JOIN USAmazing the audience with his musical splendour, French musician Abaji performed at ‘Mediterranean Blues’ concert at the Alliance Francaise recently.
Known as a ‘One Man Orchestra’, Abaji left the audience mesmerised with each piece that he performed, where he swapped between different instruments with great ease.
This Lebanese-born multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter’s passion for instruments could be seen easily as he explained a bit about each of the instruments he played and a history of the same.
What equally surprised the audience was that his voice, which reverberated in the venue, was as spellbinding as the music from his instruments.
His works, as he explained, span across many countries and some of the instruments that he brought to the City included the bouzouki, saz, oudguitar, lyra kemencheh, percussions, harmonica, bamboo flute, Armenian bass duduk and Colombian bamboo saxophone.
While he played different pieces like ‘For A Cloud’, ‘Red Sand’, ‘Isavera’ and ‘Origine Orients’, he encouraged the audience to sing along and kept praising it by saying, “Everyone in Bangalore is a singer.”
The music-lovers were extremely impressed with Abaji’s performance and this could be seen in the way they kept asking for more and gathered around the performer after the show to discuss his music.
Commenting on the show, Abaji said that the audience wanted to play along and that made him happy.
“The size of the hall is perfect and the audience was an open and joyful lot. They let the musical experience reach to them and that was very special,” he said.
Abaji added that the music he played was very personal and he tried to make it as vibrant as possible by experimenting on stage too.
The audience had no words to express its excitement about the performance. “His experience and talent added to the varied sounds and musical notes that he tried to create on stage.
What was unique was how he could interchange between different instruments and sing along at the same time,” shared Athira Kurup, a music connoisseur.
Allen Swartz, a French student in the City, said that he had never heard something so different.
“Music can always take one to a different place.
But this performance was so relaxing yet lively. It was like being in a state of trance,”
he said.