Musical Men Month

Music got me to write my first blog, and now after a long time, I felt the itch to blog again.

Here's why. In the coming one month, we are having a musical feast here in North California.

Have a look:
Apr 16 - Indian Ocean - Los Altos, CA
Apr 29 - Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion - Berkeley, CA
May 6 - Jagjit Singh - Oakland, CA

All the three performances belong to very different genres. They are in the three corners of the Bay Area.

Let me briefly describe the three performers/groups of performers.

Indian Ocean - They are a desi-fusion-rock band. Their music is spiced with jazz-rhythms and their songs contain sufism, shlokas, mythology, environmentalism, etc. Well, their musical products arent as complicated as my description might sound. You can catch a few samples here: http://www.indianoceanmusic.com/

Zakir Hussain and the Masters of Percussion - Percussion instruments have always amazed me and I am a keen listener. Of them the Tabla evokes a lot of excitement in me. And what an exponent of the Tabla is Zakir! Along with him in this group, playing a host of other percussion instruments are: Ustad Sultan Khan (sarangi); Narada Michael Walden (drums); Giovanni Hildalgo (congas); K Sivaraman (mridangam); T.H. Vinayakram (ghatam); Harishankar (kanjira); Taufiz Qureshi (madal tarang); Fazel Qurishi (tabla tarang); Arjun Shehwal (pakhawaj).
They also bring a nice fusion of not only North Indian and South Indian Classical music (Hindustani and Carnatic) but also a touch of the Western music.
Here is the website for their concert:
http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/season/2005/world_stage/zh.php

Jagjit Singh - Perhaps the best contemporary Ghazal exponent. A voice mellifluous, and yet one that expresses with equal potent, the feelings of love, sorrow, enthusiasm and devotion.
He handpicks the poetry he chooses to voice and is very selective about it. Here is a link for his concert:
http://mehtaentertainment.com/live3.htm

Looking forward to this melodius month.