John McLaughlin (Guitar)
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN (born 4
January 1942, Doncaster, South
Yorkshire, England), also known as Mahavishnu John
McLaughlin, is an English guitarist,
bandleader and composer. His music
includes many genres of jazz,
and rock, which he coupled with an
interest in Indian classical music to
become one of the pioneering figures in fusion.
In 2010 guitarist Jeff Beck called him "the best
guitarist alive". The Indian tabla maestro Zakir
Hussain has called him "one of the greatest and one of the important musicians
of our times". In 2003, McLaughlin was ranked 49th in Rolling
Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
After contributing to several key British groups of the early
sixties and making his first solo record Extrapolation (with Tony
Oxleyand John Surman) he moved to the USA where he played with Tony
Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his
landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way, Bitches
Brew, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and On The Corner.
His 1970's electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a
technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and
rock with Indian influences.
John McLaughlin is a leading guitarist in jazz and jazz fusion.
His style has been described as one of aggressive speed, technical precision,
and harmonic sophistication. He is known for using exotic scales and
unconventional time signatures. Indian music has had a profound influence on
his style, and, it has been written, he is one of the first westerners to play
Indian music to Indian audiences. He
was influential in bringing jazz fusion to popularity with Miles Davis,
playing with Davis on five of his studio albums, including Davis' first
gold-certified Bitches Brew, and one live album, Live-Evil.
Speaking of himself in an interview with Going Thru Vinyl, McLaughlin has
stated that the guitar is simply "part of his body," and feels more
comfortable when a guitar is present.
McLaughlin has been cited as a major influence on many 1970s and
1980s fusion guitarists. Examples are prominent players such as Steve
Morse, Eric Johnson, Mike Stern, Paul Masvidal, Al Di Meola,
Pebber Brown, Shawn Lane, and Scott Henderson. His influence did not
stop in the 80's, though; hardcore punk guitarist Greg Ginn of Black
Flag cited Birds of Fire by The Mahavishnu Orchestra which
inspired him to record more progressive guitar work and even record instrumental
songs. Current players still hold him as highly influential, including Omar
Rodriguez of The Mars Volta. According to Pat Metheny,
McLaughlin has changed the evolution of the guitar during several of his
periods of playing. McLaughlin is also considered a major influence on
composers in the fusion genre. In an interview with Downbeat, Chick
Corea remarked that "...what John McLaughlin did with theelectric
guitar set the world on its ear. No one ever heard an electric guitar
played like that before, and it certainly inspired me. John's band, more than
my experience with Miles, led me to want to turn the volume up and write music
that was more dramatic and made your hair stand on end". Frank Zappa said
of McLaughlin in Guitar Player, Jan. 1977: "A person would be a moron not
to appreciate McLaughlin's technique. The guy has certainly found out how to
operate a guitar as if it were a machine gun. But I'm not always enthusiastic
about the lines I hear or the ways in which they're used. I don't think you can
fault him, though, for the amount of time and effort it must have taken to play
an instrument that fast. I think anybody who can play that fast is just
wonderful. And I'm sure 90% of teenage America would agree, since the whole
trend in the business has been "faster is better."
Perhaps the most unique tribute to McLaughlin's influence came in
the 1970s from the musician and comedian Darryl Rhoades. In the 1970s, he
led the "Hahavishnu Orchestra," which did parodies of the funk, rock
and jazz musical styles of the era.
Bill Laswell (Bass)
BILL LASWELL (born February 12, 1955 in Salem,
Illinois and raised in Albion, Michigan) is an American bassist, producer andrecord
label owner.
Laswell ranks among the most prolific of modern musicians, being
involved in hundreds of recordings with many collaborators from all over the
world. Laswell's music draws upon many different genres, most
notably funk, various world music, jazz, dub andambient styles.
He has also played or produced music from the noisier, more aggressive end of
the rock spectrum, such ashardcore punk and metal.
According to music critic Chris Brazier, "Laswell's pet
concept is 'collision music' which involves bringing together musicians from
wildly divergent but complementary spheres and seeing what comes
out." The credo of one record label run by Laswell, and which
typifies much of his work, is "Nothing Is True, Everything Is
Permitted." Though projects arranged by Laswell may be credited under the
same name and often feature the same roster of musicians, the styles and themes
explored on different albums can vary dramatically: Material began as
a noisy dance music project, but subsequent releases have been
centered around hip hop, jazz, or backing spoken word readings
by beat generation icon William S. Burroughs. Similarly, most versions
of Praxis have featured guitarist Buckethead, but have explored
different permutations with each new album.
Though some artists have chafed against Laswell's distinctive
recording and production style (most noticeably some of his for-hire production
gigs including Motörhead, Swans and White Zombie) many
other collaborations, such as with pianist Herbie Hancock and
singer Iggy Pop have been lengthier and recurring. He has also worked
extensively with his wife, Ethiopian singer Gigi.
Though starting out as a guitar player, he soon switched to bass.
Laswell got his earliest professional experience as a bassist with funk groups
in and around Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan. He often would
see shows in Detroit that put together acts such as Iggy and the Stooges (he
would work with Pop throughout his career starting in the mid-1980s), MC5 and Funkadelic (many
of whose members are part of his stable of musicians).
Seeing these differing styles of music in his frequent trips to
Detroit, as well as being rooted in the African-American music that he grew up
immersed in, have clearly had an influence on Laswell's music. His exposure to
jazz musicians like John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and
particularly Miles Davis' electric experiments of the mid-1960s to
mid-1970s, have also clearly had an impact on his thinking. Laswell's refusal
to pigeon-hole himself, his music, or even the people he works with is arguably
his greatest asset as a musician and producer.
With Palm Pictures slowly moving into film and away from
music with the changing landscape of the industry, Laswell lost a major
supporter of his more high-concept albums, as well as the Axiom imprint. Under
Palm's umbrella, though, four highly regarded albums and a DVD set were
released. Of those releases there was a DVD set, a studio release and a live
2-disc set from Tabla Beat Science, a project that revolves somewhat
around the tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, son of the late Alla
Rakha. The studio release also featured Karsh Kale, Trilok Gurtu, Ustad
Sultan Khan and Talvin Singh. This very popular and well-received
grouping has become a primarily live project playing everywhere from the US
to Beirut to Japan over the years. The core of Laswell,
Kale, Kahn and Hussain are usually supplemented by other musicians, which have
included at various times Gigi, DJ Disk, Serj Tankian from System
of a Down, Sussan Deyhim, visual artist Petulia Mattioli, and others.
2001 saw the release of the album Life Space Death with
Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo, Laswell on bass, guitar and keyboards
and words by the 14th Dalai Lama, interviewed by Kondo.
At the request of Chris Blackwell, 2001 also had Laswell
overseeing the debut release of Ethiopian singer Gigi for
Palm Pictures. Supplementing Gigi's multilingual, Ethiopian-rooted vocals with
a vast array of well-respected musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie
Hancock and Laswell himself, they created a strong release that was very
well received. Laswell and Gigi became romantically involved and were later
married. They have a son, Aman Laswell, who has accompanied his parents with
vocals. Gigi has figured in a number of her husband's releases and concerts
over the years, and he has produced further outings by her such as her Abyssinia
Infinite grouping and her second album, a solo release for Palm, Gold
& Wax.
1999 also saw the first release on Laswell's new label,
called Innerythmic (Eraldo Bernocchi and Toshinori Kondo's Charged project).
After a brief inactive period, the label restarted in earnest in 2001,
releasing over the next few years a slew of innovative albums from the likes
of Nicky Skopelitis/Raoul Björkenheim, James Blood Ulmer, Shin
Teraiand Gonervill, among others. Innerhythmic also released a live Praxis
recording and re-issued some of the Black Arc releases from the 1990s
including Zillatron, The Last Poets' Holy Terror and Buddy
Miles' Hell & Back. The label tends to go through extended
periods of inactivity but still releases albums here and there, the next planned
release being a studio recording featuring Raoul Björkenheim, Bill Laswell
and Morgan Ågren anticipated in the summer of 2011 according to
Björkenheim's website.
Though touching on the realm of drum and bass in the
1990s with his Oscillations releases and the compilation Tetragramaton:
Submerged - conceived along with Soares - the last few years
have seen Laswell step up his work in this area with Soares as a collaborator
in concept/A&R for drum & bass artist development. Starting with Brutal
Calling, a hard drum 'n' bass release with Ohm Resistance label owner Submerged (Kurt
Gluck), a series of releases and live dates have cropped up. Laswell's new
project in this vein is Method of Defiance (the actual Method of
Defiance name and the original idea of a futurist, cyborg drum 'n' bass driven
group consisting of laptops breakbeat artists, electric instrumentalists and
trumpeter Graham Haynes was conceived by Soares). The first release
focused on the core of Laswell and Submerged once again, entitled The
only way to go is down, featuring photos of Soares, with contributions from
Toshinori Kondo and drummer Guy Licata. The second release under the
moniker, though, was more of a compilation-style project, though still focusing
on drum 'n' bass. Inamorata stretched the concept out, pairing
Laswell's bass with a different combination of respected jazz and world musicians
and drum 'n' bass producers linked to Soares on each track. Artists including
Herbie Hancock, John Zorn, Pharoah Sanders, Nils Petter Molvaer,
Toshinori Kondo and Buckethead were paired with drum 'n' bass
producers including AMIT, Paradox, Submerged, Future
Prophecies, Karsh Kale, Evol Intent, SPL, Outrage, Fanu,
and Corrupt Souls. To that end, Laswell's last collaboration with Soares
was a full-on recording with Finnish drum 'n' bass maestro Fanu on Ohm Resistance
and Karl Records, entitled Lodge, which includes contributions from
Molvaer and Bernie Worrell amongst others. After collaborating with Laswell for
15 years, Soares left the crew in 2008. The concept of the group has once again
morphed into a full band concept. In 2009, Rare Noise Records released Live
in Nihon, which showcased this new direction/grouping. The group now
consisted of Laswell, Guy Licata, Dr. Israel, Toshinori Kondo and Bernie
Worrell.
Along with frequent live dates around the world with Method of
Defiance, Material, Painkiller and the re-formed in the late 1990s
Massacre (with This Heat's Charles Haywardnow in the drum chair)
Laswell still makes numerous trips to Japan each year for various
recordings and live dates, including his ongoing Tokyo
Rotation mini-festivals at the Shinjuku Pit-Inn, which is now a yearly
occurrence. In addition to Tokyo Rotation being an actual mini-festival, the
moniker has been used as a sort of umbrella to include general operations
revolving around activities in Japan, as witnessed by the usage of Tokyo
Rotation Presents in relation to the website's announcement of other
gigs outside the Pit Inn shows as well being noted on Method of Defiance's
release Nihon.
Vikku Vinayakram (Ghatam)
THETAKUDI HARIHARA VINAYAKRAM (born June 24,
1944), also known as Vikku Vinayakram is a Grammy Award–winning Indian percussionist.
He plays Carnatic music with the ghatam, an earthen pot,
and is credited with popularizing the ghatam.
He was awarded the Padma Shri, given by Government of
India in 2002, and later the 2012 Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship,
the highest honour in the performing arts conferred by the Sangeet Natak
Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama.
Vinayakram was born to Kalaimaamani T. R. Harihara Sharma, a
musician and teacher. He took up playing at a very young age.
Vinayakram's concert career began at the age of 13. His first
performance occurred on March 5, 1957 at the Sri Rama Navami festival
in Thoothukudi. While proceeding for the arangetram the tuned
ghatam instrument was broken by a child named Ganesh, which by itself had been
a good omen for his bright career. where he accompanied V.V.Sadagopan. He was
soon accompanying many famous vocalists in Carnatic music at the time,
including Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Mangalampalli
Balamuralikrishna, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Madurai Mani Iyer, Semmangudi
Srinivasa Iyer, M. S. Subbulakshmi and Maharajapuram Santhanam,
among others. His brother,T. H. Subhash Chandran, also excelled in the field.
The Ghatam followed the master by rising to fame as a percussion instrument
that required nimble fingers and strong stomach muscles to control the mouth of
the pot.
Vinayakram's tryst with the international music platform came in
the early 1970s when he joined Shakti to play along with John
McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain.
He has also performed at Basant Utsav, the annual fund raiser for
the Banyan.
Vinayakram is Principal of Sri Jaya Ganesh Tala Vadya Vidyalaya in
Chennai, India - the academy established by his late father and teacher in
1958. It continues to produce new stars of Carnatic percussion. Vinayakram's
son V. Selvaganesh is a successful percussionist, especially after
tours with John McLaughlin's group, Remember Shakti.
Taufiq Qureshi (Percussionist)
TAUFIQ QURESHI (born 1965) is
an Indian classical musician. He is a percussionist and a
composer.
Born in Mumbai, to legendary tabla player, Ustad Alla
Rakha. His eldest brother is tabla player, Ustad Zakir Hussain. He
received guidance from Ghatam Vidhwan, Pandit Vikku Vinayakram.
Taufiq Quereshi started his career early. His stint with live
performances began with the creation of his own world music band, ‘Surya’ way
back in 1986-87. He has been featured as a performing artiste on the 2009-
Grammy award winning album Global Drum Project, Remember Shakti, Masters
of Percussions and Summi. He collaborates with various classical
artists for fusion concerts.
He plays a variety of percussion instruments like djembe, duff, bongos, batajon.
His performance on drums with a soft beat of a muffled drum and the very next
moment ups the tempo and demonstration of different sounds - like breath,
rhythm, breaking a champagne bottle, the sound of the train and the arrival of
people, horses and others on arrival at the palace on the drums are quite
popular.
He also Rendered background score and music for movies like Damini, Ghatak, Black, Dil
Chahta Hai, Sawariya, Dhoom 2, Bhool Bhulaiya, Parzania (2007), Jab
We Met etc.
Niladri Kumar (Sitar)
NILADRI KUMAR (born
1973) is an Indian classical and fusion musician. He
performed on the sitar from a young age and toured and released albums as an
adult. He created a unique instrument, a modified sitar, which he named zitar.
Born to sitar player Kartick Kumar, a disciple of Ravi
Shankar, he was considered a child prodigy. He started learning sitar under his father
at the age of four. Kumar gave his first public performance at the age of six
at Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.
Niladri
Kumar began his career with music directors Laxmikant-Pyarelal in the
late 1980s. He was part of the Masters of the Percussion tour
alongside Zakir Hussain. Kumar has also worked with Jonas
Hellborg and V. Selvaganesh on their album Kali's Son and
with John McLaughlin on album Floating Point. Kumar
has also worked with various music directors in Hindi cinema,
including A.R. Rahman, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Pritam. Niladri
was conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi's Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva
Puraskar, awarded to young musicians, in March 2007. Niladri has also
won MTV Immies award for the Best Classical/Fusion Instrumental for
his album If.
Kumar has
created a unique instrument, the "zitar", which is a combination
of sitar and guitar. The concept initiated from a traveling
sitar, which was modified by Kumar to create rock guitar sound out of it. Kumar
reduced the number of strings on the instrument from 20 to five. He
also added an electric pickup inside the instrument so that it would
sound more like a guitar. His first full album composed using the
instrument, titled Zitar, was released in 2008. Kumar wrote
the first track for the album Priority in 2003. Over the next
five years he improved the track and subsequent track by gauging audience
reaction during live performances. He improvised the tracks adding components
from various genres such as rock, electronic and lounge. He also
won the MN Mathur Award in the 51st Maharana Kumbha Sangeet Samaroh for his
contribution to Indian classical music in March, 2013.
Pandit Jasraj
PANDIT JASRAJ ( born
28 January 1930) is an Indian classical vocalist. He belongs to
the Mewati gharana ofHindustani classical music.
Jasraj was born in Hisar, Mewat region, Haryana in
an orthodox Brahmin family to Motiram, a classical singer. His
family performed the Mewati gharana style. Motiram died when Jasraj
was four, on the day he was to be appointed as the state musician in the court
of Osman Ali Khan.
Jasraj was initiated into vocal music by his father. He received
training from his elder brother, Maniram, and later from Maharaja Jaywant Singh
Waghela and Ustad Gulam Kadar Khan of Mewat Gharana. In addition, he trained
under Swami Vallabhdas of the Agra Gharana. In 1960, when Jasraj went to visit Bade
Ghulam Ali Khan in hospital, Khan asked him to become his disciple, but
Jasraj declined saying that he could not accept Khan's tutelage since he was
already Maniram's disciple.
As a means of livelihood, Maniram took Jasraj as an
accompanying tabla player. However, at the time, like sarangi players,
tabla players were considered minor artists. At the age of 14, unhappy with his
treatment as an accompanying artist, Jasraj left and vowed not to cut his hair
until he learned to sing. He finally cut his hair after garnering his first AIR
Radio performance, where he sang Raga Kaunsi Kanada (a combination
of Malkauns and Darbari Kanada).
Jasraj's vocal range extends three-and-a-half octaves and
uses precise diction, a trademark of the Mewati gharana's style
of khayal. He has also done extensive research in Haveli Sangeet under
Baba Shyam Manohar Goswami Maharaj to create numerous innovativebandish (composition).
Jasraj created a novel form of jugalbandi, styled on the
ancient system of Moorchana, between a male and a female vocalist,
who each sing different ragas at the same time. In his honor, this
legendary jugalbandi is known as The Jasrangi. This
name was coined by music connoisseurs in Pune.
Jasraj has many students, including Rattan Mohan Sharma, Sanjeev
Abhyankar, Ramesh Narayan, Suman Ghosh, Tripti Mukherjee,
Radharaman Kirtane, Girish Wazalwar, Chandrashekhar Swamy, Hemang Mehta, Pritam
Bhattacharjee, Gargi Siddhant and Kala Ramnath. Sadhana Sargam,
a Bollywood singer, Ankita Joshi, Prasad Dusane is one of his
disciples.
In memory of his father, Jasraj organises a musical festival every
year called the Pandit Motiram Pandit Maniram Sangeet Samaroh inHyderabad, India. It
ran for 36 years as of 2008. Jasraj participated at the Sawai Gandharva
Music Festival. He is also recognized as a master of the Bhairav family of
Raags, along with the legendary Raags Darbari Kanada, Miya ki Malhar,
and Jog. He is also known for presenting a wide variety of Rare Raags
including Gyankali, Abiri Todi, Dhanashree, Patdeepki, Purba, Bhavsakh,
Devsakh, Gunji Kanada and Charju Ki Malhar.
Tag :
Vocalists
Ustad Tafo Khan (Tabla)
USTAD ALTAF HUSSAIN 'TAFO' KHAN (1945, Pakistan)
is a master tabla player.
'Tafo' Khan was formed in the Punjab gharana. His teachers
were Mian Qadir Bukhsh and Haji Fida Hussain. He is recognised for his
matchless tayyari and his solo performances are characterised by his prowess
over difficult bols. Tafo has performed near lots of great legends
including Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN ( October 1948 – 16
August 1997), a world renowned Pakistani musician, was primarily a singer
of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis. Considered one of the
greatest singers ever recorded, he possessed an extraordinary range of vocal
abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several
hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely
credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences. He is
popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", meaning "The King of
Kings of Qawwali".
Born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, Khan had his first public
performance at age of 16, at his father's chelum. He became the head of
the family qawwali party in 1971. He was signed by Oriental Star Agencies,
Birmingham, England, in the early 1980s. Khan went on to release movie scores
and albums in Europe, India, Japan, Pakistan, and the U.S.A. He engaged in
collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a
well-known world music artist. He toured extensively, performing in
over 40 countries.
Khan was born on 13 October 1948 in the city of Faisalabad. He was
the fifth child and first son of Fateh Ali Khan, a musicologist,
vocalist, instrumentalist, and Qawwal. Khan's family, which included four
older sisters and a younger brother, Farrukh Fateh Ali Khan, grew up in
central Faisalabad. Initially, his father did not want Khan to follow the
family's vocation. He had his heart set on Khan choosing a much more
respectable career path and becoming a doctor, because he felt Qawwali artists
had low social status. However, Khan showed such an aptitude for, and interest
in, Qawwali that his father finally relented. Khan began by learning to
play tabla alongside his father before progressing to learn Raag
Vidya and Bol Bandish. He then went on to learn to sing
within the classical framework of khayal. Khan's training with his father
was cut short when his father died in 1964, leaving Khan's paternal
uncles, Mubarak Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan, to complete his
training. His first performance was at a traditional graveside ceremony for his
father, known as chehlum, which took place forty days after his father's
death.
In 1971, after the death of Mubarak Ali Khan, Khan became the
official leader of the family Qawwali party and the party became known as Nusrat
Fateh Ali Khan, Mujahid Mubarak Ali Khan & Party. Khan's first public
performance as the leader of the Qawwali party was at a studio recording
broadcast as part of an annual music festival organised by Radio Pakistan,
known as Jashn-e-Baharan. Khan sang mainly in Urdu and Punjabi and
occasionally in Persian, Braj Bhasha and Hindi. His first
major hit in Pakistan was the song Haq Ali Ali, which was performed
in a traditional style and with traditional instrumentation. The song featured
restrained use of Khan's sargam improvisations.
In 1979, Khan married his first cousin, Naheed (the daughter of
Fateh Ali Khan's brother, Salamat Ali Khan); they had one daughter,
Nida.
Early in his career, Khan was signed up by Oriental Star Agencies
in the U.K. to their Star Cassette Label. OSA sponsored regular concert tours
by Khan to the U.K. from the early '80s onwards, and released much of this live
material on cassette, CD, videotape and DVD.
In the summer of 1985, Khan performed at the World of Music,
Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival in London.He performed in Paris in 1985
and 1988. He first visited Japan in 1987, at the invitation of the Japan
Foundation. He also performed at the 5th Asian Traditional Performing Art
Festival in Japan.
In the 1992–93 academic year, Khan was a Visiting Artist in
the Ethnomusicology department at the University of Washington, Seattle,
Washington, United States.
Khan
teamed with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack to The Last
Temptation of Christ in 1985, with Canadian musician Michael
Brookon the albums Mustt Mustt (1990) and Night Song (1996), and with Pearl
Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder in 1995 on two songs for the
soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. One of these songs ("The Long
Road") was re-used on the soundtrack for Eat Pray Love in
2010. Khan also contributed to the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers.
He composed the music for the 1994 film Bandit Queen in
collaboration with Roger White.
Peter Gabriel's Real World label later released five
albums of Khan's traditional Qawwali, together with some of his experimental
work which included the albums Mustt Mustt and Star
Rise. Khan provided vocals for The Prayer Cycle, which was put
together by Jonathan Elias, but died before the vocals could be
completed. Alanis Morissette was brought in to sing with his
unfinished vocals. Khan also collabrated with Michael Brook to create music for
the song "Sweet Pain" used in the movie Any Given Sunday.
He also performed traditional Qawwali before international audiences at several
WOMAD festivals and the single "Dam Mast Qalandar" was remixed
by electronic trip hop group Massive Attack in 1998.
His album Intoxicated Spirit was nominated for a
Grammy award in 1997 for best traditional folk album. Same year his album Night
Song was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best World Music Album,
but lost out to The Chieftains' album Santiago.
Khan contributed songs to, and performed in, several Pakistani
films. Shortly before his death, he recorded a song each for two Bollywood films, Aur
Pyaar Ho Gaya (in which he also sang the song onscreen) and Kachche
Dhaage. He sang a song for the film Dhadkan. He also sang
"Saya bhi saath jab chhod jaye" for Sunny Deol's movie Dillagi.
The song was released in 1999, two years after Khan's death.
Khan contributed the song "Gurus of Peace" to the
album Vande Mataram, composed by A. R. Rahman, and released to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of India's independence. Rahman, who was a big
fan of Khan could not do further songs with him. As a tribute, Rahman later
released an album titled Gurus of Peace, which featured "Allah
Hoo" by Khan. Rahman's 2007 song "Tere Bina" was also done as a
tribute to Khan.
After his death, the song "Solemn Prayer", on which Khan
provided vocals, was used on the Peter Gabriel song "Signal to Noise"
(on the album Up), and on the soundtrack to the Martin
Scorsese film Gangs of New York.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records,
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan holds the world record for the largest recorded output by
a Qawwali artist—a total of 125 albums as of 2001.
Khan was taken ill with kidney and liver failure on 11 August 1997
in London, England, while on the way to Los Angeles USA in order to receive
a kidney transplant. He died of a sudden cardiac arrest at Cromwell
Hospital, London, on Saturday, 16 August 1997, aged 48. His body was
repatriated to Faisalabad, Pakistan, and his funeral was a public affair.
Ustad Tari Khan (Tabla)
USTAD ABDUS-SATTAR 'TARI' KHAN (born 1953) is a Pakistani master tabla player
and Vocalist.
Ustad Tari Khan was born in Lahore, Pakistan. He
hails from a traditional Rababi family (musicians employed in the
Sikh temples of Punjab). His father was a classical vocalist. At fourteen, he
formally became a student of Ustad Shaukat Hussain Khan. Three years later he
performed at the death anniversary of tabla master Mian Qadir Baksh. That solo
performance earned him a revered place amongst the tabla greats.
He became famous as the accompanist of the ghazal singer Ghulam
Ali. Tari always provided an exquisite accompaniment: clean, crisp thekas with
astonishingly quick and interesting laggis to punctuate the verses. Because of
that international exposure, musicians in India got to hear of him at a time
when little cultural news escaped from Pakistan. Since then, Tari has gone on
to musical scene as a tabla showman.
Ustad Tari Khan has accompanied various classical artistes like Pt
Jasraj, etc. He has also accompanied renowned ghazal singers like Mehdi Hasan,
Ghulam Ali, Hariharan, and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Pandit Anokhe Lal Mishra (Tabla)
PANDIT ANOKHE LAL MISHRA ( 1914
– 10 March 1958) — also spelled as Anokhe Lal Misra and
commonly known as Pandit Anokhelalji — was an Indian Tablā Artist who
belonged to the Banaras Gharana of Hindustani classical music.
Anokhelal was born in a very poor family of Kashi (Banaras), now
known as Varanasi (State – Uttar Pradesh). Anokhelal learnt
tabla under Bhairow Prasad Mishra (Bhairow is also spelled as Bhairav or Bhairon).
Bhairow prasad Mishra detected his talent and enrolled him as a student of the
Tabla in the Banaras Gharana of Ram Sahaiji at the age of 5 or 6
years. Anokhelal Learnt Tabla for about 15 years from Bhairow Prasad Mishra.
Bhairow Prasad Mishra was disciple of Bhagat-ji. Bhagat-ji was disciple ofRam
Sahai, the founder of The Banaras-Bāj (aka Banaras Gharana). According to The
Banaras Bāj-The Tablā Tradition of a North Indian City by David Roach,
Anokhelal was the most famous disciple of Bhairav Prasad Mishra among Maulvi
Ram Mishra, Mahavir Bhatt, Mahadev Prasad Mishra, Anokhelal Mishra, and
Nageshvar Prasad.
He lost his parents as teenager. After that he was brought up by
his grand mother. As a child, Anokhelal had to suffer poverty and deprivation.
Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Mohan Veena)
PANDIT VISHWA MOHAN BHATT also
known as V. M. Bhatt (born July 12, 1950) is Hindustani
classical music instrumentalist who plays the Mohan Veena (slide
guitar).
Vishwa Mohan lives in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, with his wife
and two sons.His elder son Salil Bhatt is a renowned Mohan veena player
(and also a player of the Satvik veena), whose album Slide to
Freedom Part II was nominated for the Canadian JUNO AWARD and also featured in
pre-Grammy nominations list, while his younger son Saurabh Bhatt is a well
known composer. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's grandson Satvik Bhatt is also a musician
and a Limca Book Of World Record holder for being world's youngest Mohan Veena
Player at the age of 3 and a half years and also for identifying 45 ragas at
the age of 3 and a half years. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's parents late Manmohan Bhatt
and late Chandrakala Bhatt were also teaching and performing musicians who
imparted knowledge of music to V.M Bhatt. His nephew, Krishna Bhatt,
plays the sitar and tabla.
Bhatt is best known for his Grammy award winning album A
Meeting by the River with Ry Cooder released on Water
Lily Acoustics label. He is also known for other fusion and pan-cultural
collaborations with Western artists such as Taj Mahal, Béla Fleck and Jerry
Douglas. Exposure such as an appearance on the 2004 Crossroads Guitar
Festival, organized by Eric Clapton, allows his playing to reach a larger
audience.
Folk musician Harry Manx, who studied with Salil Bhatt and
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt for five years, plays a Mohan Veena. Counting Crows'
Bassist Matt Malley also plays a Mohan Veena and is a student and
friend of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. Australian Musician Lawrie Minson also learnt
Mohan Veena from Salil and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan (Sarod)
USTAD AMJAD ALI KHAN (born 9
October 1945) is an Indian classical musician who plays
the Sarod. Khan was born into a musical family and has performed
internationally since the 1960s. He was awarded India's second highest civilian
honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2001.
Khan was
born in Gwalior on 9 October 1945 as Masoom Ali Khan, the youngest of
seven children, to Gwalior court musicianHafiz Ali Khan and Rahat
Jahan. His family is part of the Bangash lineage and Khan is in
the sixth generation of musicians; his family claims to have invented the sarod. His
personal name was changed by a sadhu to Amjad. Khan receivedhomeschooling and
studied music under his father. In 1957, a cultural organization in Delhi
appointed Hafiz Ali Khan as its guest and the family moved to Delhi. Friends
of Hafiz Ali convinced him of the importance of formal schooling for his son;
as a result, Amjad was taken to meet the Principal of Modern School in
New Delhi and admitted there as a day scholar. He attended Modern School from
1958 to 1963.
Khan first performed in the United States in 1963 and
continued into the 2000s, with his sons. He has experimented with
modifications to his instrument throughout his career. Khan played with
the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and worked as a visiting
professor at the University of New Mexico. In 2011, he performed
on Carrie Newcomer's album Everything is Everywhere with
his sons.
Uppalapu Srinivas (Mandolin)
UPPALAPU SRINIVAS, (born February
28, 1969) is an Indian mandolin player of the Carnatic musical
tradition of Southern India. Shrinivas plays an electric mandolin and
has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Michael Nyman, and Michael
Brook. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1998 and the Sangeet
Natak Akademi Award in 2010.
Shrinivas was born February 28, 1969, in Palakol in Andhra
Pradesh. At the age of six he picked up his father Satyanarayana's
mandolin. Upon realising the talent of his son, his father started teaching
him. Soon, Satyanarayana's guru,Rudraraju Subbaraju, realized the
potential of U. Shrinivas and started teaching him. Since Rudraraju Subbaraju
did not know how to play the mandolin he would just sing and U. Shrinivas would
play it on the mandolin. His brother U. Rajesh is also an accomplished mandolin
player.
U. Shrinivas made his first public Carnatic concert performance in
1978 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh, during the Thyagaraja Aradhana festival.
Soon, he came to perform in the Madras Music Season in 1981 for
the Indian Fine Arts Society. In 1983, he performed at the JazzFest
Berlin where the audience requested him to do a repeat performance.
He continued touring the world—Australia, Southeast Asia and then
Southwest Asia, followed by the United States and Canada.
Pandit Debu Chaudhari (Sitar)
PANDIT DEVABRATA (DEBU) CHAUDHARI is a Sitarist and a teacher. He is the winner
of the Padmabhsushan and Padmashreeawards. He is the writer of three
books, composer of eight new raga’s and numerous musical compositions.
From 1963 he has appeared in numerous radio broadcasts, and he is a disciple
of Mushtaq Ali Khan. He is considered a leading Sitarist of
Post War era. He is regarded as one of the leading proponents of Senia
Style (or Gharana). He is the former Dean and Head, Faculty of
Music, University of Delhi. His music is noted for its sweet sinking
ringing tone He currently stays with his son, daughter-in law and niece at
Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi.
He started paying the Sitar from four years of age. His first
broadcast was at the age of twelve at the All India Radio in 1953.He created 8
new Ragas viz. Bisweswari, Palas-Sarang, Anuranjani, Ashiqui Lalit,
Swanandeswari, Kalyani Bilawal, Shivamanjari and Prabhati Manjari (in memory of
his wife Manju). He has authored three book on Indian Music namely ‘Sitar and
It's Techniques’, ‘Music of India’ and ‘On Indian Music’. He has recorded 24
CD’s for 24 hours of the day in USA.
Shankar Mahadevan
SHANKAR MAHADEVAN is an Indian music composer and
singer. He is a part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio team that
composes for Indian films and a playback singer. He is a four
time winner of the National Award, three times for the Best Male Playback
Singer and one time for Best Music Director. He is also the founder of
the Shankar Mahadevan Academy which conducts online music lessons in
Indian music for students across the globe.
After working for a while for Leading Edge Systems, Shankar
ventured into the field of music. He earned his first award as a playback
singer in a Tamil movie, collaborating with A. R. Rahman and
winning a National Film Award for his song in Kandukondain
Kandukondain. A prominent star in the Kodambakkam film industry, he
gained further recognition upon the release of his first music album, Breathless,
in 1998. The title track of the album had been prepared in such a manner that
it is sung without any break, so it appears to be sung in one breath and thus
the title "Breathless". He later got into music direction and became
a part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio, composing music for Hindi
films.He is also done a role in doordarshan songs related comedy serial 'Ek Se
Badkar Ek'
Before his entire film music sojourn started, Shankar Mahadevan
was part of the Indo-Swedish fusion jazz band Mynta.
He has sung in many films for A. R. Rahman, Anu Malik and
other music directors, performing songs like "Urvashi Take It Easy"
from Humse Hai Muqabla (1995), "I Love You"
from Auzaar (1997), "Kay Sera Sera" from Pukar (2000)
and many more songs in the nineties. Most of the songs sung by him in Hindi are
composed by him (as part of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy). He has sung numerous songs in
Tamil for a multitude of composers, ranging from veterans to newcomers. He has
also sung in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and other regional languages.
In Marathi he has sung for noted composers like Shridhar Phadke and Ajay-Atul.
He enjoyed a successful run with the fusion jazz band
SILK with Louis Banks on keyboards, Sivamani on percussion,
Sridhar Parthasarathy on mridangam and Karl Peters on bass
guitar.
Shankar Mahadevan has also provided vocals for several songs by
the band Remember Shakti, which features musicians including, Musician Zakir
Hussain, Musician Chandan Sharma, Musician John McLaughlin, U.
Srinivas and V. Selvaganesh. He was music director for the famous
"School Chale Hum" song on Doordarshan.
He was a mentor on Zee TV's musical reality show Sa
Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2009.
He is a team captain, judge, and mentor on Star Plus's
musical show Music Ka Maha Muqqabla for the team Shankar's
Rockstars; his team won Music Ka Maha Muqqabala 2010.
In March 2009 he performed at Ragam 09, an intercollegiate
cultural festival hosted by the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NITC)
in Kerala.
In February 2010 he performed at Kuruksastra 10, an
intercollege cultural festival hosted by the SASTRA University, Thanjavur in Tamil
Nadu.
In September 2008 and 2010 he performed at PULSE, India's Second
largest Inter-college Festival at All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
In March 2011 he started the Shankar Mahadevan Academy. The
Academy offers tutorials and virtual vocal courses in Carnatic and Hindustani
classical music, religious chanting, Indian folk music, and Bollywood songs.
Shankar was Invited by the UNESCO and the US state Dept to perform
at UN general assembly hall for the finale of the International Jazz festival
held on 30 April 2012.
As of 2012, Shankar is currently mentoring Zee TV's
musical reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2012.
In 2013, Shankar, along with Ehsaan, Loy and his
team, performed a 5 hour concert for Lok Biradari Prakalp in Nagpur.
The show was received extremely positively and the fact that Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
did not accept money for the concert was greatly appreciated.
On 7 February 2013,Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and his team performed at
Day 2 Pro-Show of Riviera 2013 (Inter college Cultural Fest of VIT
University).This was his third performance in the campus receiving a huge round
of applause.
On 17 March 2013 he performed at Ragam 13, the annual
intercollege cultural festival of National Institute of Technology,
Calicut for the second time, his first time being in Ragam 2009.
Pitbull
ARMANDO CHRISTIAN PéREZ (born
January 15, 1981), better known by his stage name PITBULL or Mr.
Worldwide, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. His
first recorded performance was from the Lil Jon album Kings
of Crunk in 2002. In 2004, he released his debut album titled M.I.A.M.I. (short
for Money Is A Major Issue) under TVT Records. He
released El Mariel in 2006 and The Boatlift in
2007. In 2009, the album Rebelution spawned the hit
single "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)". Pitbull's 2011 album, Planet
Pit, featured the single "Give Me Everything" which was his first
number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. The song reached
#1 worldwide and featured artists Ne-yo, Nayer, and Afrojack.
Pitbull has performed as a featured artist in the remixes of many other hit
songs, like "Tik Tok", "Scream & Shout", "Lo Hecho
Esta Hecho", "Bad", "Papi", "Diamonds",
"How Low", "Tonight (I'm Lovin' You)", "Video Phone",
"Over To You Now" and "Bumpy Ride".
Pitbull was born to Cuban parents in Miami, Florida.
When he was three, he could recite the works of Cuba's national hero and
poet, José Martí. He encountered problems early in his career as a
rapper because he is white with blue eyes, hails from theSouth, and is
Cuban. He was also influenced by the Miami bass genre of pop
music and has cited Celia Cruz and Willy Chirino as
sources of inspiration for his music. Pérez's parents separated when he
was young, and he was raised by his mother; he later spent time with a foster
family in Roswell, Georgia. His mother later kicked him out of
their house when he was 16 after he became a drug dealer, as had his father
before him. He attended South Miami Senior High School before
graduating from Miami Coral Park High School and focused his career
in rapping.
He said he chose his stage name because pitbulls "bite to
lock. The dog is too stupid to lose. And they're outlawed in Dade County.
They're basically everything that I am. It's been a constant
fight". After meeting Lil Jon in Miami, Pitbull was
featured on Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz' album Kings of Crunk in
2002. Pitbull's song "Oye" was featured on the soundtrack to the
film 2 Fast 2 Furious the following year. In addition,
Pitbull also released several mixtapes, composed of freestyles and
remixes of popular rap music. Campbell featured Pitbull in his single, Lollipop.
Tag :
Singers
Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (Sarod)
USTAD ALI AKBAR KHAN (April, 14 1922 – June, 18
2009), often referred to as Khan Sahib or by the title Ustad (master),
was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known
for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Khan was instrumental in
popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer
(often in conjunction with Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar), and as a
teacher. He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and
the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which is now located in San
Rafael, California and has a branch in Basel, Switzerland. Khan also
composed several classical ragas and film scores. He
was a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of
California, Santa Cruz.
Trained as a musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin
Khan, Khan first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi
Menuhin and later settled in California. Khan was nominated for
five Grammy Awards and was accorded India's second highest civilian
honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989. He has also won a MacArthur
Fellowship and theNational Endowment for the Arts's National Heritage
Fellowship.
Ali Akbar Khan, after years of rigorous training gave his debut
performance at a music conference in Allahabad in 1936, at the age of
13. Three years later, in December 1939, he accompanied Ravi Shankar on the
sarod during the latter's debut performance at the same conference; this was
the first of many jugalbandis (duets) between the two
musicians. In 1938 Khan gave his first recital on All India Radio (AIR),
Bombay (accompanied on the tabla by Alla Rakha), and starting in January
1940, he gave monthly performances on AIR, Lucknow. Finally in 1944, both
Shankar and Khan left Maihar to start their professional careers as musicians;
Shankar went to Bombay, while Khan became the youngest Music Director for
AIR, Lucknow and was responsible for solo performances and composing for the
radio orchestra.
In 1943, on his father's recommendation, Khan was appointed a
court musician for the Maharaja of Jodhpur, Hanwant Singh. There,
he taught and composed music besides giving recitals and was accorded the title
of Ustad by the Maharaja. When the princely states were wound
down with India's independence in 1947 and Hanwant Singh died in a plane crash
in 1948, Khan moved to Bombay.
In Bombay, he won acclaim as a composer of several film scores,
including Chetan Anand's Aandhiyan, Satyajit Ray's Devi, Merchant-Ivory's The
Householder, and Tapan Sinha's Kshudhita Pashan ("Hungry
stones"), for which he won the "Best Musician of the Year"
award. He also played Sarod for a song in 1955 film Seema which had the music
composed by Shankar Jaikishan. Later in 1993, he would score some of the music
for Bernardo Bertolucci Little Buddha.
Beginning in 1945, Khan also started recording a series of 78
rpm disks (which could record about three minutes of music) at the HMV Studios
in Bombay. For one such record he conceived a new composition Raga
Chandranandan ("moonstruck"), based on four evening
ragas, Malkauns, Chandrakauns, Nandakauns and Kaushi
Kanada. This record was a huge success in India, and the raga found a worldwide
audience when a 22-minute rendition was re-recorded for the Master
Musician of India LP in 1965 − one of Khan's seminal recordings.
He performed in India and traveled extensively in the West. In
1956, Khan founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Calcutta,
with the mission to teach and spread Indian classical music. He founded another
school of the same name in Berkeley, California in 1967 and later
moved it to San Rafael, California.[10] Khan performed in Boston
withShankar Ghosh in 1969 for the Peabody Mason Concert series.
In 1985 he founded another branch of the Ali Akbar College of Music in Basel, Switzerland.
Khan was the first Indian musician to record an LP album of Indian
classical music in the United States and to play sarod on American television.
Khan has participated in a number of classic jugalbandi pairings,
most notably with Ravi Shankar, Nikhil Banerjee and violinist L.
Subramaniam. A few recordings of duets withVilayat Khan also exist. He
also collaborated with Western musicians. In August 1971, Khan performed
at Madison Square Garden for the Concert for Bangladesh, along
with Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty; other
musicians at the concert included George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric
Clapton and Ringo Starr. A live album and a movie of the event were
later released.
Khan was based in the United States for the last four decades of
his life. He toured extensively until he was prevented from doing so by ill-health
in the period prior to his death from renal failure.
