"Where genres meet"
Oceans separate them, but when they create music together, it's the stuff of dreams. Four Carnatic musicians, lead by mridangist Guru Kaaraikudi Mani, and seven Australian jazz artistes from the Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) come together in t he city on June 5 to perform 'Oceanic Dream', the culmination of 11 years of a unique musical collaboration.
"Our musical journey began in 1997, when AAO was invited by the Australian government to perform in India to mark the 50th anniversary of independence," says Mani. "They approached my institute in Melbourne because they wanted to adapt some compositions from my albums to perform on the tour," says Mani. Musical venture
One thing lead to another, and Sruthilaya, the talented Carnatic quartet consisting of Mani, V. Suresh on the ghatam, B.V. Balasai on the flute and U.P. Raju on the mandolin ended up performing Carnatic pieces with the orchestra on their tour across India.
Since then, Sruthilaya and AAO have cut an album together, 'Into the fire', and have performed to critical acclaim in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Calcutta, at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne International Arts Festival and Adelaide International Arts Festival, and in London, Prague, Copenhagen and Finland.
Along the way, their fusion of musical styles has become increasingly seamless, with not just jazz adaptations of Carnatic pieces, but also jazz pieces with Carnatic instruments worked into their arrangement being part of their repertoire.
Their current tour of India has four stops -- Hyderabad, Mysore, Bangalore, and for the first time, Chennai.
The seven members of the AAO who are part of this tour are Adrain Sheriff, the young trombone player, Sandy Evans on the saxophone, Scott Tinkler on the trumpet, Lachlan Davidson, a multi-instrumentalist who plays the saxophone, clarinet, flute and piccolo, Alister Spence, a pianist, Niko Schauble, the drummer and Philip Rex on the double bass.
Together, these elite musicians are representative of the 23-member orchestra from Melbourne's dedication to exploring the rich ground between fully notated and fully improvised music.
Following the concert at Music Academy on June 5, Sruthilaya and AAO will begin the next stage of their musical journey together -- recording their second album, 'Oceanic Dream', right here in Chennai. "Since we would have completed several rehearsals and four kutcheris together during this tour, we'll be ready to record," says Mani. "It will include jazz pieces as well as my own compositions set to a jazz arrangement."
Mani is, of course, no stranger to international collaborations of this sort. Most recently, he worked with Paul Simon in Manhattan, recording for his upcoming album along with percussionist Jaimy Haddad. This, incidentally, is Simon's first recording with an Indian musician after working with Pandit Ravishankar in the 1960s. But for now, Mani brings Chennai's music lovers a taste of the Oceanic Dream, where Carnatic classical and improvisational jazz mingle in harmony.
- The Hindu, Chennai. Monday, Jun 02, 2008, DIVYA KUMAR
