Ed Sheeran conquers Mumbai with ÷ Divide Tour

On a nippy Sunday evening 19th November 2017, a lone ginger-haired singer-songwriter delineated musical enchantment on a stage as he held the arena’s attention with nothing more than a guitar and a loop station. Even disregarding his outstanding lineage, Sheeran had no need for backing singers or dancers, not with an audience this involved.

Joss Stone mesmerizes at Blues festival

Dressed in a beautiful red designer ghagra choli with loads of gold embroidery work on it, a nose ring well in place, Indian bangles, large earrings, a flowery tattoo on her inner left palm and her blonde hair swinging from side to side, Joss Stone looked strikingly stunning in an Indian attire.

The Mahindra Blues festival - 2016 – A recap

It’s the sixth year of the now famous Mahindra Blues Festival which had its fair share of regulars and new listeners who are coming into the fold . Held over two days ,13th and 14th Feb at Mehboob Studios, Bandra , the excitement and expectation levels were high . Curiosity too abounded with regard to the artistes as only Soulmate, the Indian blues duo from the northeast was a familiar act ,who had performed previously at the festival, this being their fifth appearance.

Mystique Beats - Celebrating Nine Jewels in concert.

Ever wondered how it must feel to be in the presence of the Navratnas, the Nine Jewels. Well, the audience got a gist of it on a rainy Sunday evening. Perhaps, the Rain Gods decided to descend to witness the performances as well at the Shanmukhananda auditorium in Sion on Sunday evening 16th July.

Slash leaves Mumbai spellbound

Almost twenty years after he came to India for a concert in Bangalore, ex guitarist Slash of rock band Guns N' Roses, was in India as part of MTV Indies Xtreme, on a two city tour and performed on Saturday in Mumbai to a packed house with his new band Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators. Besides promoting his new album ‘World on Fire’, and playing tracks from the album, he went back in time and performed three super hits from his G N’R catalogue Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O’Mine and Paradise City, much to the excitement of his fans.

Khusrau – Kabir – Across Centuries…

It usually becomes challenging to describe strong personalities and music par excellence. Hazrat Amir Khusrau and Sant Kabir rightly fall in this class. Legends, geniuses, maestros. The Khusrau- Kabir concert was a tribute to these musical and literary giants of their eras. And such is their impact, that time and again, their compositions and poems are relived generation after generation.

MILAP

The stage was set. We could see so the performers busy with their last minute sound set-ups. The performances ahead made up for the delay though. The sounds of the instruments being fine-tuned, singers softly crooning into their mics for sound checks, is what creates the happy anticipation according to me. It was nice to hear the casual banter between the young artists.

The Lost Party: A Festival in the middle of the mountains

For the first time ever, a camping festival took place amongst the scenic beauty of the Sahyadri hill range, an event titled The Lost Party that had music, food and campers all in one place. March 6th ,7th and 8th (for campers only) saw about 5000 people gathered to groove to a galaxy of music artists from the world of EDM to pop, rock, folk, Arabesque and fusion.

Malhar Ke Prakar – An evening of monsoon ragas

The name of the event was indeed inviting. With the rain clouds giving a break in Mumbai, an evening of different versions of Raag Malhar was pleasing. For those of you who are unaware of the connection between Malhar and the Monsoons, let me share a well-known legend.

‘Sad’dled on Sax

It is highly unlikely that the name of Ryan Sadri will vanish from the tongues of jazz devotees anytime soon. Especially not after the memorable and extraordinary live performance at the Tata Theatre NCPA on Saturday evening. An advocate for jazz for many years, Sadri accompanied by his band The Soul City consisting of a few young cats, brought out the soul, funk and blues to a captive audience.