[photos by Amanda Hatfield]
I believe its safe to say that at this point The Hum music series has been an unqualified success. The concept was a unique one — place together various female performers from diverse backgrounds and let them make music. But in practice, it has become so much more than that. The results of these performances have created friendships, bonds, working relationships and as we’ve experienced live, absolutely breathtaking musical accomplishments. In the Spring, we attended and recorded all four of the sessions at the Manhattan Inn. This Fall, various commitments prevented us from attending all but one of the nights. But fortunately, the night we attended was a superb presentation and contained what for me is the most compelling performance of the entire series — the duo between uber-guitarist Kaki King and supreme percussionist Kiran Gandhi.
We were familiar with Kaki King, most notably from her supporting slot on the 2008 Mountain Goats tour. But her career has spanned more than a decade and includes eight albums. In the recent past she has released instrumental (Glow) and multi-media pieces (The Neck Is The Bridge To The Body) and that format gave a nice backdrop to this Hum show. Our only familiarity with Kiran Gandhi was that she was the drummer on recent M.I.A. tours — but a little of bit of research revealed that Kiran is truly a remarkable human being. She has toured internationally with M.I.A. and Thievery Corporation while simultaneously achieving an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She has her own TED Talk, is a mathematics genius, oh and yeah, ran the London Marathon — all by the age of 25.
The set begins with Kiran’s sincere thanks to the Hum and to its founder Rachael Pazdan. As Kaki began the opening riff, the duo flowed effortlessly into what we believe is an original composition for this night, a track titled with both performers’ last names. Thematically, the opening number is similar to the songs that followed which include two numbers from Kaki King’s recent albums (Glow and The Neck). “Wazey” is a Madame Ghandi song that became the centerpiece for the set when Kiran involved the very willing crowd over whom she harmonized a coda to the song. It was a moment that truly captures the sense of discovery and community that The Hum has created and brought and end to this installment of the series with a very appropriate close. The Hum will return, likely in early 2016.
I recorded this set as we did the Spring, with Sennheiser cardioid microphones mounted on stage and mixed a board feed. The sound quality of this particular recording is quite remarkable, as the instruments are clear and panned in the appropriate layout of the room. Enjoy!
Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]
Stream The Complete Show:
Kaki King and Kiran Gandhi
2015-10-26
The Hum
Manhattan Inn
Brooklyn NY
Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + On-Stage Audience Matrix
Soundboard + Sennheiser MKH-8040s > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (mixing) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3/tagging via Foobar)
Recorded and Produced by nyctaper
Setlist:
[Total Time 33:42]
01 [introduction]
02 King Gandhi
03 Cargo Cult
04 Distillery
05 Oobleck
06 Wazey
07 Percussion Breakdown
08 [thanks]
09 Dad Band
If you download this recording from NYCTaper, PLEASE SUPPORT these amazing artists:
KAKI KING and KIRAN GANDHI.
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