Zinedine Tsigane: A travelling show

 

When I looked at the date stamp of the photoset for this post I became aware of how long it has been since I wrote a piece. The beginning of this story goes back even a bit further, to Chinese New Year. It was the first time for us to brave the great beyond and cross the Tuas border into Malaysia on our loyal Honda Silverwing. We were off to a couple of days Melaka.  We had been there several times before by car with friends and liked the place back then. I have to say that our return visit did not disappoint. 

Our mode of transportation was very comfortable and it was great to see the way Melaka had evolved in the recent years. They had really discovered the river and it’s attraction to human beings. A lovely walking boulevard on both sides allowed for fun evening strolls. Little restaurants and bars have popped up along the pathway. Nothing ueber cool, nothing fancy just fun and accessible. 

During our first evening enjoying that riverfront, we heard some live music from across the water. We could not exactly make out what it was but it did raise our curiosity enough to walk around and check it out. The music came from two acoustic guitars and a female singer. Their repertoire was “gypsy jazz”. 

It was quickly clear to us that this was an entertaining bunch of people having fun with what their doing, so we decided to stick around for a bit. At that time it was standing room only. Never the less we stayed until after their time was up and had a little chat with them while they were packing up. Then it turned out that they were slotted to play in Singapore mid March and at some other locations that weekend in Melaka. It was an easy decision for us to follow the band of “gypsies” around that weekend and to come to their Singapore gigs.

By the time March came however most of what they were supposed to play had fallen through accept at Artistry and an early set at Blu Jaz.  For the style of music though Artistry seemed perfectly suitable and an early Blu Jaz gig before the DJ’s start was probably better as well. 

Without claiming that I know much about it, I figured that the music style is mostly focused on guitars. Zinedine Tsigane  are two acoustic guitarists, Daniel Duspiwa and Robert Strobl, who support each other with a catchy high tempo rhythm while they take turns playing skillful solos. 

The singer was a feature for the evening and really an add-on to the concept. This singer, Mathilde Limal though, stood her ground between the two guitarist. With a rather unusual combination of timbre and a pitch, that had it’s foundation in western opera, she sang ballads and chansons that were suitably arranged for the gypsy jazz tempo. Familiar tunes like “la vie en rose” in an unfamiliar but highly pleasing jacket.

It was a shame for Zinedine Tsigane that things did not turn out the way they were planned. I understand if things would have gone according to plan though, we personally would have had to miss Mathilde and that would have been a bit of a shame. I hope that while they keep this traveling show on the road they will return to Singapore for more.