So I got back from Barbados a few days ago. Unfortunately, I caught a terrible sore throat and I am still recovering. Anyways, the trip went well. We performed a couple times and it was a privilege to meet so many interesting people.

Even though I was only there for a week, I think I got a sense of the lifestyle in Barbados, not to mention enjoy the beaches.

I attended the Barbados Jazz Festival twice while I was there. Unfortunately, I felt the people that played the festival when I went were not jazz at all. I did get to see the Afro Cuban Jazz All Stars, which had Yosvany Terry -- a great alto player. Granted Kenny Garrett played, but I didn't get a chance to catch him.


Check out my flickr set from the trip here. There pictures of Barbados in general and of the concert I did with Meklit Hadero and Todd Brown as part of the Nefasha Ayer project. Here is a slideshow:



Next week, I will be in Michigan and Chicago for concerts...hopefully my coughing will subside by then.

Labels: concerts, travel

Accra Beach
Originally uploaded by prasantmusic

Here is a relaxing scene I experienced the other day at Accra Beach, here in Barbados. I have been enjoying my stay so far here. The weather is great and the surroundings relaxing. We got to meet quite a few interesting people as well as perform and take in the Barbados Jazz Festival.

I will post more on my time here soon. Tomorrow evening we will be performing here before we leave on Thursday.

Well, yet again it has been a while since my last post. I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Mine was spent in Florida with family -- a definite change from my usual trip to India for the music season. It was nice though, I got to see some dolphins and even alligators in the Everglades...(a blurry shot from my cell phone below...)



Anyways...some updates on the latest news. I am glad to report that the new VidyA cd has finally been recorded! We are still in the rough mix stage, which means it wont be out for a few more months, but we are all very excited about it and even more excited to share it with everyone when it is finally ready. Check out my site and also www.vidyamusic.com for updates as usual. You can expect some special concerts to accompany the cd release in March/April, so be on the lookout!

Our next concert is on Tuesday, February 26th at the Climate Theater in San Francisco. Click this to add this to your calendar:

Eventually, I will have a little button so you can get all of the concerts like this and it will be even easier to remember all those concert dates!

In other news, I am off to Barbados in a couple days to do some performing there as part of the Nefasha Ayer project (which I had described in an earlier post). I have never been there before, so it should be fun.

Early February brings me back to some Carnatic performances/lecturing in Michigan and U Chicago in the first week. I will be doing those performances with a talented mridungam player named Rohan Krishnamurthy, who you may have heard of, or seen me play with many years ago. If you have any friends out in Michigan or Chicago, tell them to come and listen.

Also come check out a Carnatic saxophone performance at the Sangati Center in San Francisco on February 17th. I would like to mention that this great space that is providing a necessary service to the area needs your support.

So, there you have it:

End of January: Barbados
Feb 4-10: Concerts/lectures at WMU, Kalamazoo College and U Chicago
Feb 17: Sangati Center
Feb 26: VidyA at Climate Theater!

I promise, I will try to post more in the future.

Labels: albums, concerts