Manisha Shahane
Peace in Progress : CD Review
San Diego Troubadour, March 2007
by Chuck Schiele

Here's a project that easily tugs on my musical heart strings, first due to my affection for the exotic and second, for what the work communicates and how I personally identify with its inspiration.

Peace in Progress features 11 tracks written by vocalist Manisha Shahane who wanders through a variety of songs and compositions. The opening track indicates a very exotic record, heavy with traditional Eastern instrumentation straight outta Bombay. It's sung-spoken in what I assume is her native language, but it also includes a sort of rap that sounds like it came from the Blondie, CBGB era. It's way different, and I like it.

From there, however, Shahane switches to English and runs through a set of songs ranging from pop songs and show tunes to light jazzy ballads that are rendered in a way that makes me feel as if I'm in a small intimate space such as a swanky hippy garden coffeehouse.

Track six, "Nachra Mora (Dance Peacock)," is a children's song that once again takes us straight back to the heart of India. Its instrumentation is trance-like and tribal and it's by far my favorite vocal effort.

Another wonderful aspect of this CD is the use of different time signatures as evidenced in track seven, which takes us back to Boston by way of a poppish show tune ditty in 12/8 called "Something in Your Voice." It opens up in 7/8 with an old-school jazz groove that might remind one of old jazz records from the 1960s. From there, the music enters a territory often traveled by the likes of Loreena McKennitt, with choruses written in 6/8 and the bridge written in 4/4.

What I find most interesting is the material that combines the Eastern thing with the Western thing, because A. I think it sets a good example for the world, and B. I like it when new things are tried. "Love Sheets," for instance, offers motifs reminiscent of the opening on Miles Davis' "So What." But it also shares the characteristic of Middle Eastern clubs and discos (with which I am also familiar). It's tricky business to take a chance like that, but she does it gracefully and ends up with something new.

This ambitious work covers a lot of territory, which is admirable. The compositions are skillful, the band is very good, and the ideas abound. I don't think its meant to be a pop record, preferring the interest for artistic documentation. If this were reviewed as a "pop" record, even in the most general sense, I would have to say that it's too diverse, too wide for the public (the American public anyway). As "art" on its own terms, this CD would make a killer boutique addition to your record collection, fitting nicely into the jazzy, new-age, world-music, torch-singer section.

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