From December 2007 Southeast Performer Magazine: http://www.performermag.com/sep.livereviews.0712.php.

Devidasa

Schroeder’s New Deli

Rome, GA

September 27, 2007

Devidasa’s patchwork assembly of various instruments and ethnicities, as well as distinctly idiosyncratic clothing choices, immediately capture the visual experience of a world fusion band.

Devidasa began the evening with “World,” a funky tune driven by Jim Watkins’ snappy electric hollow-body guitar and tabla player Jeffrey Lidke’s heady rhythmic precision. This song lyrically connotes the musicians’ collective motivation for playing music: “The world is a beautiful place to live.” As the band happily steered their way through this track, it was clear that Devidasa truly enjoys playing music, and, if anything, is simply celebrating its conceivability.

The band’s liveliness and amiability on stage not only welcomed audience members to dance, but also seemed to inspire individual members of the band to stretch jams and explore space. Devidasa smoothly transitioned into “Mira,” a track that blended saxophonist Phil Lawson’s tasteful and economic touch with chanted mantras and mind-numbingly pacifying tabla beats. The spiritual implications of this song at once demonstrated the band’s investments in celebrating music while making plain Devidasa’s focus on unique songcraft and the weaving of musical trademarks. Although their tendency to improvise can result in long-windedness, Devidasa’s Indian/funk/jazz fusion is charming in its dire originality and there is much admiration for individual band members’ respective influences.

In accordance with Devidasa’s lively stage presence came a host of crowd-pleasing covers, including “I’ll Take You There,” “Give Me One Reason” and, most poignantly, Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” which saw Lawson bouncing up and down in excitement, masked behind dark sunglasses while paying candid homage to the song with impeccable exactitude. These American covers actively solidified Devidasa’s eccentricity as they contrasted wildly with the band’s preferred eastern influence.

Devidasa kept the party raging as they swooned into the jazz-inspired “Boom the Room” and the second set’s opener “Elijah.” Lawson’s low, provocative vocal performance during these songs painted yet another color of expression on the band’s kaleidoscopic pallet, as Devidasa garnered effectiveness from contrast once again; lead vocalist Liz Shearer’s voice is clearly feminine, distinctly bluesy and airy in comparison with Lawson’s thick intonation.

By the time Devidasa began its Indian folk jam “Let it Happen,” the myriad of genres the band was committed to was in full tilt. This song’s hypnotizing combination of chanted mantras, along with a groovy conglomerate of percussion instruments and a warm alto saxophone made this track their most memorable: jam-inspired but never lost in the oblivion of improvisation.

-Review by Brian Gilton; photo by Joe Cook