Artist: Ajaia Suri
Date: August 2, 2003
Venue: Collected Sounds Living Room
City: Minneapolis, MN
Review by [Amy Lotsberg] Producer of Collected Sounds
This concert was great! Jaia impressed everyone. Her banjo playing was/is amazing. I used to think banjo=Steve Martin or theme from “Deliverance” but this is so different. Ajaia said she tunes it to her own individual tuning that she made up years ago and it’s apparently nothing like actual banjo tuning. So she makes it sound more like a sitar. She also plays guitar VERY WELL. She does a lot of finger picking (which I love) and she uses both the guitar and the banjo as percussion instruments as well. Banging on them on various parts of the instrument making a full rich sound (the tambourine attached to her foot with a rubber band helped too).
If you get a chance to see her do it. And you just might as she is on the road until Thanksgiving 2003. Wow, long tour but it gives almost everyone a chance to catch her.
Oh and she’s a lovely person as well. Very gracious, sweet and charming.
She’s welcome back anytime!