Soumik Datta and Aruna Sairam outside BBC broadcasting house
BBC Radio 3: In Tune, Photo Courtesy: Jack Thomason
Aruna Sairam & Soumik Datta on Athavan TV
BBC Asian Network, Ashanti Omkar and Soumik Datta
Aruna Sairam. ©Aruna Sairam
Soumik Datta © Rehmat Rayatt
Aruna Sairam: © D. Kalaiarasan Photography. Soumik Datta: ©Rehmat Rayatt
In the lead up to “Back to the Blues”, a concert of Indian music and contemporary jazz presented by the Bagri Foundation in association with Soumik Datta Arts, (15 March 2018, St John’s Smith Square), anticipation and excitement was brewing in the press…
“Only when you try is when you”ll know what comes out of it,” says 65-year-old Sairam in a Skype conversation. She was approached by Alka Bagri, director of the London-based Bagri Foundation, to present this collaborative work.”
Read the full article here.
Aruna Sairam and Soumik Datta perform live in the studio before they appear at St John’s Smith Square.
Listen here.
A taster ahead of the concert with music and interviews by Aruna Sairam and Soumik Datta.
Watch the full video here.
Back to the Blues featured in the global magazine’s top 5 picks of March and April.
“Well the funny thing is that sarod wasn’t my beginning – I grew up in Mumbai and as a kid I wasn’t into Indian classical music at all… and it was only when I moved here and I realised that I needed something to connect me back to my roots, and it was by divine providence that I discovered – found, by accident, my grandfather’s sarod. And that’s how the journey began…”
Listen here.
“[Aruna Sairam]: “I am sure we will come up with something that has character, in spite of us having so many differences… Carnatic music is a very lively sort of music, it is not an ascetic introverted form – it may have that quality in certain sections – but the basic movement of the music is very much outward. What I want to get across to an audience (in the West) is that they are part of the performance – the audience becomes part of it. Carnatic music is a celebration of the here and now of life, and at this moment…”
Read the full article here.
“Carnatic legnend will perform in London next week along with sarod maestro Soumik Datta in a concert called Back to the Blues. Organised by London based arts company, the Bagri Foundation, the event will also feature other international musicians like London based percussionist Pirashanna Thevarajah (kanjira and mridangam), Irish percussionist Cormac Byrne (bodhran) and British pianist Al MacSween.”
“The performance, presented by the Bagri Foundation, explores the commonalities between Hindustani classical music and contemporary jazz.”
Read the full article here
[Soumik] discusses how the blues and Hindustani classical are awash with long sustained melodies, and how he can rearticulate the vocabulary of blues guitar by sliding around the sarod’s metal fretboard. He sees pentatonic scales as a universal bridge, pointing out that they also underpin Chinese and Japanese classical music. Aruna is relishing the chance to fuse disparate folk tunes, and find shared spaces for “deep, melancholic melodic exploration”.
Read the full article here.
“Back to the Blues, hosted by the Bagri Foundation, is a concert where I would be able to explore the improvisational aspect with the colours of jazz and North Indian music in collaboration with Soumik Datta, as well as present the compositions inherent to the music, making it accessible to audiences beyond regional and cultural contexts.”
Read the full article here
Two tickets for our concert Back to the Blues were donated to Resonance FM’s fundraising on-air auction; this show includes excerpts of tracks by Aruna Sairam and Soumik Datta.
Listen to the show here.
Bagri Foundation,
80 Cannon Street,
London, EC4N 6EJ
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