Concert review: Wahh! World Fusion Band and others wow at the Straz Center

East-West musical fusion went main stream in the 1960s when The Beatles were introduced to legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar. Since then, Eastern influence on Western sounds has only continued to grow and Tampa happens to be blessed with a group that carries the mantle quite capably: Wahh! World Fusion Band. Wahh! is not an acronym; its rough translation is actually "Wow!" in Hindi. The name says it all. Lead singer and tabla player Shankh Lahiri lives and teaches in Tampa, manages the nonprofit Shruti Foundation, and plays in different ensembles locally, nationally and internationally. His connections helped him put together the program that took place this past Sunday evening at the Straz Center's Jaeb Theater, where Lahiri in collaboration with Wahh! and Shruti presented Musical Moments, a concert that brought some world renown Indian native acts together to perform Western-inspired Indian music and Eastern-inspired Western music, and culminating in a headlining set by Wahh!.

The show opened with a set of classical Indian music by sarod player Prattyush Banerjee as accompanied by Lahiri on tabla, both men seated on a platform at the center of the stage. The sarod is a lute-like instrument that looks vaguely like a sitar, with six main strings used to play melodies along with four others, plus a series of sympathetic and drone strings. Banerjee has played it all over the world and emcee/sponsor Dr. Meenakshi Jain claimed Banerjee was instrumental in the invention of the electric sarod.

Each of Banerjee's three offerings went from a slow, lonely solo handing-off to a much faster, tabla-accompanied verse then circled back to finish with a comparable solo on the sarod. The first, "Tilak Kamodh," was set in 10 beats and derived in part from Johann Sebastian Bach's Joy of Man's Desiring. "As New Age musicians, it's up to us to find similarities, links (between Eastern and western music)," Banerjee explained.

His next offering, "Rupak Tal," had a seven-beat meter and encompassed all the vibes of Spanish classical guitar dosed with an undeniable Eastern flavor. The last composition, "Megh" (or "Clouds"), was set in a 16-beat scale and thus had a quicker tempo that ended the set on a high note. Lahiri's tablas revealed remarkable tonal range, everywhere from a high-pitched tap on the rim to a deep, barreled resonance as Lahiri struck them with the heel of his palm. 

Next up were "The Violin Brothers," Desankar and Jyotisankar Roy, who've played the New York Philharmonic, the International Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the Moscow Conservatory, among other prestigious venues, and their talents were on full display throughout their set despite a few minor stage monitor hiccups. The Roy brothers lost their father just three days before the concert and dedicated their first song to his memory. It started slow and mournful but ended on an upbeat note with a really nice hook at the end. Despite moments when the artists seemed a little miffed over the sound balancing, they plodded on, their setlist touching on a beautiful rendition of the Italian tarantella and theme music from The Godfather. The brothers totally improvised one of the melodies and it blended seamlessly, taking listeners through that undulating, soulful tune. They wrapped their set with a full-bodied offering titled "Back to You" that found them speeding and sawing the strings so rapidly, the horse-haired bows began to shred. Lahiri matched their furious finish on his tablas and the set wrapped to a standing ovation.

Vocalist Jolly Mukherjee took the stage next and belted several Bollywood classics — "Man Re," "Chandan Sa Badan" and "Dukhi Man Mere" among them. He has a silky-smooth vocal quality and almost Sinatra-esque demeanor, but the fusion so prevalent in the opening sets wasn't as pronounced here. 

Lahiri is undeniably the frontman of Wahh! but six-string bass player Ray Villadonga has all the stage presence of a leader and it was he that hit the stage first and warmed the crowd with some entertaining antics clad in a traditional white Indian dress shirt, white slacks, and red Campbell's Soup Converse All-Stars. The remaining band members — guitarist Peter Mongaya, drummer Michael Washington and sitar player Rajib Karmakar — darted out one-by-one to juice up the audience. Finally, Lahiri made his entrance, laying down vocals that sound like Hindi skatting but were actually Lahiri spouting out tabla lyrics. Tabla has its own written and verbal language, and Lahiri is a master of it. He engaged the audience with simple call backs from the tabla lyrics, and then took his place behind a now-mounted set of tablas.

The group launched into "Darvish" on the heels of a unique sitar-guitar duel between Karmakar and Mongaya, followed by another of Lahiri's original compositions, "Desire on Fire," which leads off with a Hindu chant conducted by Lahiri but echoed beautifully by Karmakar on sitar. "There is no language for music, music has just one language and that language is from your heart," Lahiri said. By Wahh!'s set, nearly all the musicians who'd played that night were on stage, and their chemistry was amazing considering the mere hour or so of rehearsals the night before.

Twisting and curling chants segued to funk-vibed bass licks in "Desire on Fire" and blazing instrumental solos ricocheted around the stage. Fine tuning adjustments were the norm for the night as Lahiri used a small, wooden hammer to tap out just the right sound for "Liberation." The title track from Wahh!'s 2014 debut and one of Lahiri's first compositions with the band was greeted with raucous applause. The pulse of "Liberation" was accentuated by Lahiri's staccato tabla vocals and audience call backs. It had all the hallmarks of popular American jazz-prog fusion and jam band music but with a staggering level of diversity and intrigue. Lahiri jumped to his feet at one point as he called out the lyrics, possessing all the dynamism of an Evangelical preacher. It's no wonder Wahh!'s music is so deeply spiritual. A rock n' roll-vibing outro capped the Wahh! set and the last few musicians took the stage for the finale, assembling all 11 musicians who performed that night on stage at once.

The send off piece, "Charu Avenue," had its premiere in front of a live audience on this night. Its began with a creeping pace, like a storm brewing, before hitting epic crescendos and decrescendos, then segueing into a 15-minute instrumental jam that featured Surrendra Ramedhal adding accent on keys along with Shruti co-founder and Lahiri's wife Heather DeRigo — who also sat in with the Violin Brothers and Jolly — on percussion. The way all the sounds blended together without overloading the ears nor overlapping each other was extraordinary, and the performance finished to another standing ovation, the audience begging for more. 

It's baffling that Wahh! hasn't developed a stronger following among younger, non-Indian audiences but that's just what Lahiri and Wahh! have set out to accomplish. "We want to reach out to the non-Indian community (through Wahh!) and through the Shruti Foundation," Lahiri said later. 

Wahh! plays at St. Pete College every other month, and occasional other dates around town, so if you managed to miss this significant program, you can still get out and be wowed by Wahh! in the future. 

This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2015.