Double bassist Kate Pass and her Kohesia Ensemble have taken on their greatest challenge yet – a musical interpretation of the tenth century, Persian epic masterpiece ‘Shahnameh’, which they present as part of a double bill at Fringe World in Perth.
“This is a new experience for Kohesia Ensemble,” Kate says.“I’ve been aware of this text for a really long time and it’s always intrigued me. I found the stories in it are so timeless and so wonderfully crafted, and it was really rich material to work with within the ensemble, to look at these stories and the characters and see musically what we can express.”
Kohesia Ensemble is a jazz group led by Kate that explores the intersection between the forms and structures of Western classical music and those of traditional Persian music.
Written by Ferdowsi between c. 977-1010CE, ‘Shahnameh’ (The Book Of Kings) is significant text in the Iranian cultural identity, recounting a both mythical and historical past of the Persian Empire from creation until the Arab conquest of Iran in the seventh century.
Kate says the expressive nature of the music Kohesia Ensemble creates is an ideal vehicle for writing songs that capture the emotion and essence of ‘Shahnameh’. “Our music has really got quite a dramatic feel to it anyway, so exploring storytelling through music has been a really wonderful experience,” she says.
“This show also has a narrator, which we've never done before and the narrator is a great friend of mine and a percussionist who has played with the band before on several occasions.
“We’ve been working together with him and fitting the music in with the words that, in a way, hopefully captures the emotion behind the story.”
Though ‘Shahnameh’ was originally written in Farsi, Kate says the stories and lessons within will be familiar to people from an English-speaking background. “The thing that I really love about it is the timeless nature of the messages,” she says.
“There's always a common story we can draw on. . . themes like love family, survival, war power, and the struggle between good and evil and how that plays out.”
The other show Kohesia Ensemble perform as part of Fringe World is ‘Kohesia Unplugged’, which Kate says is exactly as advertised and comparatively a lot simpler to ‘Shahnameh’.
“It’s just a quartet. We haven’t often played in this format before so it’s just the traditional Persian instruments – oud, saz, ney and daf, with the double bass.
“It’s really a stripped-back version, a much more intimate experience. Some of the compositions are by another person in the band Reza Mirzaei and me. It's a much more acoustic, intimate-sounding performance.”
Between the two shows, audiences get to experience the duality of Kohesia Ensemble – a group that can compose meticulous, classical arrangements while retaining the spontaneous improvisation of a jazz band. “It's a real treat to get to explore the two different sides,” Kate agrees.
“And because the four members that are in the ‘Unplugged’ show are also in the ‘Shahnameh’ show, working with them on both sets of material has been really fun. I think working on both things have improved the other one and brought out new musical things that we can explore and work on, so that's been great.”
