Rhythmic Prophecies – a latin-jazz trio from the USA performed on the 28th & 29th of November 2006 in Dharubaaruge (Faashanaa Maalam) at 2100hrs. Percussionist Reinaldo De Jesus, Bassist Luques Curtis and Pianist Zaccai Curtis kept the audiences grooving with their powerful beats and mind bending solos.
They also conducted workshops on latin rhythms from 1000hrs to 1200hrs on the 28th and, 1000hrs to 1300hrs on the 29th. The workshops were very lively and participants included kids, teenagers and adults – mostly local musicians. About 30 participants registered for the workshops through National Centre for the Arts (NCA).
One key selling factor with the workshop was that, they were able to translate rich musical ideas in a very non-technical way to the local audience. This was very important as most of the locals though very musically talented have not had any valid musical training in school. Secondly, they asked the participants to bring along their instruments and got them to experience the art of improvisation at its very fundamental level – again without dwelling into the technicalities.
The band was accompanied by Mr. Evan W. Owen (Press Officer of the Embassy of the United States of America in Sri Lanka) and Chamalie Weerasekera (Cultural Affairs Assistant at the American Center).
The event was coordinated by Mr. Shamoon Hameed (of NCA), who arranged for the logistics, the venue and media related requirements. Sound was hired from Island Music and Hambe was in charge of setting up the system.
The sound reinforment was totally a mic-ing affair. Care was given to maintain the overall acoustic nature of the sound without much processing. However, due to the low volume required for the event, I had to apply some minimal dynamic compression especially for the bass and bassy-percussions to maintain clarity at the bottoms. We used a total of 4 tops and 2 dual-subs from JBL SR series for the speakers, LX7 MkII for the mixing desk and processors from Digitech and dbx. Mics were primary Sennheiser and Audio-technica.
I really enjoyed being behind the mixing desk. We rarely get world-class musicians on stage here in the Maldives. And when we do get world-class musicians, my job gets a lot easier because of the level of control the musicians posses over their instrument. Once set, only a minimal adjustment from time to time is needed – nothing else!
Live / Tour Sound Company: Island Music, Maldives.
Team: Hambe and I