Jazz825 presents Shephali Frost Ensemble: Indo-jazz fusion

Shephali Frost is a Chelmsford-based Indo-British poet and world music performer; she trained in Indian classical music, and is also a student of the South Asian poetic tradition.

Heard at the JCUK in several previous poetry and jazz presentations, she now brings her own ensemble to perform for us, in an Indo-Jazz fusion style. ‘Indo-Jazz Fusion’ is more than just a stylistic label, as older listeners will know; it was also the name of a group led for many years by the late John Mayer, which included at different times notable British jazzers like the great Joe Harriott. Today’s ensemble has a direct link to that group: it contains John Mayer’s son, Jonathan Mayer, who will play the sitar.

The fusion is created by the presence of Indian and Western instruments: Trevor Taylor and Aslam Ali combine forces on percussion, while Zak Barrett (saxophone) and Shanti Jayasinha (cello) sit alongside the sitar in the front line; Indian and Western forms and rhythms combine too, to intriguing effect.