Jazz Articles

Hellborg, Lane, Umamahesh, Selvaganesh, Umashankar: Icon

by C. Michael Bailey
May 7, 2003

Last year's Personae was a fusion powerhouse, laying creative waste to all in its way. Not content to rest on his muse, über -bassist Jonas Hellborg has set out after the polyphonic and polyrhythmic music of India. Hellborg and long term collaborator Shawn Lane apply their synthetic method, meshing East and West with Indian vocalist V. Umamahesh and two percussionists, V. Selvaganesh and V. Umashankar--who play the ghatam and the kanjeera, two types of hand drums used in the Southern ...

Hellborg/Lane/Selvaganesh/Umashankar/Umamahesh: Icon

by Jim Santella
April 2, 2003

Music: the universal language.

As civilizations developed around the world, music evolved alongside regional and cultural differences. The most basic of elements have always been there in common, but differences exist and continue to keep cultures apart. The human voice takes on various colors, even without language. Tuning may give one program preferences over another, depending on the listener’s ear. Then, there’s the instrumentation to deal with. The kanjeera, konokol and ghatam may be unfamiliar to many of ...

Hellborg/Lane/Selvaganish/Umashankar/Umamahesh: Icon

by Dan McClenaghan
March 10, 2003

Swedish-born bassist Jonas Hellborg--whose category-defying CDs have incorporated aspects of metal, jazz, fusion, Middle Eastern sounds, classical and punk--offers up Icon, music tinged with Sub-Continent sounds. He is joined by guitarist Shawn Lane, Indian percussionists V. Selvaganish and V. Umashankar, and Indian vocalist V. Umamahesh.Hellborg has played with John McLaughlin and The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Public Image Ltd., and he cites as influences Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, and--interestingly--the original '60s power rock trio Cream. Interestingly, because Hellborg's bass ...