flautist rajeev raja backed by 'ash enthralled a packed house of his fans. amazing versatility in his flute playing ranging from the throaty growls to mellow jazz solos and intrictate exposition of Indian ragas, with tracks from santana, jethro tull , to some jazz standards.
day 2 lunch: 18th dec
taaq
thermal and a quarter with thier electrifying new vocalist david pascal in an afternoon gig under the swaying palm trees, played for almost 3 hours or pure magic. from thier own compositions to thier arrangement of tunes they like they were really a breath of fresh air.
day 2 dinner
krismas kroaknight
saw some of the best voices including a 10 year old superstar, kiara, sing to a bursting house of over 400 people ...
day 3: 19th dec
christmas jam
two of bangalores new bands Old jungle Saying and Maximum Pudding started off the evening and it ended in an open jam. an evening that saw the likes of shankarshan kini, samira mohamed, anoopa, blues guitarist ananth.
day 4: 20th dec
world space live
a concert of giganitic propotions. Charlie Mariano - Soprano, Alto, tenor Sax backed by Mike Herting – KeyboardsT.A.S Mani – Mridangam Ramamani - Vocals, KonnakolKeith Peters – BassRanjit Barot - DrumsRamesh Shottam - percussionAmit Heri - guitarsaw all of bangalores music lovers enjoying a night that wont be forgotten for a long time to come.
day 5: 21st dec
gerard & priya
day 6: 22nd dec
the higher iyer show
kartik iyer in a side splitting set of comedy and nonsense . from his take on chennai, to call centre employees, to an air guitar competetion, to the arabs ... he had everyone rolling on the mattresses. joining him on stage were preetam koilpillai, rajeev ravindranathan, vivek madan and mark swaroop.
day 7: 23rd dec
anushka manchanda
in a first of its kind masala mix of the beatles, elvis, some hip hop, to some groovy dance tunes she ended it with some hardcore bollywood tracks... she had the entire crowd on the floor screaming for more.
day 8: 24th dec
carlton and friends
the great jazz pianist stanley pinto, along with prashanth on bass noel and cliff on guitars, samir on drums denzil on trumpet and the awesome nate on sax.
what a way to end the festival. people soon discarded their woolies and their mufflers and were dancing and yelling for more ... carlton was his unbelievable electric self jumping on top of speakers and chairs and in a set that ranged from swing to jazz to country to disco ... these guys totally rocked!!!
A product of Bishop Cotton's School and St Joseph's College, Bangalore, Rajeev is acknowledged as India's most exciting Jazz and Fusion flautist.His influences include Ian Anderson, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Hubert Laws and Herbie Mann amongst flautists and Chick Corea, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, John Mclaughlin,Weather Report amongst others.He demonstrates amazing versatility in his flute playing ranging from the throaty growls to mellow jazz solos and intrictate exposition of Indian ragas.Rajeev has recently started a Indian Fusion and World Music band in Mumbai called India Chapter.
The band played its first concert in Mumbai recently to rave reviews.Rajeev has also directed the music for his first Bollywood film, Bas Yunhi.
Rajeev's band Colossus inaugurated Bangalore's first ever Jazz Yatra in the eighties.
For him the yatra goes on.
Thermal And A Quarter
(TAAQ to the impatient and the familiar) is a prolific, innovative and genre-busting rock band that embodies the part-global, part-local spirit of Bangalore in its music and attitude. For nearly ten years, TAAQ has performed hundreds of concerts in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi and Pondicherry. Among the highlights in TAAQ's career was opening for Deep Purple in Bangalore (2001), being the first Indian rock band to be featured on National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered' (2004) and independently releasing three albums -- Thermalandaquarter.com (2000), Jupiter Cafe (2002) and Plan B (2004). Plan B was released for complimentary download on the band's website www.thermalandaquarter.comTAAQ is: Bruce Lee Mani (guitars, vocals), Rzhude (Bass, vocals), Rajeev Rajagopal (Drums) and Sunil Chandy (Keyboard, Guitar)At this special concert at Opus, TAAQ features DAVID PASCAL, the electrifying vocalist from Chennai, who will perform TAAQ favourites in his inimitable style.
Old Jungle Saying, Maximum Pudding, Samira & Anoopa, Open Jam
Maximum pudding
Arfaz :drums/ vocals, avijit: keys, nate :sax, abhi :guitar
Old Jungle Saying
A bunch of experimental, wise, improbably funky, groovy love kamikazes, Old Jungle Saying is based in one of the lazy layouts of the southern city of Bangalore, India. Influenced by the likes of Primus, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, Infectious Grooves and a whole lot of other bands whose genealogy is hard to trace, Old Jungle Saying serves up sumptuous slabs of psychedelic funk, held in place by the riotous rhythm section of Sandeep Madhavan (bass) and Greg Hamra on drums. As they steer the mothership through the murky, quirky guitars of Mel D'Mello and the spaced-out funkiness emanating from resident hippie Avijit Michael, the charismatic gurgling of Aditya Menon can be heard calling the faithful from above the rarified groove.
With lyrics inhabited by the likes of ticked-off monkeys, generous ghosts and Faye Dunaway while still managing to cast a jaundiced eye on the world, a rhythm section that stops, turns and whistles on a dime, guitar licks that weave through without a scratch, quivering keys and vocals that preach and prattle, Old Jungle Saying is here to tickle your funny bone while punching you in the gut.
Sandeep Madhavan: Bass, Aditya Menon: Vocals, Mel D’Mello: Guitars ,Avijit Michael: Keyboards, Greg Hamra: Drums
WORLD SPACE LIVE ( BY INVITE ONLY)
Charlie Mariano:
Born Nov. 11, 1923 , Boston Studied music at Berklee College of Music, Boston Lives in Cologne, Germany.
Charlie Mariano is far more than an internationally successful saxophonist; he has been listed amongst the legends of the trade for a long time: The musician, born on Nov. 11, 1923, began his career as early as 1941 as a co-musician in professional show bands and worked with quite a number of jazz icons during his further career. If you want to visualise the actual duration of his active life, you just have to become aware of the fact that Mariano is one of the last contemporary witnesses of the bebop era. For example, he worked with Stan Kenton, Dizzy Gillespie, but also with McCoy Tyner during the 50s. In 1962, he played with Charles Mingus and accompanied him on the album The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady. During the late 60s, he played with Astrud Gilberto. At the beginning of the 70s, he spent several months in India to study a South-Indian wind instrument, the nagaswaram. His cooperation with Indian musicians, for example with the project Bangalore (INT 3246 2), continues until this day. His involvement with the United Jazz & Rock Ensemble, in Jasper van’t Hof’s Pork Pie (e.g. Operanoia, INT 3158 2) show his ability to integrate as well as his individuality.
However, Charlie Mariano did not lend his unique sound to jazz or so-called world music productions alone; since the beginning of the 80s, renowned representatives of popular music (e.g. Nena, Konstantin Wecker, Herbert Groenemeyer and many others) also have called him when an expressive saxophone was needed. You can in fact assume that practically everyone in these parts has already listened to his play, either consciously or unconsciously. The secret of his success is certainly his enormous versatility, in addition to his instrumental virtuosity and his original, distinctive sound that has its origin in Mariano’s constant openness and curiosity towards any kind of musical style and form.
Mr.T.A.S. Mani & Mrs. R.A. Ramamani- Kamataka College of percussion:
T.A.S. Mani, a disciple of C.K. Ayyamani Iyer who had his training under Palakkad Subba Iyer along with Palakkad Mani Iyer, is a leading mridanga vidwan as well as a popular teacher. He is a staff artist of All India Radio and Doordarshan in Bangalore. He has a percussion ensemble of his own called Tala Tarangini which has been featured in many prestigious national and international percussion festivals. He and his wife Ramamani regularly participate in jazz festivals abroad along with Western jazz musicians. Mani is as well the founder-principal of the Karnataka College of Percussion. He teaches at the Bangalore University also. Mani has received many awards. The latest PAC award is in recognition of his contribution to the elevation of the status of percussive arts in the field of music. KCP has performed in Asia, Australia, Europe and America. Mrs. Ramamani is the vice-president of KCP and is vocalist of high standard and standing, performing artist, teacher and composer. She sings with spontaneity and mastery over rhythm and melody, and specialises in vocal improvisations, complex rhythmic patterns and konnakol, a type of percussion language. She is the first female artist to achieve distinction in singing a composition simultaneously set to two different rhythm cycles. She has boldly experimented with western forms of music and has written seven melodic and rhythmic experimental compositions. She is the first female Carnatic classical musician in India to sing with national and international jazz band. She is also a lecturer at Institute of Choreography Bangalore.
Mike Herting:
Mike herting, keyboard player, arranger, composer and producer is a prolific musicican and has been featured in many great albums, and bands like Acoustic Alchemy. Mike is based in Germany.
Ranjit Barot:
Ranjit Barot is one of India’s best drummers and was part of the pioneering fusion project in the eighties by Ramamani titled Citylights - Sangam.
Keith Peters:
Much sought after bassist by producers and music directors like AR Rehman, Keith Peters has featured in many jazz concerts in India.
Ramesh Shottam:
Percussionist and drummer Ramesh Shottam has performed at various international festivals. To mention a few: Berlin Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Festival of Perth, Buk Festival in South Korea, Montreal Jazz Festival, Jazz Yatra Festival in India and Festival of India in Australia and China, and at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia.Shotham's work with musicians such as Carla Bley, Steve Coleman, Steve Swallow, Jonas Hellborg, Charlie Mariano, Sigi Schwab, Ronan Guilfoyle and a host of others is well documented. Over the years he also founded his own formations like Bhavani and Madras Special.
Amit Heri:
Guitar player Amit heri is Bangalore’s prolific jazz guitar player and has played withy Trilok Gurtu in major jazz festivals around the world.
The Gerard Machado Network
Kartik Iyer
Just another funny guy, definitely not. Kartik Iyer is a Loyola lad from Chennai. Currently living in Bangalore, he works in advertising by day and decides to quit everyday by night. Kartik was actively involved in Chennai’s theatre scene. Having worked with theatre groups like Madras Players, Masquerade and Boardwalkers he has acted in over 26 productions in 8 years. (Biloxi Blues, Dance Like a man, Art, Monty Python- kind of stuff). Kartik has also performed in Bangalore at Black Coffee’s theatre festival ’04. Playing the lead role in Dancing on glass directed by Preetam Koilpillai.
Kartik has always had a keen interest in stand up comedy. Forever gaping at performances by Jerry Lewis, Richard Pryor, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Ali G, Robin Williams and Jerry Seinfeld. Anyway after many drunk nights and loud banter he’s decided to give it a shot at his own comedy.
And for those of you who come to opus regularly, he’s the guy who sings Pettai Rap and translates English songs into Tamil, instantly! Welcome to the Higher Iyer Show.
Anushka Manchanda
Anushka was discovered in a talent hunt held all over India. She was chosen as a member of the band Viva that was formed from the reality television show Popstars. This band rocked the country with their two hit albums to their name (VIVA and VIVA RELOADED).Post the split of the band Anushka has worked for Channel V as a VJ & has hosted many popular shows like on the run, first day first show, junglee jukebox, launchpad, pop diaries,etc.Currently, she is doing lot of solo shows around the country and abroad as a performer as well as a host for live and corporate events.Anushka has sung for films as well in several languages including hindi,english,tamil and telelgu for music directors like sandeep chowta, yuvan shankar raja,chakri,and jeet (from jeet-preetam),and has also sung for jingles,the latest on air being the diet pepsi add.
She appears in a short anti drug documentary and has worked as a model on ramp as well as shoot. She also writes the music review section for the popular teen magazine seventeen.
She also performs with ex viva member Mahua and is in the process of compiling her first solo album.
Carlton Braganza
