Rhythm Unleashed
This year the Darbar Festival hosted Supreet Deshpande for his UK debut tabla solo, a rare occurrence. The audience was treated to an exploration of traditional rhythmic patterns.
22 December 2017
Review – Music Performance
Debasmita Bhattacharya & Gurdain Singh Rayatt
This year the Darbar Festival came to the Sadler’s Wells’ stage for the very first time since its inception in 2006. This concert showcased the talents of Debasmita Bhattacharya and Gurdain Rayatt.
22 December 2017
Vignettes EP
It would be difficult to think of a more apt title for this brief but engaging collection of musical sketches…. Read More
27 September 2017
The Bridge
The sitar concerto has had something of an emblematic status in the area of East-West ‘fusion’ music, ever since Ravi Shankar first showcased the form in his Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra of 1971.
15 March 2017
Aruna Sairam & Jayanthi Kumaresh
With Aruna Sairam, what need is there to equivocate or elaborate? She is one of the most defining and moving voices in the world of music, irrespective of musical genre
15 December 2016
Zakir Hussain: Peshkar
There are few brighter stars in the Hindustani music firmament than Zakir Hussain. Whether on or off stage he is… Read More
4 July 2016
Mita Nag – Seduced by the Sitar
The sitarist Mita Nag is, as we say, her father’s daughter. It was Ira Landgarten’s New York-based label Raga Records that first planted her father Manilal Nag’s music in my head in the 1990s.
24 December 2015
Bahauddin Dagar – Morning Bliss
You know what it’s like when you’re reading a really great book… you can peek to see how many pages remain. When you’re in a really great Hindustani recital, there’s no knowing how many ‘pages’ are left.
24 December 2015
Zakir Hussain: Masters of Percussion
In 1994 the San Anselmo, CA-based Moment! record label released an album with the title Masters of Percussion. It was a ten-piece percussion ensemble that the tabla maestro Zakir Hussain had gathered together.
19 December 2015
The King of Ghosts
For me, the Queen Elizabeth Hall has always resembled the interior of a vast spaceship. And tonight the audience was transported not to outer space but to a kind of parallel universe where shadowy ghosts from the forests of Bengal dance to the rhythm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
23 June 2015