After several years of being a part of the critically-acclaimed Brisbane, funk outfit Kerbside Collection, the talented and creative-guitar virtuoso Ravi Welsh is delighting audiences all over the River City with his latest project – The Ravi Welsh Trio.
Although relatively fresh on the Brisbane scene, the Trio is already making waves with their unique and diverse mix of sounds. Often described as a mix of jazz and funk, frontman Ravi says the Trio’s sound also draws influence from across the globe, especially the classical sounds of India. “It’s definitely influenced by all of the music that I've listened to: jazz, funk, R&B and even world music, particularly traditional Indian music.”
The end result of blending traditional Indian music with contemporary jazz is a very unique and creative sound that has helped Ravi push his already incredible guitar-playing ability even further. “It’s very different from any western music, but I've done a few collaborations with Indian musicians which improved my playing and I’ve picked up a lot of techniques in my playing from the Indian musicians. Somehow that has sort of developed into my own playing style – it’s a combination of jazz, funk, R&B, fusion and Indian classical.”
The style has certainly evolved a long way from playing George Benson-inspired licks in his childhood years, which according to Ravi could be a good or a bad thing. “From about the age of ten, before I even started learning guitar, I listened to a lot of George Benson. I was a big fan of George Benson and I started to singalong with his guitar solos, even before I could play the guitar. Later on when I did pick up the guitar, a lot of his phrasing and melodic ideas went into my playing.
“I often have comments from people in the audience that my playing sounds a lot like George Benson, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. Even though I really like that sound on the guitar, I've tried to move away from that and tried to develop more of my own sound.”
Ravi is an accomplished and refined musician, having excelled in renowned musical institutions such as Jazzworks and The Conservatorium Of Music. Yet despite this, Ravi says the most valuable tuition he got was from one-on-one lessons with local guitar players that he admired. “I wouldn’t say that my playing has really been influenced very much from studying at an institution. I studied at the Conservatorium as well and I really would have to say that most of my development on the guitar came from private guitar lessons with some great players around Brisbane.
“The best way that I’ve found to learn is when you see a great guitar player who you really like, just ask them if they do lessons. They most probably do, and then you can learn to play the way that you want to play.”
After playing with Kerbside Collection for six years, Ravi wanted the chance to further expand his musical horizons. The ‘70s-funk outfit regularly receives rave reviews, but Ravi had the desire to create a sound that was uniquely his own. “It was only about the middle of last year that I started The Ravi Welsh Trio when I realised that there was more that I wanted to explore musically, rather than just old, ‘70s funk – which was what Kerbside is. I felt like I actually wanted to create something that was a bit more different and something a little more my own, so I started The Ravi Welsh Trio.”
Playing in the trio actually presented some new and interesting challenges for Ravi, most of which stem from the limitations of playing as a three piece, instead of a five or six-piece band. “It’s very different from Kerbside Collection in that it’s only a trio, whereas Kerbside is usually a five piece or even six piece if we have a singer. Straight away, playing with a trio changes the sound that we have. Less instruments to work with means less colours to work with if I could use that word. We need to look at other ways to fill out the sound and create a fuller sound, otherwise it can all end up sounding very much the same.”
While it’s very much early days for the Trio, the prospect of an international gig is already gaining momentum. “We are in the process of negotiating with the Malaysia Jazz Festival but we've yet to see whether that will be locked in. I hope so! It would be very cool if we could be a part of that – it'd be a great place to visit too.”
The Ravi Welsh Trio play the Brisbane Jazz Club on 16 April.
