Silkroad

One of the remarkable things about folk music is that it comes from anywhere that music has evolved as the voice of a people. In Silk Road, Shirley Yuan, Zhi Min Yu and Qui Xia He celebrate the traditional music of China. The group's raison d'être is to develop and preserve Chinese music, period. Its Eastern influence incorporates several traditional Chinese instruments: the pipa (Chinese lute), the erhu (Chinese violin) and the ruan (Chinese guitar). Though a multicultural synthesis wasn't part of the original plan when the group formed in 1991, Silk Road has done far more than retain its Chinese core. It has expanded in scope to include samplings of musical varieties found in Canada and developed some surprising blends with Western performance techniques and Brazilian, Celtic and jazz music. Featured on the group's recent recording, Endless, are Brazilian jazz guitarist Celso Machado, jazz bassist Rene Worst and Irish multi-instrumentalist Loretto Reid. The special guest dizi (Chinese flute) player is Chai-Man Cheng. In all, Silk Road vividly demonstrates that music is the international language.

  -- AK