MUMBAI: The Asian Music Circuit leading promoter of Asian music in the UK presents MUMBAI JAZZ as part of its special twentieth anniversary celebrations. Mumbai Jazz is a spectacular jazz/raga mix-up fusion lead by legends Larry Coryell (guitar) and Hubert Laws (flute) along with India’s foremost bansuri player, Ronu Majumdar and Percussionist Rajesh Rajbhatt completes the line-up on the rarely heard pakhawaj, a two-headed drum offering a deeper, roister alternative to the tabla. This exceptional global jazz tour fusing Indian and western music visits four leading venues across the UK and Europe, April 2011.
All four musicians are accomplished performers and composers in their own right:
Larry Coryell (Guitar): The great guitarist Larry Coryell is no stranger to working with Indian musicians and has performed with Zakir Hussain, Shakti and L. Subramaniam. Combining superb technique with sensitive artistry, he has appeared with many of the great names of world music and Western jazz. Larry is one of the world’s acknowledged guitar masters, having worked with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix and recorded more than 75 albums over 40 years. Hailed by his legions of fans as one of the â€?guitar gods’ in the late 1970s and as a â€?truly Renaissance musician who excels at all styles of playing’, he has been christened as â€?a true pioneer of rock-jazz fusion’ by the New York Times and dubbed â€?the Godfather of Fusion’ by Downbeat Magazine.
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Hubert Laws (Flute): Internationally renowned flautist Hubert Laws is one of the few classical artists who have mastered jazz, pop and rhythm-and-blues, and he moves effortlessly from one repertoire to another. Hubert has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, and with the orchestras of Japan, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit. He has given annual performances at Carnegie Hall, has played sold-out dates in the Hollywood Bowl with fellow flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, and has appeared with the Stanford String Quartet. Hubert has been a member of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras. Hubert Laws the star of CTI Records has recorded along with Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald and even played on Gil Scott-Heron’s â€?The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’.
Ronu Majumdar (Indian Flute): Ronu Majumdar is a leading bansuri (bamboo flute) player who is as comfortable playing jazz as he is in pure Indian classical music. His fabulous technique marks him out as a major innovator, having introduced a completely new aesthetic to Indian Music in his epoch-making album â€?Song of Nature/A Traveller’s Tale’. Ronu has performed and composed film music for Hollywood, and his work with banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck on the album â€?Tabula Rasa’ won him a Grammy nomination. He has collaborated with a hugely diverse range of artists from George Harrison, Ry Cooder and John Hassels to Indian maestros Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj and Kishori Amonkar.
Rajesh Rajbhatt Pakhawaj (percussion): Rajesh is one of India’s outstanding pakhawaj players. He can play Indian, Latin and African percussion instruments with equal dexterity and command, and has been working with Ronu Majumdar on several projects and recordings. Rajesh has toured extensively throughout the world, appeared on numerous film soundtracks, and performed with A. R. Rahman, Asha Bhosle and Ustad Sultan Khan. Rajesh’s virtuosic mastery of the pakhawaj lends a distinctive weight to the ensemble’s rhythm section, giving the quartet a somewhat heavier dynamic balance.
This collaboration has resulted in powerful new works exploring the melodic richness of raga and dynamic rhythmic interplay common to both Indian classical music and jazz.
The dates and venue are as follows:
Thursday 14 April 2011, 20:00 – Gateshead Old Town Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne
Monday 18 April 2011, 20:00 – Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London,(This performance is part of the Alchemy Festival)
Tuesday 26 April 2011, 20:00 – St George’s, Bristol
Saturday 30 April 2011, 20:30 – Porgy & Bess, Vienna (Austria)
