to four of the songs was a complete mandolin track and a complete fiddle track,
courtesy of Michael Kang. Of course, they’ll probably edit Kang’s contributions down to a couple of sweet solos for the finished product, but man, would I love to hear that tape from the studio again!
"[Kang] was very professional. He just came in and knew exactly what to do, and it sounded great," Hertz told me later. The CD is scheduled for release in early 2002.
As for Kang, he was very excited about working with Garaj Mahal. "They are just such great musicians," he admitted. "We [String Cheese Incident] tried getting them to open for us at the Warfield in March, but it didn’t work out." He also pointed out that Eckhardt sat in as a guest with String Cheese one night 5 years ago, when that band was first starting to gain a sizable following up in the Colorado rocky mountains.
Colorado music fans are about to get their first taste of Garaj Mahal this weekend. The band opens for Project Logic on Thursday, and then headlines 2 shows in the Denver/Boulder over the weekend. (Maybe they'll be able to
stick around for String Cheese Incident's recently announced Fox Theatre surprise show next Monday?) Meanwhile, West coast Garaj Mahal fans can look forward to a number of festival appearances, including Family A-Faire, High Sierra and Tamarack Mountain.
Rob Winkler
[who has no association with Garaj Mahal,
other than having attended nearly all of
their Bay Area performances]
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