Jagadeesh M.R – Self taught guitar player,
composer and founder, Jagadeesh has been playing with pop, rock and jazz bands
since the last 20 years. From a young age, Jagadeesh was exposed to Indian Classical sounds at home. His other influences come from jazz and ‘jamming’
with different musicians of different styles and from a brief stint
in Spain learning Flamenco. Jagadeesh also recorded and uploaded a
song called Road to Pondy, a breezy instrumental based on a mythical journey to
Pondycherry, on the internet way back in 1999, on IUMA (iuma stands for internet underground
music archive) and uploaded this song ‘just for fun’ and forgot all about
it. The song received more than 1000 downloads and was also
featured on a Easy Listening compilation by kidantrimmusic.com, an
independent label in New York, and aired
on radio stations in the US. Jagadeesh
also recently composed and directed music for a school play which was adapted
from Salman Rushdie’s “Haroun and The Sea of Stories”. As Head of Events at Radio Indigo (till 2008) Jagadeesh was instrumental in conceptualising a number of international quality concert events, and almost single handedly reviving and putting together what is arguably Bangalore's finest and one of India's best Jazz Festivals - The Indigo & Blues Festival in 2007 - and in 2009 a 3 Day Jazz Festival at the UB City for the Bengaluru Habba. Jagadeesh continues to network with musicians both locally and internationally as part of his events interest.
Karthik Mani drummer, percussionist hails from a family of musicians – his father, TAS Mani is a renowned percussionist of "The Karnataka College of Percussion", and his mother R.A.Ramamani is a reputed ground breaking Carnatic vocalist who has performed all over the world. He has performed in Various Prestigious festivals in India, China, Spain, Germany, USA, Canada, and Australia. He has performed with musicians like Louis banks, Karl peters, Keith Peters, Amith Heri,Ranjit Barot, Ramesh Shotham, Mike Herting, Carnatic maestro Mandolin U. Sreenivas and Carnatic flute Maestro N. Ramani. For the past few years, he has been a part of internationally-renowned Carnatic percussion ensemble "Tala Tarangini" (of the Karnataka College of Percussion), Laya Lahiri, Vrushti, Laya Taranga,and Laya Milana Das. He had been privileged in playing for an album with the internationally renowned Jazz legend Saxophonist the late "Charlie Mariano” for the album "Om Keshav" which was a success worldwide. He has performed in various International Music Festivals. "La Marde Musicas", "Kispiox Valley Festival", "Islands Folk Festival", "Harrison Festival of the Arts ", and "Pacific Rim Summer Festival". Recently he performed at the “Ruhr Triennale” festival with the African singer Mory Kante, Tunisian singer Dhafer Yousuf and Carnatic Vocalist Mrs Ramamani. In the same festival he also played with Afro-Cuban percussionist Mokhtar Samba and Japanese guitarist Paul Shigihara. In Switzerland he did a project with the band “Zoom” with Lucas Niggli, Trombonist Nils Wogram and Philip Shaufberger. He has also toured with the renowned percussion group “The Family of Percussion” with Peter Giger. Currently he is the percussionist of the award winning Indo-Canadian band "Lehera".
|
|
|
Madhuri Jagadeesh– Singer songwriter and co founder Madhuri’s vocals has influences from all over the world, but rooted in India. Inspired by Singers like Susheela Raman, Sheela Chandra, Ella Fitzgerald and Freddy Mercury to name a few. She began singing in school operatas and small musical productions since she was eight years old. She’s also been singing in pop and rock bands professionally since she was eighteen. She’s always loved the irreverent and open sound of jazz and finds it the most inclusive form of music and a universal mode of communication. Madhuri has found a niche in world music and is constantly looking to expand the scope and possibilities of this genre with new influences and sounds from around the world as she travels. Her other passions include public speaking, writing, drama, dance, art, craft and fashion. She's been in the field of learning and development. With her special area being communication, her other areas of interest include performing arts, fine arts and applied arts. She has begun work on an entrepreneurial venture to make things viable for her, those who work with her and those less privileged. Prakash Sontakke –http://prakashsontakke.com Prakash is the son and disciple of Dr. R.B . Sontakke, a Doyen of the Gwalior Gharana and a direct disciple of the Legendary Pt. Omkarnath Thakur. Both of Prakash's parents were distinguished music teachers at the prestigious Benares Hindu University. Prakash has a triple masters degree in Hindustani classical music - guitar, vocals and violin. Greatly inspired and personally blessed by Pt Brijbhushan Kabra, the pioneer of Indian slide guitar, Prakash prefers to play the Gayaki Ang (vocal style) which recreates the emotion of the human voice on the instrument.He is equally at home jamming multi-cultural Funk in concert with triple Grammy winners, Ozomatli as he is exchanging phrases with North and South Indian classical virtuosi, opening for Rock Legend Jethro Tull or jurying auditions and training India's young future singing stars.Prakash performs internationally, and his Classical Guitar concerts have been broadcast on All India Radio. Recipient of the prestigious Aryabhatta and Ganayogi Panchakshari Gawai awards, his creative explorations in Jazz and World music are deeply underlined by his classical training. He was awarded a scholarship from the Indian Department of Culture for his second instrument, the violin , and gives lectures and workshops on classical Indian music and slide guitar at home and abroad. Prakash has traveled and performed overseas in Spain and Canada with various international groups such as Arya, Lehera. Recently, Lehera has the distinction of winning the world fusion award from the Independent Music Awards NY for their instrumental Heartsky, from judges like Peter Gabriel, Kylie Minogue, beating four hundred thousand entries worldwide. In Nov 2010, Prakash toured Norway with"FOOD" on a tour of Norway (progressive Electronic Jazz crossover ) where he performed with British Saxophone Legend Ian Ballamy and the phenomenal Norwegian Drummer Thomas Stronen .Occassionally they also have Eivind Aarset a legendry Guitarist and virtuoso Wilson Kenneth Kenneth Wilson, known as Kenny is a young and phenomenally talented bass player, keenly honing his skills in jazz sensibilities. Kenny began by learning to play lead guitar with various bands in college. But the percussive nature and tonality of bass guitar playing was magnetic and Kenny found himself attracted more and more towards bass playing. Kenny found the ideal combination with a young group called Caesar's Palace which chose to stay away from the typical rock format that many young bands ventured into. Instead, Caesar's Palace, backed by Kenny experimented with funk, fusion and soul with some original compositions as well as covers.
|
|