The stated aim of Manchester Collective, a chamber group based in the north of England, is “to reshape the future of classical music”. If Sirocco, their collaboration with South African cellist and vocalist Abel Selaocoe, is any indication, they have a good chance of at least making significant expansions to the genre's possibilities.
The vibe of their performance at the 92nd Street Y's Kaufmann Auditorium was more rock concert than chamber recital, complete with heavy amplification, stage haze and downlighting. Selacoe was center-stage and definitely the star of the show, but all five of the other performers had standout moments.
The program performed bore little resemblance to the works listed in the printed program, and the frequent speeches from the stage rarely addressed this. (Purcell and Haydn were mentioned, and arrangements of folk material by the Danish String Quartet that had subsequently been rearranged for this group.) But this is part of the reshaping, I imagine; it's not about bringing to life the intention of a composer, it's about the performance. Sirocco is a show by a band, which just happens to be made up of two violins, a viola, hand drums and electric bass, with their guest cellist/vocalist, rather than guitars, keyboards and a drum kit.
And the members of this band are terrific musicians. Selaocoe can sing with the elasticity of Bobby McFerrin, but also growl like the offspring of Louis Armstrong and a Tuvan throat singer. His cello playing is wildly imaginative in his own work and in improvisatory sections, disciplined and solid when playing the ink. Second violinist Simmy Singh shone on a number of improvisatory fiddle sections, while her sister Rakhi Singh, first violinist and Artistic Director of Manchester Collective, took more traditionally virtuosic classical moments. Violist Christine Anderson did not have as many solos, although her duet passage with Selaocoe in full throat-singer mode is something I will remember forever. Percussionist Sidiki Dembele, playing a variety of hand drums and shakers, often went full virtuoso, playing blindingly fast and complex rhythms (an audience clap-along, for which Dembele gave instructions entirely in pantomime, was a favorite moment). Electric bassist Alan Keary, playing a six-string instrument, was given only one extended solo passage, but unassumingly provided the foundation for the group's coherence throughout the evening.
The music – when not provided by Purcell or Haydn – was full of modal melodies, atmospheric drones and constantly shifting mixed and irregular meters. Along with the combination of instruments from different cultures, this is territory that has been explored by others since the 90s: Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyers and Paul Winter come to mind. Besides this particular assortment of sonic resources, though – and the juxtaposition of electric bass and hand drums is particularly effective – what Sirocco introduces is the shrewd repurposing of tropes from pop music, including the drastic changing of texture as a structural marker. Occasionally extended jams seemed to go on too long, but most often the adding or subtracting of groove elements was perfectly timed. When percussion and bass dropped out of a frenzied up-tempo to leave the strings sustaining the opening notes of what turned out to be the slow movement from a Haydn string quartet, I gasped.
The group wears the mantle of their cross-cultural collaboration and varied heritages perhaps a little self-consciously, if Selaocoe's stage patter is any evidence. I could have done without the sermonizing that kept popping up, at one point even during a song, despite the fact that I agreed with most of what was said. But perhaps the reshaping of classical music requires that sort of thing.
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