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t ere’s ere’s t T -inspired -inspired ,” says the says ,” with two two with t t SONGLINES › e Comet is Coming. is Coming. e Comet I’m curry house/I’m T ’) on the e song is a love letter too.” e song is a love ISSUE 149 ISSUE SARATHY KORWAR SARATHY T . “ t en there’s the music, which sees Korwar’s free-flowing free-flowing sees Korwar’s which the music, en there’s en there’s the album’s cover art by designer Tushar art designer Tushar by cover the album’s en there’s e parallels between the much-touted new London jazz London new the much-touted between e parallels London-based poet Zia Ahmed explores the lazy stereo the lazy explores Ahmed poet Zia London-based A sea of languages. Multiple backgrounds. stories. Five T T plantation owners in Jamaica. in Jamaica. plantation owners (‘ being British-Pakistani with that come accent Arabic josh/Irogan do an can ‘Bol’, while lead single ‘Mumbay’ the syllabic (sic) features in spitting bars of MC Mawali, fire Bombay/-born and Hindi, in a tale about a ci 7/8 time in Marathi of and narrative; forces power oppressive two personalities, right-wing by hijacked past and a present that is, the colonial in the ci nationalists. “It’s also about the rich/poor divide come you’ll hustle and bustle then at 7am in south Bombay emp completely that’s promenade a massive across Mumbai- whose accompanying Korwar, US-born, -raised this duali captures video shot narrative. A new drumming undulating alongside some of stars the brightest Osborn, Tamar jazz firmament: reedswoman in the London and synths MacSween pianist Al Kefaya Goller, bassist Ruth from aka Danalogue Leavers, Dan wiz T of the media and by is perpetuated which being overrun, 31, Korwar, says outsiders,” views our culture the way mirrors not too London, central in in a café and articulate considered “ his home in Cricklewood. far up the Jubilee line from yeah, they’ve well, always notion of, also this tongue-in-cheek they’re not going to stop coming.come, it.” Deal with held in Britain in the protests Menon, a tribute to the street 1970s and 80s when people of down united to face colour to which from a springboard It’s Front. National the racist diaspora the represent that rightly the eight tracks investigate Delhi Sultanate is an MC who grew and diverse: as pluralistic in patois and raps in Berlin neighbourhood up in a Jamaican a tune that Deep on ‘Coolie’, MC Prabh alongside Punjabi British by exploited tells of Indian labourers the indentured

t , ly ly f f ’) on the , an album e album’s etitle album’s T -propelled closer, about his latest project, inspired by Brexit Britain Britain Brexit by inspired project, latest his about battling the unknown, battling the unknown, ‘Pravasis’. “It’s‘Pravasis’. this idea of More Arriving More to cut through the noise through to cut PRIDE PRIDE PRIDE more arriving… more gone people, deported, le t Temporary people,Temporary illegal people, ephemeral people, (‘ – which features Indian features – which author Deepak Unnikrishnan excoriating poem recited by its with the words a part of an Many messages.Many that exists around Brexit, is a play on the scaremongering chance to send a message.” chance ed over two and a half in India two years ed over much greater than myself. It’s the It’s than myself. greater much this record is a snapshot of snapshot is a something this record f voice is one among a thousand but voice than it is about confrontation: “My than it is about confrontation: and the UK, uni the album is less about BROWN Cra BROWN Indian in an increasingly divided Britain. divided Indian in an increasingly for over a decade; of a decade; for over being a contemporary its creator’s experience of UK in the its creator’s experience living More Arriving More placed electronica – is a conceptual take on take – is a conceptual electronica placed ese young people from very modest from people ese young classical and jazz instrumentation and de classical and find your own voice.” own and find your T guts and vulnerabili “

want the idea of brown pride to come through,” through,” pride to come the idea ofwant brown of Korwar Sarathy says of the multiple perspectives rappers that features hip-hop scene young the thriving from and MCs wearing their politics on their sleeve, and it takes and it takes on their sleeve, their politics wearing backgrounds in Mumbai and are Delhi are in Mumbai and New backgrounds e Indian musician Sarathy Korwar is becoming an influential influential an becoming is Korwar Sarathy musician Indian e Jane Cornwell Jane the Indian subcontinent. the Indian subcontinent. that’s currently booming in large urban cities across cities across urban booming in large currently that’s I T talks He scene. music eclectic and vibrant London’s within figure to narrative ofand the importance the East-West changing

Rishabah Sood SARATHY KORWAR

sound and the aforementioned desi rap scene are obvious, jazz-like, and the teenaged Korwar loved jazz. A teacher had states Korwar. Both have a raw, cross-genre aesthetic. Both are fed his interest with classic albums by pianists Ahmad Jamal collaborative and diverse. Both are in need of new narratives. and Horace Silver. At a local jazz record shop he discovered the Indeed, just as the so-called ‘British ’ icons of ‘spiritual jazz,’ among them trumpeter , scene of the late 90s (broadly held to encompass a blend of saxophonist and Coltranes John and Alice, Eastern sounds with electro and drum’n’bass) overlooked the who’d all drawn inspiration from Indian music and philosophy. range of music on its fringes, making poster boys of the likes of But while their sounds moved Korwar, and remain salient , Asian Dub Foundation and State of Bengal (all of influences, they unsettled him too: “Too many went over, whom shaped the young Korwar), so is the current London jazz learned a few scales and chants and came back, having only explosion being hooked to the same handful of players. It’s at skimmed the surface.” Te East he knew, that he was immersed risk of being homogenised as a result. in, was far more complex than it was portrayed in the West: as “When the writer of an article wants to prove how diverse a repository of knowledge; a Shambhala. Ten he discovered the London scene is I’ll get a mention,” says Korwar who, with the Mumbai-born percussionist, Trilok Gurtu, whose blend of fellow kit drummer Moses Boyd, was jazz and Indian traditions – scat singing a recipient of a Steve Reid Innovation Korwar is with konnakol vocal percussion, say – Award, and has collaborated with felt revolutionary. saxophonist/clarinettist Shabaka challenging “Trilok was definitely one of my role Hutchings. “I’m ascribed a spiritualit models,” says Korwar, who also cites his because I play Indian classical music, the cultural tabla teachers, Rajeev Devasthali and and I’m ofen called a tabla player even appropriation of Sanju Sahai. “He was the first brown though I predominantly play drums face I saw who was playing the sort on my recordings. Tese ideas about ‘spiritual’ Indo-jazz of things I wanted to play and doing what’s ‘exotic’ make you niche.” So how them alongside jazz giants like John would he like to be perceived? A smile. “As one of the voices McLaughlin (from Shakti and the ) and influencing a larger London scene.” (from Weather Report).” With his seamless mix of jazz, electronica and traditional Having obtained a degree in environmental science in instrumentation, Korwar is doing precisely that, and between composing and playing in bands, Korwar pitched challenging the cultural appropriation of ‘spiritual’ Indo- up in London in 2009 to do a music diploma specialising in jazz in the process. Te son of an architect and a sofware kit drumming, only to be lef creatively unfulfilled (“Tey GRAMMY award-winning harmonica player Grégoire consultant who met at UCLA in the US, Korwar grew up focused on churning out session players, and I wanted to Maret teams up with harp virtuoso Edmar Castañeda. in , the capital of the western state of Gujarat, develop my own voice”). He duly enrolled in a Masters in Plus special guets Béla Fleck and Andrea Tierra listening to his parents sing Indian folk songs in between Music Performance at SOAS, Universit of London, where rocking out to Te Doors and performing tunes by Jimi his dissertation – “taking the vocabulary of the tabla and “Grégoire is an exceptional musician who is taking the harmonica to an exciting new place in jazz” Pat Metheny Hendrix on the tabla. He’d begun learning the hand drums transferring it onto non-Indian percussion instruments,” – – India’s primary percussion instrument – at the age of ten. would inform much of his later work. “What Edmar does on the harp is profound, incredible A few years later, with the family now in on the east As it would his politics: “People were always asking me if I’d and inspiring” Marcus Miller coast of Tamil Nadu, it was the drum kit that blew him away. felt a culture shock on coming to the UK, which was the shock,” Te American rock he was drawn to on the radio featured he says. “I come from a very upper-class position of privilege in drummers – Te Doors’ John Densmore, Mitch Mitchell from India. I went to an English-speaking school and had holidays the Experience – whose free-flowing stle felt abroad.” He pauses, sighs. “Being asked how many times I’d seen an elephant stopped being funny afer a while.” With the support of the Steve Reid Foundation, Korwar began recording what would become his acclaimed 2016 debut album Day to Day [a Top of the World review in #121], a work that features field recordings of Siddi musicians – mostly Sufi Muslims descended

“A jazz cruise down the Mekong: Streams is inspired by cross-cultural interaction, the sound-world is rooted in a jazz aesthetic, with tight, twisting melodies set over driving grooves” Songlines

24 SONGLINES › ISSUE 149 www.actmusic.com | www.facebook.com/actmusic SARATHY KORWAR Salif Keita Un Autre Blanc WIN We have three copies of More Arriving to give away. To enter, answer: What was the name of Sarathy Korwar’s debut? See p17 for competition rules Physical distribution in the UK by PROPER MUSIC Physical distribution in the UK by PROPER OUT NOW

JULY 27TH : WOMAD JULY 28TH : RONNIE SCOTT’S ( LONDON)

“…the veteran Malian singer’s fi nal album…bask in a sound that celebrates the advantages of Salif ’s electric and acoustic phases”

from East African Bantu people, whose chants, polyrhythms BC Manjunath – were well versed in jazz improvisation. and the tabla with a private guru; they were two MUSIC Physical distribution in the UK by PROPER and malunga bow (a distant cousin of the berimbau) interact Transcending generic assumptions about ‘Eastern-stle’ methodologies in parallel until I was about 23 or 24. Bringing OUT NOW with electronics and improvisations from Korwar’s band on music, it rebalanced the scales by revisiting 70s pieces by John them together was revelatory.” reeds, strings, bass and drums. Te album caught the ear of McLaughlin, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane and others and Korwar is quick to point out that in India, ‘guru’ simply cult electronic producer Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, who sent put the Indian side front-and-centre. means ‘teacher,’ a person you respect: “Growing up in India it to Ninja Tune, one of the hippest indie labels on the planet. “In the 70s there wasn’t the access to music we have now. we tried to stay away from that mysticism because we knew Korwar got a call the next day. Back then I think that ‘spiritual jazz’ was the only way people the connotations it had in the West. When people asked if we “I got fast tracked,” Korway says with a grin. “I couldn’t knew of the tabla or the sitar, but the manner in which those were ‘spiritual’ we didn’t want to talk about it because it’s like, have had a better start. I was always instruments are represented doesn’t do dude, that’s almost like selling out to the West’s idea of who interested in people who did interesting “In the 70s ‘spiritual much for the traditions of music that you are. We’re going to define our relationship to our gods, our stuf with electronics in ways other those instruments come from. religions, in a way we want to.” than dance music, like Björk, and jazz’ was the only It boils down to a question of Korwar moves back and forth between the UK and India, wanted to mess with classical Indian representation, really.” where he has a fan base and continues to work in the music and electric voices.” way people knew of Re-balancing is one thing. vibrant hip-hop scene, with its outdated computer sofware He was still in the process of the tabla or sitar” Trailblazing is another. In Indian and YouTube videos made on iPhones, that big brands are creating More Arriving when, in 2018, classical music and in jazz, Korwar currently falling over themselves to appropriate. Physical distribution in the UK by PIAS he set about making a live recording, My East is Your West, is reasonably unique in being a percussionist who is also With More Arriving, Korwar continues to represent. OUT NOW in the round at the Church of Sound, a night staged at a bandleader ( and Trilok Gurtu have done it), “Tere is no one brown voice,” he says. “We’re many.” deconsecrated church in Clapton by Total Refreshment Centre whether or not he’s playing tabla or kit drums. “It’s been very visionary, Alexis Blondin. Te line-up mixed a jazz quintet empowering,” he says, “as has combining the two approaches.” + ALBUM More Arriving (on Te Leaf Label) is released on “Susheela Raman and guitarist Sam Mills with an understanding of Indian instrumentation with the “I’m at a vantage point where I’ve had time with both July 26 and will be reviewed in the next issue team up with Indonesian composer Gondrong Gunarto…This hazy, enigmatic five-strong UPAJ Collective of Indian classical musicians, most instruments and traditions separately as well as together, + See sarathykorwar.com/live for forthcoming gigs DATES exotica is veiled in glowing mists.” of whom – flautist Aravindhan Baheerathan, percussionist which not many do. I learned the drums in a conservatory + MORE See p98 for our Essential 10 South Asian jazz albums

26 SONGLINES › ISSUE 149

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