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Strumming the heartstrings

Laura Cortese and the Dance Cards meet Joler Gaan

Fahmim Ferdous
Music in itself is a language; one that needs not be taught, nor can it be. It can effortlessly diffuse through barriers - be it geographical, racial, cultural or linguistic, and connect people at a level no other medium can. The instruments may be alien and the timbre of their sounds unfamiliar, but the melodies they create, if done right, will never fail to resonate in the soul. Laura Cortese and the Dance Cards — an all-female string trio from Massachusetts, USA brought together by the love of traditional American music and Joler Gaan - the folksy-theatrical multi-instrumental ensemble from Dhaka, may be miles apart by all means, but their music echoed in unison, both in their individual performances and the surprise collaboration in the end.
The programme, organised by the US Embassy in Dhaka, was held at the main auditorium of the National Museum on Wednesday. Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy Jon Danilowicz gave the opening remarks, thanking the US Embassy officials and employees in Dhaka for their efforts to tell America's story to Bangladesh.
First on stage was Joler Gaan, in their usual demeanour, opening with “Boku! Phool". As they have done in
recent live performances, the band went on to sway the audience's mood between happy and melancholic, romance and loneliness, depressed to exuberant, with "Chithi", "Tomar Jonno Akash Bhora Tara", "Andhar Raite", "Pakhi'r Gaan", "Tumi Amar Pashe Bondhu I ley" and "Pata'r Gaan". Kanak Aditya's voice boomed in the coarse, folk tone while Rahul Anand brought out his improvised vocal variations and strange-looking instruments, backed by their intricate arrangement of stock and custom instruments.
Laura Cortese and the Dance Cards opened with a beautiful bluegrass number "Train on an Island* popularised by Jubal's Kin, and went on to perform a number of their own tracks -- some of them typically happy two-beat numbers, others emotionally profound, a couple of infectious fiddle tunes and a shaker hymn. Although the sound of instruments like the cello, fiddle and hardingfele are not very common to the audiences of Dhaka, and nor were the songs, it did not matter one bit. Be it the disco-like ups-and-downs, grooves of bluegrass or blissful, slow melody, the audience sat there and soaked it in. Laura appreciated the audience's clapping skills and gave them a moderately difficult beat to clap to in one of the songs, and the whole audito-
num was up to it, be it the teenagers at the back or the front-row dignitaries. All three members -- Laura (fiddle), Valerie Thompson (cello) and Mariel Vandersteel (fiddle) all sang magnificently, and got the crowd involved in humming tunes they had never heard before.
But the best bit of the evening came when Joler Gaan came back on stage for a collaborative performance. Despite the stage getting crowded with as many as 12 musicians, they had ample space for each other in the songs — the first of which was Joler Gaan's jazzy number "Ghorer Bhetor Ghor'. All three members of the string trio played a solo each - improvised, but blended impeccably. Laura then closed the show with an iconic folk number "This Little Light of Mine" as a tribute to recently-deceased folk legend Pete Seeger, adding a verse in Bangla "Dike Dike Amra Shobai, Alokito 1 lote Chai / 1 lote Chai, 1 lote Chai, 1 lote Chai" that she picked up during her performance in Chittagong a day earlier. It was Joler Gaan's turn to embrace the tune, and they dived right into it. From Jamal's percussion improvisations to Rahul's flute solo, and getting the audience to sing the last verse in chorus, the two bands bowed out, leaving traces of their marvelous melodies in the hearts of everyone in the hall.