Alaya Challenge, a ‘Beatles go over band’ like you’ve by no means read, readies 2 Bay Place reveals

Mates and musical collaborators considering the fact that center university, Rohan Krishnamurthy and Prasant Radhakrishnan had talked for yrs about making a band that could deliver alongside one another their love of jazz and their deep instruction in South Indian classical songs. When they released the Alaya Project in 2017 it was the Beatles who at last introduced the stars into alignment.

An East Bay musician who brings together the drum package and Carnatic hand percussion, Krishnamurthy recognized a golden opportunity experienced dropped into his lap with an invitation to be a part of an UnderCover Presents creation celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” at Berkeley’s UC Theatre.

With each act interpreting one particular keep track of from the classic album, he figured the obvious preference would be George Harrison’s sitar-driven “Within You With no You.” Rather, UnderCover Provides producer Lyz Luke tapped him to reimagine “Being for the Advantage of Mr. Kite!,” a problem he understood would intrigue Radhakrishnan, an alto saxophonist who’d used several years melding jazz improvisation and classical Carnatic varieties.

“I immediately strike up Prasant,” reported Krishnamurthy, 35, from his household in Dublin. “Let’s give this a shot. I was genuinely listening to accordion for the tune, too, and that is when I strike up Colin Hogan, a Bay Area heavyweight. I’d recognized him by way of the scene, but the to start with time we came with each other was for ‘Mr. Kite.’ I like to explain to persons that at heart the Alaya Venture is essentially a Beatles protect band.”

The trio bundled the enthralling arrangement of “Mr. Kite” on their eponymous debut album produced last thirty day period on Bandcamp, but most Alaya Undertaking items are originals discovering musical territory they’ve built to intermingle Carnatic ragas with African American musical idioms. Celebrating the launch of “The Alaya Project” Sept. 23 as component of the Hammer Theater’s Sunset Series, the team will be joined by distinctive guest Roopa Mahadevan, a New York-based mostly classical Indian vocalist recognized for her perform in jazz, R&B, soul and globe music settings.

[embed]

Upcoming thirty day period the trio also performs a sequence of daytime concerts celebrating Diwali, the colourful South Asian pageant of lights, presented by San Mateo County Libraries, with reveals in Foster City (Oct. 21), Belmont (Oct. 23), San Carlos (Oct. 24) and Millbrae (Oct. 25).

Krishnamurthy kicks off the tumble live performance season with a duo recital 5 p.m. Sept. 18 at Chabot Faculty with Vishnu Ramaprasad on navtar, a redesigned guitar that can navigate microtonal intervals.

The pair 1st joined forces very last month in San Francisco for a efficiency at Old 1st Concerts, “but I’ve recognised his parents for a extensive time,” Krishnamurthy said. “Vishnu’s father is a nicely-recognised Carnatic singer in India, and his mom is a very well-known dancer. We just connected lately and he performs this truly exciting souped-up guitar with sympathetic strings.”

Aspect of what will make the Alaya Project these kinds of rich artistic exchange is that it expands on a conversation that Krishnamurthy and Radhakrishnan began as young children of Indian immigrants. Krishnamurthy grew up generally in southwest Michigan though Radhakrishnan hails from Phoenix. They initially achieved in 1997 even though attending the Cleveland Thyagaraja Competition, the premier Carnatic audio competition outdoors of India.

“It’s a hub for South Indians from all above North The us, with youth competitions and performances by the excellent artists of currently,”  said Radhakrishnan, 40. “Rohan and I jammed a few of moments. He joined me on quite a few performances and we bought called by an eminent Bharatanatyam dance performer and opened for her, our initially particular concert alongside one another.”

They stayed in contact and done alongside one another typically while their commitment to Carnatic new music deepened. Krishnamurthy became a disciple of Chennai maestro Guruvayur Dorai, the foremost master of the double-headed mridangam drum, and later researched the drum package with jazz specialist Alan Corridor at the California Jazz Conservatory. In the same way, Radhakrishnan traveled regularly to India as a disciple of Carnatic saxophone pioneer “Padmashri” Kadri Gopalnath.

Radhakrishnan moved out to the Bay Spot in 2005 and founded VidyA, an impressive Carnatic jazz ensemble developed on the powerhouse rhythm portion of bassist David Ewell and drummer Sameer Gupta (who went on to found the influential Brooklyn Raga Large collective in New York). After earning an ethnomusicology PhD from the Eastman Faculty of Audio, Krishnamurthy also made the journey west in 2013, and the time appeared ripe to go after a deeper collaboration.