CHINGARI - A Rare Evening of Carnatic, Jazz and Contemporary Fusion Music

Ranjit Barot is today on the forefront of both worlds, the mainstream popular Indian / World music and Jazz Fusion genres. He is the Musical Director for all of Oscar winning composer, A.R.Rahman’s Live Concerts and holds the coveted ‘throne’ as Drummer for world renowned Guitar legend John Mclaughlin  & The 4th Dimension band. Born into a family steeped in Indian classical music and dance, melody and rhythm has always been an integral part of Ranjit’s life, and he started playing at the age of 12, encouraged by his mother, the legendary Kathak dancer, Sitara Devi. His early career saw performances with Louis Banks & the Jazz Yatra Sextet, the great Pandit Ravi Shankar, the maestros, (late) Don Cherry & (late) Charlie Mariano.  His unique approach to drumming has seen collaborations with Maestro Zakir Hussain, including a ‘Masters of Percussion’ US Tour in 2004., Carnatic classical legends, Maestro U. Srinivas and Guru L. Subramaniam, Hindustani slide guitar master exponent, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, sarangi legend Ustad Sultan Khan Sahab, ghattam maestro Pandit ‘Vikku’ Vinayakaram, Khanjira exponent Selva Ganesh, among many other noted artists. His work / performances with the Western greats have included unique collaborations with renowned artists such as Bill Evans, Scott Kinsey, Jonas Helborg, Ayden Esen, and Tim Garland. Ranjit has also had a long career in composition and music production, working out of his own state-of-the-art studio facility, in Mumbai, India. Combined with his strong roots in the Indian classical tradition and his world-view of music gave him a unique perspective on the Indian Film genre.  His career spans projects over the last almost 4 decades as a featured drummer and arranger for Indian Film Industry erstwhile giants such as R.D. Burman, Lakshmikant - Pyaarelal right up to A.R. Rahman’s greatest work through the years, including the Grammy & Oscar nominated ‘127 Hours’  and continues to bring his unique personality to this genre of music. His recognition as a Music Composer and Arranger for Album Projects and Feature Films has earned him the Filmfare Award for his score in ‘Aks’ (2001) and more recently his work in ‘Shaitan’ swept all 3 major Indian awards, in the year 2011.

Vijay Prakash is an Indian playback singer and film composer from Mysore who moved to Mumbai in 1996. He has sung in Hindi films such as Blue, Yuvvraaj, Swades, Kaal, Lakshya, Matrubhoomi, Tere Naam, Cheeni Kum, Raavan and Force. He has also performed in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam movies. He has also hosted the Kannada reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee Kannada and has also performed shows with Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Abhay Nayampally is one of the very few artists in the world exploring the complex art of Carnatic Classical Music on the predominantly western instrument, the guitar. Abhay is a senior disciple of legendary Mandolin Vidwan, Late Padmashree U Srinivas and currently a disciple of legendary violinist Vid. A Kanyakumari. Awarded with the title of Sangeeta Kalaaratnam, he has over 1000 concerts to his credit, both in India and abroad. Abhay has played with some of the best Indian artists such as Shankar Mahadevan, Taufiq Qureshi, Rakesh Chaurasia, Purbayan Chatterjee, Louis Banks, Ravi Chary, Sridhar Parthasarthy, Aditya Kalyanpur, Ojas Adhiya. His style reflects his reverence and maintenance of undiluted traditional Carnatic Classical essence along with his openness to newer styles of playing including Blues and Jazz. Abhay aims to establish guitar as a mainstream instrument in Carnatic Classical Music and take it to the world.

Mohini Dey has been described as a prodigy by many acclaimed musicians, as always Markbass supports young talented players around the world!!!Born in 1996, Mohini Dey is probably the youngest bass player in India having such a busy schedule and an already successful career. Daughter of bass player Sujoy Dey, she has been described as one of the most extraordinary, creative, finest and versatile bass players of India. Mohini Dey started learning bass guitar at the tender age of  3 and started doing concerts and recordings at the young age of 10. She has become an in-demand session player to do numerous live and studio work for many artists throughout India and the world, working with Ranjit Barot, Narada Michael Walden, A.R Rahman, Louiz Banks, Zakir Hussain, Gergo Borlai, Sivamani, Gino Banks, George Brooks, Mike Stern, Nitin Sawhney, Prasanna Ramaswamy, Stephen Devassy, Niladri Kumar, Selva Ganesh, U.Rajesh... and many more!!! Mohini has played at many Festivals like Elephanta Music Festival 2013, Chennai's Global Music Festival, Delhi's International Jazz Festival 2013, Goa's International Jazz Festival 2014, South Asian Music Festival, International Jazz Day, etc She was also featured In Rolling Stone Magazine, Forbes India 30Under30 (youngest and most successful of all), Indian Express Magazine, The Telegraph, Mid-Day, Radio and Music, Jazz in India, Hindustan Times… the Gulf News and Bass Professor magazine are going to feature her as well… Actually, she is busy working on her trio Album together with her sister, which includes some incredible musicians like Ranjit Barot, Narada Michael Walden, Gergo Borlai, etc.Mohini Dei was also invited by Berklee College of Music to be a part of a concert held at Symphony Hall… it was a great gig with huge success… She was also offered a full scholarship but unfortunately she couldn't take that as she was already busy with a bunch of projects but she is more than happy to be linked with Berklee.

Arka Chakraborty is a pianist and educator based in Kolkata. Arka had initially been playing western classical music and had given recitals in Kolkata and Mumbai. But then his improvisational instincts soon landed him on the other side and he was playing alongside Carlton Kitto, the legendary jazz guitar player. Soon Arka found himself collaborating with many musicians. Jody McBrayer, 3 time Grammy nominated vocalist and Arka performed jazz standards when he was on a tour in India. He is also enrolled as a faculty of Piano and music theory at the Calcutta School of Music. He conducts workshops and is also a high altitude trekker and a nature lover.