Author Archives: Abhishek Prakash

The title of Susheela Raman’s latest album Queen Between sums it up. It takes a queen, the ‘queen between’, to annex qawwali, Rajasthani folk music into her own territory of English songwriting and Tamil folk roots. Susheela Raman presents all of this in a single musical work that makes it sound like all of these varied music styles have always been meant to be together. Here’s an album that is sure to stir your imagination. The sound of the album is very live-like. The audio production is kept raw and and at places expertly unpolished. It is kept obvious that Queen Between is not an album for the light hearted. There is an army of…

Drift is a New Delhi based jazz trio that was formed in 2009. The band has toured extensively and played numerous gigs since its inception. They have recently come out with their debut album titled Nico – homegrown jazz music at its best. The band on the album consists of Reuben Narain on drums, Pranai Gurang on guitars and Sahil Warsi on the double bass, though their line-up has changed since then. Nico is named after Nicholas Giordani, a French tenor saxophonist who played with Drift in and around 2011. He sadly passed away some time back and the album is dedicated to him. The album starts with ‘Quantime‘. Composed by Reuben, it is about his discussions with Nicholas about quantum…

The electric guitar has had a long arduous journey. During its short lifetime of about 80 years or so, it has seen and done many things. From its humble beginnings in small Chicago jazz and blues clubs to packed stadium rock concerts, through Woodstock and past numerous high school bands’ garages, it somehow made its way into Windmills Craftworks, Bangalore into the hands of a Carnatic musician. Here is an instrument that has been shred, rocked, tapped, bent, plucked, picked, fingerpicked, hammered on and pulled off. It has embraced blues, rock, metal, country, jazz, bossa nova, and just can’t get tired. And then there’s Prasanna Ramaswamy who bravely dares to wield all of it and…

Two dreamers. Eleven collaborations. One quartet. Nine guitars. One voice. Ten stories about urban life in our cities. The image that Delhi-based Adil & Vasundhara’s debut album Ampersand presents at first glance is very inviting. It’s refreshing to finally see Indian bands add relevance to their themes by embracing the awesome chaos that is life in our own cities. Ampersand narrates ten stories from urban India. The concept rings true through the album, but one has to listen closely to really absorb the different themes. Like with most good jazz, the references are subtle. The core band consists of Adil Manuel on guitars, Vasundhara Viradur on vocals, Saurabh Suman on bass, Sava Boyadzhiev on drums and Rohit Gupta on keys….

Abhishek Prakash

Jazz music in India is a strange affair. In all the bright colours and chaos of a typical Indian city, where does this ‘black and white’ sounding music from a bygone era and from distant lands fit into the scheme of things? But then again, if music is a representation of what we see and feel around us, I wonder how the typical dhinchak Bollywood number does any better. The important point is how true the artist is to himself/herself and how relevant the music is to the listener. I personally love Adil and Vasundhara’s music for their honest attempt to be true to their roots even if their medium is a tough one to do so…

“The recent north east exodus has left us shaken and scared and we hope that this program would help promote a deeper mutual understanding between the people of Karnataka and Mizoram, rebuild confidence among the people of north east and more importantly bring oneness and peace among Indians.” – Ms. Lalrunpuii, President, BMA Two points I can take out of Ms. Lalrunpuii’s words: Firstly it makes me extremely sad to digest the fact that the North Eastern community, out of personal experience one of the nicest and most peaceful groups of people one can ever meet, was targeted by a few miscreants and driven to such extreme degrees of fear and insecurity. Secondly, it is heartwarming…

An eclectic mix of almost every genre imaginable, The Family Cheese was an interesting and enjoyable start to the weekend. At Bflat on Friday night, they played Psychedelic Rock, Progressive Rock, Blues, Funk, Gangsta’ Rap, Electronica and Brazilian Bossa nova! They even let loose a riveting Pink Floyd cover! We entered the venue just as the band was setting up. There was some classic jazz on the speakers which instantly induced a positive vibe. As the drums were being set up, Homi started playing the groove of the background track flawlessly. This was a small initial dose of the band’s technical prowess. They soon progressed into a sound check which was a jazzy jam. Each…

It really is a shame that a combination of traffic, miscommunication and uncharacteristic tardiness on my part had me walk into the venue just as Adil and Vasundhara were wrapping up their set. I would’ve loved to watch them live but had to instead rely on rapturous one-line reviews from people around. But I wasn’t too perturbed as there were some more world class acts to follow – The Saturday Night Blues Band from Kolkata, Blackstratblues from Mumbai and, of course, the headliners Bobby Whitlock and Coco Carmel all the way from the US of A. The stage was well set up, the sound was perfect, and the weather couldn’t have been more pleasant if…

What do you get when you take poor publicity, lack of experience and add some shoddy time management to it? You get angry and frustrated bands, no music playing, and an enormous gathering of empty plastic chairs as an audience for an empty stage. It was meant to be the finale of the Bangalore league of the Indian National Autocross Championship (INAC) and Rock Hammer – a battle of bands “organized to showcase Music Talent among the Indian Youth” was to be followed by the headlining act Parikrama. What we got in the end was a compromised show after hours of waiting, and no Parikrama. By the time the stage was setup, it was 8 p.m.,…