Two Djinn Summon a Smokeless Fire
Justin Adams & Mauro Durante offer a magical, transformative performance in Buffalo
Perhaps my friend, the Buffalo DJ and concert promoter Anita West, said it best.
“Look around this room, Miers. You see who’s here and who isn’t. I guarantee in the future, there will be 25 times as many people claiming they were here than actually were. It’s one of those kinds of shows. Legendary.”
For those of us who did fill the intimate space that is The Blue Room - in the downstairs lounge area of Kleinhans Music Hall, home of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra - a cross-cultural musical journey was our reward on Friday, courtesy of guitarist/vocalist Justin Adams and violinist/vocalist/percussionist Mauro Durante.
Touring in support of their 2021 release Still Moving, Adams - a solo artist, producer, top-tier collaborator and longtime creative foil for Robert Plant - and Durante, leader of Southern Italy’s revered ensemble Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, summoned a subtle, trance-like state as they ably married Mediterranean, Northern African, Middle Eastern, Celtic, and American Blues influences into a bold and yet somehow familiar hybrid.
Simultaneously modern and emblematic of a variety of deep musical traditions, the sound conjured by the duo was a captivating one.
The pair opened with the nor-ish, Delta blues-inspired ‘Dark Road Down.’ Here, Adams’ vocal suggested what it might have sounded like if John Lee Hooker had recorded in the Sahara, and his finger-picked electric guitar lines parried with the strident shuffle propelled by Durante’s mastery of the frame drum and the keening intonations of his vocalizing.
This was simply stunning stuff, a seemingly effortless bridging of perceived divides between musical cultures.
From there, we were off and running, wide awake and dreaming, as the pair made plain to us the rarely explored interconnectedness between mantra-like, drone-based improvisations, inspired takes on traditional pieces from Southern Italy, melodies that might be described as Irish in origin, and the exploitation of semi-tones that is a mark of Indian classical music - all of it dusted with a dash of post-rock, courtesy of Adams’ subtly effect-laden modal explorations.
The peak of it all came with the elegiac Djinn Pulse, with Adams’ reverb-drenched arpeggios creating a billowing cloud around Durante’s pathos-soaked violin lines, the piece building in intensity as Durante’s performance became more strident, but never losing its deeply emotive strain.
Cupa Cupa deepened this dream-like state, Durante’s vocal offering eloquent counterpoint to Adams’ Arabic blues motif.
It all felt like a lovely, lulling hallucination.
The crowd received all of this with a blend of rapt attention and clear gratitude, standing and clapping rhythmically (in time, no less!) as the show neared its finale, and clearly appreciating the deeply moving intimacy and immediacy of the event.
West was correct. This was a show bound to enter the realm of the legendary.