To coincide with our new VidyA CD release, we finally got some photos taken by a great Bay Area photographer, Nate Keck (who also happens to be a friend of the Red Poppy).
I think we were able to get a few nice shots -- the whole thing was natural with very limited actual posing for the pictures. That was great for me, because posing is not my forte. I think David has it down though.
Anyways, I uploaded all the color pictures to flickr, so please check them out and tell us your favorites in the comments or via e-mail. It hard to decide looking at so many pictures of ourselves. We eventually have to choose two or three that would be used for most purposes.
Well, after over a month's absence posting here, I finally decided to put together a brief round up of my trip to India. The trip went very well. I had a good mix of personal practice time and concerts among other things. I even got to catch the latest Batman film, "Dark Knight" a couple days before I left. Definitely a dark and chilling film.
I was very happy to spend some quality time with my guru, Dr. Kadri Gopalnath. I was also able to catch up with some friends, mentors and other musicians who I usually spend time with, such as T.R. Subramaniam, A. Kanyakumari, Guruvayur Dorai, V. Suresh, Ganeshprasad among others. This time, it was a treat to perform with B.U. Ganeshprasad (violin), Trichur Narendran (mridangam), Phalgun (mridangam), and V. Suresh during my concerts among others.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, my first concert of the trip was at Rameswaram. Rameswaram has an interesting history, mainly because of the religious background. Myself, Ganeshprasad and Phalgun did a morning concert there after a long a night train. It was a part of a three day Gurupurnima event. A video was taken, but as usual, I never find time to upload. I will do it soon enough. Here is a screen grab from the video I have...
After Rameswaram and Thiruvunamalai, I had a concert at a new hall in Chennai called Sri Muthu Venkata Subba Rao Memorial Hall. Quite a long name. I can say that I was extremely impressed with the hall. I think it is the best hall in Chennai. The concert was curated by the hall's programming director and sponsored by a company there called Gatsby. It was definitely a crowd different from the usual Carnatic listeners, but the response was very good and it was a pleasure to play in a quality environment and ambience focused purely on the music. The whole thing was recorded, both audio and video, so hopefully I will share some of that with you soon. That concert had myself on saxophone, B.U. Ganeshprasad, Trichur Narendran on mridangam and V. Suresh on ghatam.
The concert brought with it a number of press articles of all types. I haven't received a copy of them all, but here are some links to the ones I heard about so far. If you want to get the latest, probably check back on my press page. If you find anything that is not there yet, let me know.
There was also a TV interview, but I lost track of that one. Some of these articles have a slightly odd interpretation of what I had said during interviews, but I have learned that it is unavoidable.
Anyways, that is about all I can cover right now. The other concerts were memorable as well, but I don't think I will go over everything here. I will try my best to post some videos or other media soon.
By the way, I just added a little feed of my latest photos from flickr to the left of the blog. Hope you like it. Between that and my Twitter updates (feel free to "follow" me), you can easily see what I'm up to just by looking at the sidebar, even if I don't have a chance to update the blog.
Concert at Sir Mutha Hall, Chennai, India. July 27, 2008
As you probably already know, I am writing to you from India. So far the trip has been great. I just got back from a trip to Rameswaram, where I did a concert and then Thiruvunamalai. The concert was with B.U. Ganeshprasad on Violin and P. Phalgun on Mridangam. Here is a picture from the Rameswaram Temple.
This Sunday, I am performing a Carnatic concert at a newly opened hall in Chennai called Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Memorial Hall. The concert starts at 7pm sharp and is open to the public.
Contact the sponsor of the event: info@gatsby.in with number of tickets required. Or call (044) 28331677. You can also get passes at the Raymonds outlet in Nungambakkam.
Contact the hall at info@sirmuthamemorial.com
The hall is located at:
Shenston Park, 13/1 Harrington Road
Chetput, Chennai 600031 Tamil Nadu
It is on the Lady Andal School premises. If you know anyone in Chennai, tell them to come!
This almost two months overdue, but I thought I would give you a quick post about a concert at Sangati Center on May 3rd, 2008.
The concert featured myself on saxophone, Ajay Narasimha on Violin and Anantha R. Krishnan on Mridungam. It was great to play with both of these artists. I had played with Ajay before and it was the first time playing with Anantha, who in case you did not know, is the grandson of the legendary mridangam vidwan Palghat Raghu. As he jokingly said before the concert, "that doesn't mean I play well." But of course, he played wonderfully, and we all had a good time.
I am looking forward to performing together again.
I still have news to tell you about VidyA. I am off to India for some personal practice time and a few concerts. I will try to get in a few posts while I am there.
VidyA CD Release Concert Tonight!/ Radio Play / Record Stores
Hi! That is me right this moment...not sure why I decided to include this picture.
Today we will be performing at the Red Poppy Art House to celebrate the release of the new CD!
It is extra special, because today is my dad's birthday (mom, myself, dad below). Happy Birthday!
We will also be doing a photo shoot with Bay Area photographer Nate Keck, so you can finally expect to see some updated photos of the group for press purposes and otherwise. Here is a random (and blurry) shot of us playing, just for kicks.
Today the new album was played on KPFA's Music of the World show with David McBurnie. I believe they played "Lost Tales," the track based on Bhairavi ragam. They also gave away a couple sets of tickets for the concert.
The latest development is that the new album is now available at Ameoba Music in Berkeley and Rasputin in Berkeley, with other locations following soon, like Aquarius in SF (they have East Facing right now). Some of my Indian Classical albums are there also. If you can't find it there, ask for it and be persistent!
I will post more info as I find out.
Thanks to everyone for your support. There has been so much activity leading up to this album, but I wouldn't even call it "work" because I have been so lucky to have many great people to work with and great listeners.
I will be performing on the radio in extra early hours of the morning on Friday, April 18th with host Joanna Manqueros.
It will be broadcase on KPFA 94.1, a listener supported station here in the SF Bay Area at 5 AM...!
Yes, I know its really early, but those of you with an early commute can check it out. I will be performing just ragas alone on saxophone -- no percussion or other accompaniment as of now.
This is a bit of foreshadowing, as I am planning on a series of solo saxophone albums that will be of this nature: just saxophone elaborating Indian Classical ragas. It tends to have a relaxing/meditative quality.
Boston Trip: Brandeis University and Wellesley College
Back in my comfortable chair at home, I thought it would be a good to time to catch up with you on my recent trip to Boston. It was definitely cold, but not snowy at least.
The events on the trip were:
March 26, 2008 - Concert with Phil Scarff and Natraj at Brandeis University, MA. 6pm.
April 4, 2008 - Guest interactive lecture at Wellesley College (Music of the Sphere MUS101). 1:30pm.
April 5, 2008 - Indian classical saxophone concert and morning Discussion panel. "Evolving Traditions." B.U. Ganeshprasad: Violin, Rohan Krishnamurthy: Mridungam. Wellesley College, MA. 3pm.
First, the Brandeis concert. It was a first for me, as I was performing as a guest with Phil Scarff's group Natraj. The group consisted of Phil Scarff on soprano saxophone, Michael Rivard on Bass, Bertram Lehmann on Drums and Jerry Leake on Tabla. The group combines Indian Classical and other influences with jazz. The approach is very different from what I do with VidyA, but it was fun to play with them and I think the show went pretty well. We did mostly songs from their repertoire , which included a small pallavi in Mohana raga by my guru Kadri Gopalnath, and a song in Saraswathi raga called "River" by Chitravina N. Ravikiran. We also did "Lost Tales" from the VidyA song list, the song will be on the new VidyA CD coming out soon. Here is a picture from the event courtesy of Brandeis. My time at Wellesley was fun. The lecture on Friday, though short, seemed to go well. It was mostly interactive with a little history thrown in. I also demonstrated various ragas and the students became familiar with the basics of keeping talam (the time meter) to the music. Thanks to Professor Gurminder Bhogal for having me in the class.
The actual concert was on Saturday. The morning had an interesting discussion panel where we talked about the topic of preservation vs change...the ongoing discussion in any art. The discussion was lively and everyone brought up interesting points, which I wont discuss here in detail. Malini Srinivasan and the Jayamangala troup performed a wonderful bharatanatyam program. The varnam in Kambodhi was fanatastic.
After that, myself, B.U. Ganeshprasad on Violin and Rohan Krishnamurthy on Mridangam took the stage. I debuted a masterpiece composition by Muthuswamy Dikshitar, Sri Dakshinamurthe in raga Shankarabaranam raga, Misra Jhampe (10 beats) talam. It is the first time it has been performed on saxophone. It was definitely enjoyable to finally play such a wonderful composition and favorite of mine, on this instrument. I just hope I did it justice!
Of course, it was great to play with Ganeshprasad and Rohan again. Hopefully, we can do it again soon. We also got to spend some time together after the concert. Check out the full flickr set for more pics.
I am writing from Boston today. I am here for a couple concerts. I just finished one yesterday, which went well at Brandeis University. I performed with Phil Scarff and his Indian-Jazz-West African group Natraj.
A couple weeks ago, I performed at San Diego for the inaugural Music and Dance festival there. It was organized well, especially considering it was the first year. I enjoyed playing for the San Diego audience, who were very warm and receptive. . View the full photoset on flickr
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.
Trip to Barbados, the VidyA CD, and other happenings...
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!
This is a bit overdue, but I thought I would do a quick recap of a concert from August 2007 at the Ektaa Center in Irvine, California. Personnel included myself on saxophone, Ajay Narasimha on Violin and Poovalur Srinivasan on Mridungam. It was the first time playing with Ajay, and had been quite a while since I had played with Poovalur Srinivasan.
I had played a concert with Howard Wiley, David Ewell and Sameer Gupta the night before at the Red Poppy in San Francisco. That was a great show, which I will elaborate upon later. So I drove down directly to the concert hall from the bay area.
The hall was very intimate and I was actually able to do the concert without a microphone. There was a good connection between the three of us musically. Ajay did a nice job and of course Poovalur sir provided seamless and beautiful mridungam playing as usual.
I was fortunate to get most of the concert on video. Here are a few clips from the concert. The first is the timeless Swati Tirunal composition "Deva Deva." The other is the beginning of the ragam in the Ragam Thanam Pallavi (main piece of the concert).
Deva Deva
Lathangi Ragam
I will post more from this concert soon.
Some pictures from this concert and the Boston concert here.
Nefasha Ayer, loosely translated from Amharic as “the wind that travels”, explores a transcontinental odyssey of multiple characters who find themselves caught between national identities, cultures, and politics. The project joins together the talented song-writing capacity of Meklit Hadero with guitarist/composer-arranger, Todd Brown, South-Indian Carnatic Jazz composer/saxophonist, Prasant Radhakrishnan, drummer/tablaist, Sameer Gupta, composer/bassist/flautist, Eliyahu Sills, and Ethiopian born hip-hop artist, Gabriel Teodros. Nefasha Ayer weaves together Ethiopian and South Indian melodies/rhythms against a varying backdrop of North American jazz, while Hadero’s voice and song, as the wind that travels, serve as the narrator. Nefasha Ayer weaves together Ethiopian and South Indian melodies/rhythms against a varying backdrop of North American jazz, while Hadero’s voice and song, as the wind that travels, serve as the narrator.
Through its tones and colors, poetic texts and trans-cultural melodic scores, Nefasha Ayer joins the continents of Africa, South Asia, and America to explore the most essential and universal qualities shared among individuals worldwide whose identity no longer fits within the boundaries of one country, culture, or tradition. Whereas one would expect the content of such a project to focus on the social/cultural context of its characters, Nefasha Ayer builds on the internal: the subjective yet universal human desire for home. For these characters, “home” is no longer an external place – for some it never was. Home has taken shape instead as a longing within. This is “the space of in-between.”
The space of in-between indeed. It is a space I have long identified with as have many in my position -- being of another ethnicity/culture but brought up here in the U.S. I wont go into that right now...
The project is really the brainchild of Todd and Meklit, the heads of the Red Poppy Art House, where VidyA had its first concert. The Nefasha project recently was recognized with a grant from the San Francisco Foundation. As part of this endeavor, I will be helping a bit with composing and of course playing. Todd, Meklit and I meet somewhat regularly to hang out at the Red Poppy and work on this music.
One of the things that struck me about the inflections in Ethiopian vocal music is that they are vaguely similar to those used in Carnatic or Hindustani music. Of course this is from a very general level of analysis. The interesting thing is that I can bring in appropriate ragas and Carnatic phrases into my improvisations and/or the compositions without it sounding out of place. The music has a very laid-back feel to it but with a constant sense of forward motion. This is due to the rhythms inherent in Ethiopian and even some African music. Also, keep an eye out for Meklit. Her music and voice is really unique.
We recently performed a short set at the MAPP at the Red Poppy of course. The MAPP is always fun, since it is about the community and such. Of course, the compositions have ways to go before they are ready.
Check out some pictures from the performance here,
Visit to Boston: Playing with Veena, Violin and Double Mridungam
(Edit: 10/22/07: Pictures of this concert have been posted here.
It appears that even after my attempt to get back to posting here, I let a couple months go by again. I moved to a new residence, though I am still in the Bay Area. It was a hectic month packing, moving, painting, and buying/selling/giving away furniture. I also painstakingly set up a sound system: speaker cables/banana plugs and all -- definitely a subject of another post.
Anyways, this post is about a concert I am about to do tomorrow evening in Framingham, MA. I will be playing a very unique Carnatic concert with four musicians: Durga Krishnan (Veena), Tara Anand (Violin), Pravin Sitaram (Mridungam) and Mali Santhanakrishnan (Mridungam). Here are the details:
Keefe Tech School, 750 Winter st, Framingham, MA 01702 6th October 2007, Saturday: 4:00 PM
This is a significant event for both myself and listeners, and here is why:
1. A Unique Combination: It is not common to have a instruments such as veena, saxophone and violin performing together in such a format -- I suppose it is close to the famous "veena, venu, violin" trio concept that comes around once in a while, but it is agreeably a rare case. We had a rehearsal yesterday just to touch base, and the sound is quite unique. I suppose the double mridungam, while not too common, is also not uncommon at all these days.
Warning: Delving into some instrumental technicalities below!
2. Sruthi and Flexibility in Ragas: The significance here is mainly from my perspective. I will be playing my alto saxophone as I usually do, but instead of playing my normal sruthi of Bb as I do in my solo concerts, I will be playing in D. Most musicians would wonder why that is a big deal. In jazz and Western music, the key/chords are always changing. We have to practice jazz standards in all keys, right?
For Carnatic music it is much different. Of course the details of how that is would be too much to mention here, but suffice it to say, it is a challenging endeavor just to play Carnatic music on the saxophone in one key/sruthi. That is of course because of the difficulty of producing gamakas etc. on the instrument and also the fact that changing the key changes in all ways possible, the complete approach to producing gamakas and rendering Carnatic compositions on the saxophone. For those Carnatic listeners/musicians out there, the only way to adjust to pitch on the saxophone beyond maybe a 1/4 step is to start on a different note, thus changing the fingering. In order to do such a thing, one would have to re-evaluate and re-invent, while slowly perfecting fingering/blowing technique and crafting an approach to playing in the new sruthi, taking into account the limitations of the instrument.
That said, my guru Sri Kadri Gopalnath had initially adapted the saxophone to Carnatic music in Bb taking to account the range and possibilities of the instrument. Having spent much time studying under him and practicing on my own, as well as having many other influences, I still very much agree with his choice of Bb as the best and most musical sruthi for adapting the alto saxophone to Carnatic music.
Why then, do you ask would I change my sruthi for this concert, and how would I actually perform? Good question! For the sake of the group and for trying to have a concert with this instrumentation, it was necessary. I am just taking it as a challenge and hoping that it will in some way, help me develop more. Over preparing for the concert the past few days, I already feel that it is opening up different ideas for me, though in very subtle ways.
The three biggest challenges are limited range, producing appropriate gamakas, and lastly playing compositions and improvising in a completely different fingering set, effectively unlearning my years of practice and muscle memory. Such a thing is commonplace in jazz, but in Carnatic music, it just is not the same, as strange as that may sound to jazz or Western musicians.
So those of you who attend the concert will be able to hear the Carnatic saxophone in a different, much higher pitch than usual. It should be interesting.
Special thanks to all the musicians for going along on this journey.
East Facing on the Radio Every Wednesday 90.1 KZSU!
Hello everyone,
I was just told a couple days ago that Stanford Radio 90.1 KZSU will be playing the new album "East Facing" from 6:30 to 7AM every Wednesday leading up to the release concert on August 5th. I know it is early, but morning people can benefit.
You can also check out the internet stream here. Make sure to choose kzsu 1.
There are plenty of ways to record internet streams or even wake up to one! One of my favorites is the free and elegant iTunes Alarm for mac users. You just set the time you want it to go off and choose the playlist and you're all set. Windows users can just google iTunes Alarm and get many options.
If you end up missing it, I believe the host of the show will eventually put it into his archives here.
If you really want to listen to East Facing *right now,* you can go to my webpage and launch the player or check out the featured mp3. You can also get copies online here
There are many exciting things happening in general right now, even aside from the new album release, which I will elaborate upon soon.
East Facing CD Release and LLS Benefit Concert August 5th!
I'm glad to announce the release of my third Carnatic saxophone CD: East Facing. I will definitely have another post where I will discuss the album in more detail, but for now I just want to announce this exciting release/benefit concert.
That's right, it is both a CD release, and a benefit concert for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). This is a very special event for so many people, me included, so if you will be in the Bay Area, or know anyone that will be, please spread the word and save the date! Buy advance tickets here.
Here are the details:
Organized by: Leukemia & Lymphoma Society At JCNC (Jain Temple Hall) 722 South Main Street, Milpitas, CA 95035 Sunday, August 5, 2007. 4:30 pm.
Ticket info: Go here for advance tickets/reservations. VIP Ticket: $25 advance (includes signed copy of the new CD release, "East Facing"; $30 at the door General Admission: $15 advance; $17 at the door; Students (with ID)/Children: $10 advance, $12 at the door; Children age 4 and under: Free
I will be playing with local favorites Karthik Lakshminarayanan on violin and Karthik Gopalratnam on mridungam.
Of course, copies of the new CD will be available at the concert!
