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Karnatic Lab Festival 2003 16, 17 and 18 May Madras Special Madras Special Ramesh Shotham - percussie Sandhya Sanjana - vocals Zoltan Lantos - violin Ronan Guilfoyle - bass with special guest Charlie Mariano - saxophone 'Madras Special' is an Audio trip from Cologne to Madras. It combines Funk and Raga, takes an excursion starting with Jazz going into the deep south Indian Temple music with a pop song in the middle. Sounds with unusual rhythms and newly defined Rootsä" Uli Lemke, Jazzthing/Blue Rhythm "....Top class World Jazz. A beautiful album from a wonderful musician, that will project him further into the elite of musicians." Heinz Kronberger, Drums & Percussion "'Madras Special' is not watered down World- music, but stands out through the fruitful association of experienced and excellent musicians." Klaus Mümpfer, Jazzpodium "Ramesh Shotham sees himself as a representative of modern world music which, while based on strong roots defies categorization, those who have had little to do with ĺWorldmusicp until now, should find an introduction to it here." Volker M. Leprich, Stadtrevue RAMESH SHOTHAM - Percussion Ramesh Shotham was born in Madras, South India. He began his career as a drummer in a rockband that performed all over the Indian subcontinent, co-1eading a group called Human Bondage. During the mid-seventies, he returned to Madras to study the Tavil, a traditional Temple music drum,- played all over South India and Sri Lanka. Later, he studied the other classical percussion instruments, like Ghatam, Mridangam, Kanjira and Morsing at the Karnataka College of Percussion under Professor TA.S. Mani. In 1980 Shotham came with the Indo-Jazz Fusion- group Sangam to participate in various European festivals. Since then Shotham works and lives in Europe and is recognized as one of the most successful percussionists around. He has worked not only with leading European and American Jazz and Rock musicians, but also with artistes from Africa, Australia, China, Korea and several Arabic countries. During the last 15 years, Shotham has recorded over 80 LPs and CDs and has worked for all the leading TV and Radio stations in Germany and Europe. In 1984 he was invited as artist-in-residence at the Iwalewa Haus, University of Bayreuth. In 1986 he was guest teacher at the Conservatorium in Rotterdam. He has also conducted workshops and seminars in various cities. Ramesh Shotham 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 etc. Shotham also went on three tours organized by the Goethe-Institut: 1990 to the forscher Yugoslavia, Hungary and Bulgaria; 1992 to Franse, Spain and Portugal; 1993 to India. Shotham's Work with musicians such as Carla Bley, Chris Hinze, Steve Coleman, Steve Swallow, Jonas Hellborg, Charlie Mariano and a host of others is well documented. He also founded his own formations like Bhavani and Madras Special. These concepts were used to feature Shotham's own compositions. During the last few years Shotham has been touring with Sigi Schwab's Percussion Project regularly. He was invited during the 1997 Music Triennale in Cologne to perform with the Carla Bley Big Band. Early 1998 involved work with Steve Coleman in India. Shotham recently appeared in Heartbeat of the Continents, a film by Manfred Waffender featuring different styles of drumming, produced by arte and the ZDF. Along with Rabih Abou-Kahlil and Zoltan Lantos, he recorded a documentary film for Euroarts to demonstrate the influences of World music on Jazz. Recent activities included uded a trip to Cuba to play at the Jazzfestival with Steve Coleman, a summer tour with Carla Bley's Escalator over the hill Project and an invitation to a Worid-Music-Festival in Tunesia with the well known Oud player Mohammed Zinelabidin. Ramesh Shotham has been commisioned by the WDR to travel to India with his group Madras Special in early 1991 to perform and record new music. Charlie Mariano's career can easliy be divided into two. Early on he was a fixture in Boston, playing with Shorty Sherock (1948), Nat Pierce (1949-50) and his own groups. After gigging with a band co-led by Chubby Jackson and Bill Harris, Mariano toured with Stan Kenton's Orchestra (1953-55) which gave him a strong reputation. He moved to Los Angeles in 1956 (working with Shelly Manne and other West Coast jazz stars), returned to Boston to teach in 1958 at Berklee and the following year had a return stint with Kenton. After marrying Toshiko Akiyoshi, Mariano co-led a group with the pianist on and off up to 1967, living in Japan during part of the time and also working with Charles Mingus (1962-63). The second career began with the formation of his early fusion group Osmosis in 1967. Known at the time as a strong bop altoist with a sound of his own developed out of the Charlie Parker style, Mariano began to open his music up to the influences of folk music from other cultures, pop and rock. He taught again at Berklee, traveled to India and the Far East and in the early '70s settled in Europe. Among the groups Mariano has worked with have been Pork Pie (which also featured Philip Catherine), the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble and Eberhard Weber's Colours. Charlie Mariano's airy tones on soprano and the nagaswaram (an Indian instrument a little like an oboe) fit right in on some new agey ECM sessions and he also recorded as a leader through the years for Imperial, Prestige, Bethlehem, World Pacific, Candid (with Toshiko Akiyoshi in 1960), Regina, Atlantic, Catalyst, MPS, CMP, Leo and Calig among others. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide Charlie Mariano was fortunate to play with musicians from many different cultures. He has been involved with South Indian music since 1967, and he goes to India regularly to study Carnatic music first-hand. Sandhya Sanjana was born in Bombay, India and her musical journey began at the age of two. She was raised in New Delhi where she was part of a culturally active group. Participating in musical shows since the age of five, she absorbed various folk and classical influences from ancient and contemporary India. From an early age, she studied Indian classical vocals under several Gurus, absorbing the styles from various 'gharanas'. In her teenage years, she discovered rock and pop music. This new and youthful energy so fascinated her that she sang in some rock groups in Bombay. Then she heard Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Her world was turned around once again. In order to expand her musical scope, she sang in several jazz clubs all over India. Then she travelled the world with the group DIVYA. While performing at the Jazz Jamboree in Poland, Alice Coltrane heard Sandhya sing and was most impressed with her effortless blending of Indian classical styles with jazz and contemporary settings. She invited DIVYA to perform for the 5th John Coltrane festival. While in Los Angeles for the festival, Alice Coltrane invited Sandhya to record some tracks on Glorious Chants , her CD of spiritual music. A year later, Alice was invited to perform on a BBC television series "Rhythms of the world". She invited Sandhya to sing with her on the show. Ronan Guilfoyle is a major figure on the Irish jazz scene, and has developed an international reputation as a performer, teacher and composer. He is very active in all three areas, has performed with many great figures in contemporary jazz, and has recorded extensively both as a sideman and a leader. He has composed for both classical and jazz ensembles, recorded extensively, and is an acknowledged authority on the teaching of advanced rhythmic concepts for jazz improvisation. Zoltán Lantos (1962) received his degree in classical violin from the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Being drawn towards experimental and eastern music from early on, he traveled to India on a scholarship to study classical Indian music in 1985. Returning to Budapest in 1994 he went on developing his own unique way of improvising on the violin, rediscovering his musical roots and blending them with his knowledge of Eastern music and his experiences in the field of contemporary European jazz. Since then he has been performing and recording with various musicians such as Márta Sebestyén, László Dés, Mihály Dresch, Gábor Juhász and Kornél Horváth from his native Hungary as well as Charlie Mariano, Ramesh Shotham, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Lars Danielsson, Dhafer Youssef, Markus Stockhausen, Achim Tang, Patrice Heral and others. Aside his main project called "Mirrorworld quartet" he also plays solo violin performances using electronic devices to create multiple loops and special effects. The last few years he has been invited to several international jazz and world music festivals with his own group and also as a guest artist of other projects. He can be heard on a number of albums and also composes for theatre and dance. He has previously released three CDs in his own country: "Pieces" (Nyomdacoop, 1996), "Eclipse" (Tandem Records, 1997) and "Mirrorworld" (Fonó Records, 1998). A trio album by Lantos/Tang/Heral is soon to be released by the London-based label November Music. Zoltán plays a 5 string violin and a custom-built 5+16 sympathetic string violin (Tarangini) created by Ricardo Margarit. ‹‹ back