Last Friday, September 19, 2008, we performed at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, CA. It was great to play in the beautiful hall they have there. Despite the presidential debates, we had a receptive audience. We had a special guest on bass, Eric Vogler, filling in for David Ewell. Aside from playing bass, Eric is a genius at programming music through his computer.
Here are some pictures. View the whole set on flickr.
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. View the pictures here. Here is my favorite: L-R: Sameer Gupta, David Ewell, Prasant Radhakrishnan.
Thoughts?
If you are in the Bay Area, make to sure to check out two exciting concerts we have this month! Info here.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. Here are a couple photos and excerpt videos from the concert, with more to come. Full photoset on flickr here.
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: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. View the full photoset on Flickr.
Photos by Ganesh Ramachandran.
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.I have recently become involved in a project here in the Bay Area called “Nefasha Ayer.”
A bit about the project according the Nefasha Ayer myspace page: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.
Prasant Radhakrishnan 
