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.

The Blues just gets better with Simply the Blues.

The third edition of Simply the Blues had exciting UK blues guitar veteran Mick Clarke and his band as the headlining act for the evening. Simply the Blues has been an initiative by Anil Mehta’s StarKonnect Events to popularize this genre of music in India in its purest form. The event was held at St Andrews auditorium Bandra on Saturday 27th October 2014.

Sula gives another top notch evenings to remember

Sula Vineyards, Nashik resonated to the sound of music when the annual festival Sulafest came alive on the 1st and 2nd of February. It was the perfect day out for wine aficionados, food lovers and those seeking quality recreation and live entertainment to let their hair down and party. With the chilly weather just right, it was the perfect dose for an evening of music, wine and entertainment with the right set of people.

The Alex Machacek Trio leaves Mumbai enchanted.

He is one of the few artists who have managed to be showered upon by a lot of praise by the renowned John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth and the late Shawn Lane. Alex Machacek, the Austrian jazz fusion guitarist is one lucky fellow to be in the league of a selected few who is regarded as the best of the best.

Lavasa’s F.A.M.E, a benchmark for future events

Lavasa, India’s first planned hill city, recently hosted its first ever three day Food-Art-Music-Entertainment Festival (FAME 2014) from May 30 to June 01, 2014 giving a chance to thousands of holiday lovers to make a quick getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city for some cool weekend partying.

JAZZ – An English Musical Play: Theatre Review

Slick humor and nostalgia blended perfectly in JAZZ – An English Musical Play, that showcased the Anglo Indian and more specifically the Goan migration to Bombay in the early 1950s to the late 70s. The migration was not only for a better home, but more so for a career in the music industry which was known as Bollywood. This period offered employment opportunities for the talented Goan lad who was well endowed in Western music, more importantly jazz music.