“I don’t know who writes the scripts for these revolutions,” he says wearily, “but they all look the same and affect people’s lives the same way.”Īll of these stories unfurl with their own, refreshingly unrushed sense of time.
Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor becomes increasingly melancholy as he is repeatedly exiled from his home and maintains his marriage via Skype. Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh works with children in a refugee camp. Galician bagpiper Cristina Pato is a magnetic screen presence, starting with archival footage of her early years translating her folk tradition into rock ’n’ roll and then in later performances with Silk Road Ensemble. But what makes “The Music of Strangers” a thoroughly worthwhile film is the stories of the individuals.Ĭhinese pipa player Wu Man, seen with an electrified version of her instrument, has created a niche where none previously existed. In some ways, Silk Road has now been overtaken by groups such as Hesperion XXI that meld East, West, ancient and modern with greater vision.
The high visibility of the Silk Road Ensemble helped legitimize the practice by assembling musicians from far-flung places, such as China to Iran to the United States, for six CDs now (the latest is “Sing Me Home” on the Sony Masterworks label) and numerous concerts. The idea of bringing together musicians from seemingly irreconcilable folk traditions was fairly new in 2000, though not radical. Ma also acknowledges that the touring life was such that leaving home made him physically ill - his son Nicholas says he once thought his dad worked at Boston’s Logan Airport - and left him looking for greater social purpose amid the rigors of fame. The documentary spells out how Ma, now 60 and raised in America by Chinese parents, came so early and easily to classical music success that much of the rest of his career has been about answering the “Now what?” question. Morgan Neville’s high-budget HBO documentary about Ma and the musicians in his cross-cultural Silk Road Ensemble captures all manner of real-life moments - especially as the initial kumbaya purpose behind the group’s formation in 2000 becomes complicated and heightened with the geopolitics of our time. Typical of so much video associated with the beloved, charismatic cellist Yo-Yo Ma, “The Music of Strangers” is full of humanitarian philosophy and picturesque shots of artist and cello in exotic locales.īut pre-emptive skepticism is best placed on hold.
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