American Patchwork Quartet
In February, after hearing American Patchwork Quartet (APQ) on NPR, I decided to go watch them in concert. In the NPR interview, American Patchwork Quartet puts new spin on familiar folk songs | Here & Now featured band members Falu Shah and Clay Ross.
I watched their performance, “This Land is Our Land” at Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center. Double-billed with Martha Redbone Roots Project (Martha Redbone), both sets did not disappoint. The American Patchwork Quartet collaborations mixed distinct ingredients to create a true salad bowl of musical goodness. For desis like me, their music feels and sounds like a homecoming I didn’t know I needed.
APQ consists of Clay Ross (vocals and guitar), Falu Shah (vocals), Yasushi Nakamura (double bass), and Clarence Penn (drums), and among them, the group boasts several Grammys from previous projects.
Indo-American fusion
Historically, musicians outside and within India have created a rich tradition of collaboration over several decades and across various genres. Hindustani and Carnatic ragas and instrumentation blended with electronica, jazz, blues, and pop have infused musical mashups by diverse artists. From Ravi Shankar to Zakir Hussain, Indian Ocean, Aki Kumar, Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones, Berklee Indian Ensemble, Parikrama, and Euphoria, cross-musical collaborations have produced wonderful results.
In an email, Ross credited these earlier collaborations with influencing APQ’s taste and pursuit of musical excellence. “But,” he added, “I think that what we are doing with APQ is unique from other projects. [Our music is] different in its framework and defined social mission. We are exploring a repertoire of timeless American folk songs in order to broaden the definition of what it means to be “American” in the 21st century.”
Connections
APQ adds its considerable talent to a new and unique iteration of music that fuses Hindustani ragas with familiar and some unfamiliar works that have roots in American folk genres.
Shah and Ross spoke to CBS New York earlier on February 27, 2024, about bringing various genres of music together. Ross, born in South Carolina, said he was a huge fan of global sounds and global music and was also “looking at the connections between jazz and blues and country music.
Shah explained how she merges the mechanics of Hindustani music and Western scales. Hindustani music involves ‘microtonal singing” that “are the notes between the black and white notes on the piano,…they emote and express much more than I can do with the (Western) 12-note scale…’
Live Performances, Novel Music
At their concert, my three favorite APQ performances were “Shenandoah,” “Wayfaring Stranger,” and “Lazy John.” The first two employed the gamakas (the bending, sliding, and embellishments) and Alaap (vocalization) from Hindustani music, while the third, showcased the group performing a straight American folk classic.
Falu Shah is an 11th-generation Hindustani classical vocalist. Her intro to “Shenandoah” (a song which in part speaks to leaving from and longing for a place, a home) with an Alaap, set the ethereal and melancholic tone for this popular American folk song. The spare echoing of the tune by electric guitar, accompanied by the double bass, and drums after Shah sang a verse, created a novel and striking rendition.
Shah told Marco Werman of The World (June 17, 2024) that Shenandoah “…is about from one mountain to another and one river to another. So Shenandoah versus Ganga, both are rivers, both are beautiful…there’s no difference between waters, there’s no difference between human beings and music…I feel connected to both.”
“Wayfaring Stranger” also spoke to themes of arriving ‘home’ through death and what awaits there. The poignant lyrics ‘I’ll soon be free from every trial…this form shall rest…going over Jordan, I’m just going over home… ” rose to the fore through minimal instrumentation.
Lighter in tone, mood, and lyric, and utilizing more electric guitar by Ross, “Lazy John,” offers a simple description of a man who is asked, “Why don’t you get your day’s work all done?” With its gently chiding lyrics, the piece produced a playful counterpoint to some other numbers in their performance that night.
The award-winning Martha Redbone Roots Project took the stage after APQ, with their rousing fusion of blues, gospel, and folk with clear influences from Native People’s music Redbone, who speaks of her Black and Native ancestry and how they inform her work encouraged the audience to sing along.
APQ joined the ensemble to perform the hauntingly beautiful “40 Wheels,” written and composed by Redbone and her partner Aaron Whitby about the Trail of Tears and Indian relocation. The groups finished the evening with Bob Marley’s “One Love” which the audience joined with gusto.
America, Immigrants, & Music
Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts organization is APQ’s fiscal sponsor. APQ’s tagline on their website reads: ‘Reclaiming the Immigrant Soul of American Roots.’
Falu Shah has said of American folk music, “It’s music that goes from one heart to another” to “…spread the message of peace, unity, diversity, and acceptance.”
“That’s the one thing that connects us,” Clay Ross told The Bluegrass Situation on February 19, 2024. “No matter how different we are and how radically different our pasts and our backgrounds may be. We are now all connected as Americans and so we all have some access and an entry point into these American folk songs. They can be a part of our story now, whether they were a part of our traditions up until now or not.”
Ross and Shah welcome opportunities to share their global perspective on American music “because we see American society becoming a global society.” They hope that audiences enjoy their music and that it helps them reflect on the universal language of music. “Specifically, we hope it helps more Americans feel connected.”
American Patchwork Quartet and the Martha Redbone Roots Project will combine their musical forces once more in the Bay Area, at Cal Performances This Land is Our Land | Cal Performances 2024-25 Season.