The Midival Punditz are back, and how!!! Though the name of the album, Hello Hello, might sound a bit frivolous, don’t let that mislead you coz you would otherwise be missing out on some really good music. The third studio album of the Delhi-based duo, which was released early last month, contains songs from diverse genres. While the opening track Electric Universe is a superb mix of groovy electronic dance beats and the bansuri (Indian bamboo flute, the acoustic version of the same song has Karsh Kale sing to a serene background of guitar and keyboard. Tonic has some brilliant Hindustani female vocals to a programmed Indian percussion interspersed with some English-Hindi rap by noted actor Ajay Naidu, and Atomizer features vocoded vox over a vintage disco template. One of the best tracks in the album is the recreation of Led Zeppelin’s Four Sticks, done in collaboration with Israeli electro jazz band J.Viewz. The Punditz bring in their innovativeness to play here too with the inclusion of instruments like the bamboo flute, giving a definitive Indian touch to the proceedings. Another classical-oriented melody is Naina Laagey, rendered by assamese singer/composer Papon to a western background of keyboards and mild electronic beats. The singing by Papon has been spot on, at times sounding similar to Hariharan. In Drifting you get to hear Pandit Ajay Prasanna in action on the flute, in conjunction with the guitar playing in the background. The song is unfortunately too short and is over before you really get enough of it. Desolate is another brilliant piece of fusion with ace vocalist/composer Shankar Mahadevan crooning along with singer/songwriter Shahid to a rock-ish and electronic instrumentation. As is Shankar’s wont, you get to hear a sargam sequence towards the latter half of the song which he carries out with aplomb. Ghazal artist Vishal Vaid executes the semi-classical Sun Mere Sanam in style, rendering the classical complexities with ease. Wonder why these artists never perform in the Indian music scene. Another Urdu song is a modernized version of Mirza Ghalib’s Har Ek Baat, with the tune remaining akin to that of a ghazal while the background is totally electronic, the flute being the only old school member. And finally, The Lucky One is archetypal electronica. 

11 wonderful tracks.  With two albums from Amit Heri, one from Midival Punditz et al, this is really turning out to be a good year for India on the World music arena. And as a religious follower of fusion music I couldn’t ask for more!! You can read a more detailed review of the album and listen to snippets of the songs on the official Punditz site.

Midival Punditz at Delhi during the Shalom Peace Concert 06, with Karsh Kale, Vishal Vaid, Papon and Ajay Prasanna among others

Another video from the Shalom Peace Concert 06

Around the same time that Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2007 second runner up Amanat Ali came out with his debut album Kohram, another contestant who finished one notch above him in the contest, Raja Hasan, launched his debut work which was called Yaar Mila De Re, set to tune by his musician father Rafiq Sagar. While Kohram was rated by Music Aloud as a passable album, we now take a look at Yaar Mila..

Yaar Mila De Re

The album starts off with this delightful sufi track, Raja’s rendition replete with devoutness. The instrumentation has been spot on, with the sarangi especially standing out all through the song. Though the song is over seven minutes long, the tedium is hardly felt while listening to this serene track reminiscent of songs like Khwaja Mere Khwaja (Jodhaa Akbar), Ha Raham (Aamir) etc.

Sajna Jaye Base Pardes

After a pleasant track this is a more sombre semiclassical one (wonder if the raag is Bairagi/Revathi). While Raja’s singing is classy here too, somewhere in between the song starts getting monotonous. In contrast to the first song the instrumentation doesn’t quite gel in with the song in this case.

Aaja Meri Rani

This one sounds more like a remixed Rajasthani folk song, a la Sajnaji Vari Vari (Honeymoon Travels), though easier on the beats and not as fast. Rajasthani folk is always a delectable listen and hence this song, though the instrumentation is not that up to the mark, makes for an interesting four odd minutes.

Nazar Lag Gayi

The Sukhwinder-ish element of Raja’s voice is accentuated in this sorrowful song. Not that it serves much of a purpose here, as everything else about this song is uninteresting, right from the antiquated tabla/dholak beats to the chorus singing Nazar Lag Gayi. The addition of an electric guitar among the instruments does little to mitigate the effect. If you are interested in drawing comparisons between Sukhwinder’s and Raja’s voice you can listen to this song. Otherwise my advice is to move on to the next track!

Mohabbat Raas Na Aayi

After a disappointing track, Mohabbat.. is a brilliant retort. A semiclassical song with dark overtones (the raag is Puriya Dhanasri/Hamsanandi I believe) delivered again by a Sukhwinderesque Raja. Rafiq Sagar finds his way back in this song in terms of the orchestration. Especially brilliant is the second interlude.

Pardesi Se Kya Aankh Ladaye

Another folk song adds to the pack, this time a Punjabi one. No, not the clamorous Bhangra type, but a softer song more inclined towards the semiclassical melody. And therefore a peaceful and enjoyable number.

Tan Ghayal Ghayal Kar Gayi

Interesting in parts, this fast paced number is just about average and falls among the less attractive songs of the album. Raja’s voice is more suited to the mellower and more classical-oriented songs than numbers such as these, methinks.

Going by the genre of songs in the album, there surely is not going to be a mad rush for Yaar Mila.. except among may be the hardcore fans of Raja from SRGMP. But as musicians Raja Hasan and father Rafiq Sagar can be happy about having delivered some music of value. Of course its not THE perfect debut album having its share of drab tracks, but the other numbers just about make up for the negatives. As for this album getting him some mileage in Bollywood, it doesn’t look like Raja needs it anymore as he has already got the dream start, having sung for SEL and Vishal-Shekhar in movies and more recently being asked by A R Rahman himself to perform at the Calicut concert and in the upcoming Pune concert. So for now, it does look like Raja Hasan is here to stay.

Promo of Yaar Mila De

Promo of Sajna Jaye Base Pardes

May 30 will have Bangalore groove to five of India’s most proficient guitarists – Amit Heri, Derek Julien, “Tuki” Vikramjit Bannerjee, John Anthony and Sanjay Divecha. Starting at 8 pm at the Fireflies Ashram on Kanakapura Road, the show which is the first such initiative by Strange Brew, will feature hour long individual performances of each of the artists before they all converge for a jam session. Given their repertoire, you can expect a musical potpourri panning across jazz, blues, baul, carnatic, rock and more, coz while Amit Heri is adept at jazz and carnatic, Derek is into rock, having pioneered progressive rock in India with Waterfront. Tuki on the other hand mixes Baul and rock as part of his cult fusion band Krosswindz, and John Anthony has been mixing carnatic with blues, funk, trance etc with Karnatriix. And the fifth man in the ensemble, Sanjay Divecha, is another jazzist who has recorded with some of the biggest names in the international music scene. So the moral of the story is that if you are a music lover worth his/her salt and you are in Bangalore on May 30, you would be committing a crime to miss this grand event!! For more details you can visit Strange Brew’s site. And just in case you feel that we are lying about the artists, take a look at the videos below.

Derek Julien as part of Milind Date’s Fusion Ensemble

Amit Heri with Ranjit Barot and Jacob Williams

Krosswindz in performance

Karnatriix with John Anthony

Sanjay Divecha at Bluefrog

Paying Guests is the latest comedy flick in tinseltown, with a horde of actors including Shreyas Talpade, Javed Jaffrey, Johnny Lever, Riya Sen, Celina Jaitley, Neha Dhupia et al. And the music, almost predictably, has been handed to the hottest faves when it comes to comedy films, Sajid Wajid. The review for you.

Jack n Jill

There are two things that are bad about this song. First thing is that the tune is VERY stale. And the second thing is that it is annoying in most parts starting with the chipmunk-ish processed voice which renders the Punjabicized version of the nursery rhyme. Shaan’s energetic rendition goes totally in waste as there is nothing in it for him. And if you thought this was the worst, listen to the remix!! A second vocalist in the song, by the way, is Earl D’souza who last year had rendered the song I am a Bad Boy in Bhram. I believe he is the rapper in the song, as I could not discern another vocal in any other part.

Nazar Se Nazaria

The instrumentation of the song is heavily inspired from Krazy Kiya Re from Dhoom 2 and I find it hard to think of it as a coincidence having such a stark resemblance. To add to the similarity factor, the words sexy and crazy keep appearing in the interludes, and the song is rendered by Sunidhi Chauhan. Someone lifting a tune from Pritam of all the people, thats funny!! Having said all this, Nazar Se Nazaria is a catchy song. Not much credit to Sajid Wajid though, as the catchiness is mostly owed to the original. And the kind of song that it is,  even the heavily electronic remix version sounds quite befitting.

Paying Guests

The title song is a just about average tune. The bols are nice, and so is the rendition by Wajid, but the song as such doesn’t have much that would have you returning to it. Worth a couple of listens and thats about it.

Ya Rab-ul-Alameen

Though the credits say Ya Rabula Rabbi everywhere, on listening to the song I felt it was Ya Rab-ul-Alameen. And so shall the title be on Music Aloud. Now this one is a pleasant relief, quintessential Sajid Wajid, with the likable groove akin to Do You Wanna Partner but a tune that is better than that, with a middle-eastern lilt. Rendered by the dependable Sonu Nigam with Amrita Kak and Earl D’Souza. Amrita Kak sounds quite a bit like Alisha in many places, especially at the place where she is introduced. Amrita hasn’t quite got her due in Bollywood after having debuted with Just Chill way back in 2005.

A rather pedestrian attempt by Sajid Wajid with the only winner being Ya Rab.. After a decent attempt in Kal Kissne Dekha, Paying Guests is a disappointment from the duo. And if they continue this form, they are going to be pretty much limited to no-brainer comedies.

In what could turn out to be another golden moment for Indian music this year, the prolific composer duo of Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant (Salim-Sulaiman) have been nominated for Emmy Daytime awards under the Outstanding Original Song – Children’s and Animation category. The composers won the nomination for their work in the September 8, 2008 episode of the Nickelodeon series the Wonder Pets!, titled Save the Bengal Tiger. The track was called We Like Being Small. Incidentally, the Bengal Tiger featured in this episode was lent voice by Nandita Das. The awards shall be announced on August 30 at a show hosted by Vanessa Williams at the Orpheum Theatre, LA.
The composer siblings have been rather dormant this year, with their only work so far being the two superb tunes for 8×10 Tasveer.

The world is not going to forget George W. Bush soon and it seems like Green Day won’t make that any easier. Green Day’s latest album 21st Century Breakdown which will hit the stores this Friday the 15th,  carries on from where American Idiot left off. Known for their Bush bashing and angry poetry Green Day has taken it to a new level with this album.  Like American Idiot the new release is a rock opera and tells the story of an American couple. Musically the album matches the brilliance of  it’s predecessor and that’s not a small thing to do, with songs like Boulevard of Broken Dreams and  Wake me up when September ends, American.. was a runaway success and had won Green Day a lot of new fans. Green Day in an interview stated  that the Queen, the Clash and Bruce Springsteen have influenced this release. The album is very much a child of the times we are in and launches a punk attack against “the enemy”. Even though Bush has disappeared to his Texas Ranch, thanks to the Economic Crisis we still have lots of gloomy days ahead and this album has enough anger and energy to fight that off.  Get ready for the breakdown!

In between Green Day performed songs from the latest album for some 250 odd fans at a Oakland club. Here is a video.
21ST CENTURY BREAKDOWN (LIVE)

Indo-Swedish world music band Mynta came out with their latest album Meetings In India in March. For the uninitiated, Mynta is a band that is almost three decades old. Founded as a jazz group, they turned to Indo-jazz fusion post 1987 when they happened to meet tablist Fazal Qureshi (Zakir Hussain’s younger brother) and Shankar Mahadevan on one of their Indian tours. Today their music can be termed as a potpourri of all sorts of music ranging from Indian classical to Latin American to African to Scandinavian. Even in Meetings in India they have maintained the diversity, with 15 tracks spanning across Latin American (Absolute Samba), Italian (Tarantelle), Swedish (Ganglat Fran Laggars) and Indian classical (Rag Hindol) among others. Out of the tracks, Ganglat.. is a reproduction from their 1997 album called First Summer. Wonder why that was required, seeing that they have 14 tracks even otherwise. Shankar Mahadevan, who has not been a regular member of the band, is not part of this album. The vocals are instead handled by Swedish singer Kerstin Sonnback. The rest of the band all feature in the album, with some other guest artists like Swedish musician Coste Apetrea on keyboard and Sridhar Parthasarathy on mridangam. Meetings In India comes after a gap of three years, the previous album being Hot Days. You can listen to samples of five tracks from the album on Mynta’s site.

Mynta’s performance in Fasching, featuring Ganglat Fran Laggars in the latter half

After his path-breaking music for Morning Raga alongside Manisharma made waves in the music world in 2004, Amit Heri was not to be seen much in the public eye for quite a long time, except for performances. After close to five years, this year he has come out with a bang, first with a contemporary jazz album and then with a world music album. While the former, Elephant Walk, is a re-release of his 1998 jazz fusion album, Jhoola the world music album is a fresh look at the folk music forms from various parts of India. Amit Heri talks to Music Aloud about his music and the contemporary Indian music scene.

Could you tell us a bit about your initial stages, ie, after

Berklee till the release of Elephant Walk? Was the name

Elephant Walk some sort of tribute to Mancini?

I went to Berklee first time in 1989 (17 years old) and finally came back in 1996. Between 1996 & 1998 (when I recorded Elephant Walk) , I was busy setting myself up professionally in India, playing with musicians like Ramamani, Louiz Banks, Shankar Mahadevan, Ranjit Barot, Karl & Keith Peters and many others. I also performed a lot with my group and composed music for dance, theatre, tv and radio. I also performed extensively in Europe with legendary Saxophonist Charlie Mariano during this time.
I’ve visited the jungles of Bandipur and Madhumalai (close to Mysore) several times since I was kid. I think it’s the largest elephant sanctuary in Asia and is one of my favourite places. The tune was named after those magnificent animals – Elephant Walk. No connection with Mancini.

After the release of Bangalore in 2000, there was a long hiatus till Morning Raga in 2004.

What is it that kept you busy in those four years?

I always keep myself busy with music – studying, performing, composing and teaching. During this time I was performing with Trilok Gurtu for almost 2 years all over the world at some major festivals. Also recorded with him, performed with my group in India and did a lot of composition/production work. Scored the music for Mahesh Dattani’s film Mango Souffle.

How did Morning Raga happen? Was there a Bangalore connection to it, considering that

Mahesh Dattani was also brought up in Bangalore?

Mahesh and me are good friends and we have a great working relationship. We enjoyed working on Mango Souffle and Mahesh thought that my style would be perfect for what he had in mind for Morning Raga.

Morning Raga was undoubtedly a runaway hit, at least on the musical front. But why was

there no further composition from Amit Heri in Bollywood?

Being a Bollywood music director has never really been a great desire of mine. Hence, i haven’t made a conscious effort to get into the Bollywood scene. To work in Bollywood you need to be part of the scene, in Mumbai, hustling with the directors/producers etc or you need to be a hit in your local regional scene and get recognized there, both of which I didn’t really put energy into. Didn’t get any calls from Bollywood either in response to Morning Raga. That’s the reason.

How much of your compositions evolve from informal jamming sessions? In Hills of Grace

from your latest Jhoola we hear strings in Raag Hamsadhwani with Amazing Grace plus

some ghatam knocks thrown in, and even in Bathing Devi the tribal rendition doesn’t

sound at all like a studio recording. We are curious to know about the conception of

these songs.

An integral part of music for me is the interaction of musicians on stage and the energy that comes from that. For the majority of my study & career, I have played & performed with musicians & that defines me as a musician. So, naturally when I compose or produce this aspect is a strong influence in how I feel and think about the music and I am conscious about capturing this in the recording. Besides, an album for me is something that I want to take on the road & perform. That’s the end goal of JHOOLA too.

Some purists have criticised fusion saying its neither here nor there. What’s your take on

this?

As a musician, you need to study, experience, have a deep understanding intellectually and emotionally and be able to express naturally in each form of music before you try to bring multiple forms together. Only if you have experience & understanding of various cultures as a human being first, will you be able to create music that sounds natural and with meaning while bringing together multiple styles. Not many people have this experience and try their hand at ‘fusion’, perhaps resulting in a lack of depth as perceived by listeners and hence the criticism.

Are you influenced by Indian film music? Who is your favourite Indian composer?

I’m not really influenced that much by Indian film music. Although, I do enjoy the melodies of songs from old Indian films – beautiful. Amongst the present – day music directors, I enjoy Rahman & Shankar Mahadevan’s works.

Of late Bollywood music is seeing a gradual shift towards World music with a lot of

rock/jazz elements coming in (Leaving out the plagiaristic inclusion of such music!!).

Your take on this?

Rahman was the one who really started the trend and now it’s become part of Bollywood music. I like it when done well.

We don’t see a lot of Indian bands/artists making it big in the international scene. What do

you think the reason for this could be?

To make it in the international scene, firstly Indian artists need to have ’something to show’ that works in that scene and then either need to work with well known international artists/producers or have artist managers, promoters, booking agents who can push them into projects abroad. Very few Indian artists have been fortunate in achieving that.

Four years between Bangalore and Morning Raga. Five years between Morning Raga and

Jhoola. How much longer will fans have to wait for Amit Heri’s next album?

I have enough music to record at least another 3 albums. If there are companies wanting to do that, it will be sooner than later.

For the sake of good music, Music Aloud hopes that companies come forward pretty soon to make those prospective albums happen.
You can read Music Aloud’s reviews of Jhoola and Elephant Walk by clicking on the album names here.

First it was the Pussycat Dolls. Then came Akon. A R Rahman’s rise on the international scene continues unabatedly as the biggest of them all, The Rolling Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger has announced plans of collaborating with Rahman for a charity project, to be released on September 21, the UN International Day of Peace. The album has also been reported to feature the English R&B singer Joss Stone, Bob Marley’s sons Stephen and Damian, U2 lead singer Bono and rapper Nas.  Rahman had been reported as having a couple of jamming sessions with Jagger post his Oscar win. With the kind of artistes collaborating for the album, this is really going to be a project to look out for.

So the question that Rahman fans would now be asking is, who is next??

It was in 2004 that Amit Heri along with Manisharma came out with the mesmerizing musical Morning Raaga. While there has been a long hiatus thence, this year Amit Heri strikes for the second time (after the re-release of his 1998 jazz fusion album Elephant Walk, the review of which can be read here) with Jhoola – A World Music Yatra. Featuring folk music from various parts of the country, Jhoola is a veritable yatra panning the varied facets of Indian music.

Om Shakthi

The vocal rendition of Om Shakthi is quite raw, at times to the extent that it even sounds slightly out of pitch. But strangely enough the beauty of the song lies in that rawness, giving the Tamil devotional folk track a haunting touch. The instrumentation has been superb, the highlight being the guitar which blends well with the predominantly South Indian percussion. The segment towards the closure is especially briliant. Nice track to kick off the album.

Jhoola

The title song is a song about Lord Krishna, and is old school semiclassical stuff for most part, except for some modern percussion towards the latter half. The female singing is spot on.

Pirithi Jam

This song has a little bit of everything in it. Starting off on a catchy North Eastern (Assamese I am told) folk song with the South Indian veena for backing with a small bluesy guitar segment in between, the song suddenly switches gears to hindustani vocals on a rock-ish template. The folk portion then returns and then its konnakol time! While the scatting hots up we hear jazz in the background. For that matter bluesy elements make their appearances even at earlier stages of the song in short bursts on the guitar. And Amit gives a fitting end with some carnatic ad libbing on the distortion guitar, in what I felt was raag Abhogi.

Krishna

Not much has been changed in this version of the renowned carnatic composition expect for the west-east mix in the instrumentation and the slightly westernised rendition of Krishna Hari Krishna in between. On the fusion front this adaptation doesn’t come out as great as the memorable version by the Colonial Cousins, but it is enjoyable nevertheless.

Hills of Grace

Amit Heri shows us a new way of looking at the Amazing Grace through this brilliant piece. Starting off with the guitar strumming raag Hamsadhwani, the vocals are quite fittingly backed by a minimal instrumentation featuring an unconventional inclusion of the South Indian ghatam.

The Bathing Devi

The folk song from the state of Uttarakhand which forms the core of this track if sung per se would have captured the interest of only the most esoteric of music lovers. But in a remarkable display of musical acumen Amit Heri brings in elements of South Indian and North Indian percussion, jazz, konnakol and other Western instrumentation which while maintaining the rusticness of the song make it a delightful experience.

Goa Gai Gai

A new look at the famous Goan folk song. This song however didn’t seem as impressive as the original song, with the tone of the song slightly altered, the bluesy orchestration working against the song this time.

Zikir

The first half of the song is just mostly folk, with the North Eastern Muslim folk song being rendered to a westernized arrangement. Enter some Hindustani sargam and then another of those spellbounding jazz solos by Amit Heri. The humming appearing at the start and end of the song is nice.

Bago Rumba

A “cute” song if I were to express this North Eastern folk song in one word, due mainly to the female singer, who renders it in a childish manner. Amit doesn’t experiment a lot with the orchestration this time, sticking to flute and tabla for most parts, except for a fleeting stint of the ghatam followed by a brief jazz (was there a bit of carnatic too?) solo on guitar in between. A pleasant song thus ends the album.
Amit Heri makes the long wait for his new album worthwhile with an absolute treat for world music lovers. With Jhoola and the re-released Elephant Walk, there is enough to keep the music aficionados occupied for quite a few days to come!!
You can listen to all songs from the album on Amit Heri’s website. But after listening to the songs please please go buy the album!!The album shall be available in stores on May 13.

Amit Heri performing with Mandolin U. Shrinivas at Chennai