India Currents gave me a voice in days I was very lost. Having my articles selected for publishing was very validating – Shailaja Dixit, Executive Director, Narika, Fremont
Just as the world shares the same sky, the same sun and the same moon the music of the world is made of seven beautiful notes. Be it sa re ga ma or do re mi, they are the same musical notes just called by different names. Using these notes in different combinations helps us arrive at ragas. When sung at different times of the day these ragas help invoke different moods.
For San Jose resident and master musician Pandit Habib Khan, fusion and jazz music is innovation within these notes keeping to the raga patterns and taal, or beat, in mind. To him, music is about playing with the beat while innovating in these raga patterns. Taking a 16-beat cycle called teen taal and dropping it to eight beats making it keherwa taal. Removing one beat from the eight beat cycle makes it rupak taal, and removing three beats from the eight beat cycle makes it dadra taal.
The concert is about the innovation in music with different instruments. This show will feature Khan on sitar, George Brooks on saxophone, Mathew Montfort on guitar, John Waller on drums, Salar Nader on table, and Ramesh Srinivasan on mridangam. Leading a combination of string and wind instruments and the use of three different kinds of drums is a feat that Khan pulls off with ease keeping the audience at the edge of their seats with the jugalbandi, or jam session, with the different instruments.
Also performing will be Richa Shukla, a kathak performer and student of Anuradha Nag. At this event, Shukla will be dancing a classical kathak item taken from the movie, Devdas.
Sunday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m. Hofmann Theatre, Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. $25, $35. Tickets: (925) 943-7469.www.BAPA-PG.com.