tickets:
regular: 14,- €uro
students, disabled persons: 7,- €uro
doors: 8.00 pm CET
concert starts:
approx. 8.30 pm CET
Sounds like this:
https://youtu.be/KEqiuSYCr9U
Ramesh Shotham founded the ensemble Madras Special – New Generation, with the aim of promoting young highly talented musicians from North Rhine-Westphalia, with the idea of focusing on encounter and dialogue, with the ultimate goal of developing a new musical cultural perception. Shotham’s work is often based on the exchange of musical ideas and concepts of European musical culture with musical traditions of India. Strengthening and expanding artistic networks between artists from NRW and India is very close to his heart....
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tickets:
regular: 14,- €uro
students, disabled persons: 7,- €uro
doors: 8.00 pm CET
concert starts:
approx. 8.30 pm CET
Sounds like this:
https://youtu.be/KEqiuSYCr9U
Ramesh Shotham founded the ensemble Madras Special – New Generation, with the aim of promoting young highly talented musicians from North Rhine-Westphalia, with the idea of focusing on encounter and dialogue, with the ultimate goal of developing a new musical cultural perception. Shotham’s work is often based on the exchange of musical ideas and concepts of European musical culture with musical traditions of India. Strengthening and expanding artistic networks between artists from NRW and India is very close to his heart.
Madras Special’s music is inspired by jazz, classical South Indian ragas and talas, and current improvised world music. Based on complex grooves and melodies, the ensemble plans to develop cutting-edge new music. Numerous instruments of the Indian cultural circle will mix in the music of the ensemble with the „European“ sounds of bass, guitar and western percussion instruments. Further Indo-European interfaces are created by the re-composition of Indian melodies, which are joined by impressionist-inspired harmonies that nevertheless remain committed to the modality of Indian music.
The Ensemble Madras Special considers its work as „work in progress“ and thereby on the one hand as a continuous effort to deepen musical expression, on the other hand as an ongoing search for the expansion of musical horizons. A conceptual element in this work process is the creation of ruptures and the encounter of seemingly contradictory musical worlds.
Ramesh Shotham
In a sense, all music is a journey – but some musicians travel farther than others. Drummer and percussionist Ramesh Shotham is one of them: In the late 1960s, Shotham founded the band „Human Bondage,“ one of the most successful Indian rock groups of that era – and in 1978, in cooperation with Indian jazz pianist Louiz Banks, formed the „Jazz Yatra Septet,“ which brought Indian jazz musicians and South Indian classical musicians together on stage for the first time. In 1981, their album „Sangam“ received the German Record Critics‘ Award. Since then, Europe has become the center of life for Shotham and he is one of the most successful and innovative percussionists on the scene. Ramesh Shotham’s music gets its unmistakable sound and special signature from his unique setup, which ranges from selected Indian drums to various percussion instruments (ghatam, udu, darbuka, hang, cajon) to a specially assembled drum kit. Among Shotham’s trademarks is undoubtedly the temple music drum Tavil.
Shotham recorded no less than 300 albums in collaboration with visionary artists such as Steve Coleman, Rabih Abou Khalil or Aziza Mustafa Zadeh. He has played at all major international festivals, such as the North Sea Jazz Festival or the Montreal Jazz Festival, and has received funding from the Goethe Institute, the German Foreign Office, the German Music Council and the Kunststiftung NRW, among others.
In 2018, Shotham received the WDR Jazz Prize in the category „Music Cultures“.
Zoltan Lantos
Lantos began playing the violin at the age of seven and studied at the Budapest Conservatory and Academy of Music. From 1985 to 1994 he studied Indian classical music in New Delhi. After returning to Budapest, he had an Indian violin made with sixteen resonant strings, which he plays alongside the classical violin. He works in numerous jazz and world music projects, such as with Márta Sebestyén, László Dés, Mihály Dresch, Charlie Mariano, Dhafer Youssef, Ramesh Shotham, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Markus Stockhausen, Achim Tang, Patrice Héral, Nicolas Simion and founded the Mirrorworld Quartet with Mihály Dresch, Gábor Juhász and Kornél Horváth. His Mirrorworld project also involved Bulgarian pianist Anthony Donchev, Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson and Vietnamese dancer Isabelle Lee.
Sebastian Müller
Sebastian Müller, who studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA with Mick Goodrick, Wayne Krantz and Hal Crook, among others, as well as at the Hochschule Köln, likes to explore the boundaries of what can be called jazz. Most often, the focus is on improvisation as a true moment to be shared with the audience. His musical range extends from acoustic solo guitar to electronic sound experiments. In doing so, he uses the sound spectrum of the instrument to an extent that one is not necessarily used to in jazz.
Reza Askari
Born in 1986 in Fulda, he learned to play the piano at the age of eight and switched to electric bass at 12. Here he first received lessons from Fred Nash, later from Wolfgang Hahling, Dave King and Decebal Badila.
In 2006 he began his music studies with a specialization in jazz electric bass at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne with Marius Goldhammer. Additionally, he studied double bass with Dieter Manderscheid and Sebastian Gramss.
Reza played from 2009-2011 in the concert line-up of the Bundesjazzorchester(BuJazzO) and from 2008-2010 in the Landesjugendjazzorchester Hessen, among others in countries like China, Vietnam, South-Korea, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Canada and the USA.
Omri Hason
was born in Israel in 1962. At the age of 10 he had his first musical experience on the drums. This was the beginning of his passion for music in general and its implementation on various percussion instruments in particular. He received his early musical impulses from his close surroundings and later he specialized mainly in playing the zarb, the darbuka and the frame drum. Since 1986 he lives in Switzerland.
The rhythmic-percussive color palette of his further musical education has been expanded since 1996 by lessons with the Iranian master drummer Djamchid Chemirani on the zarb (Iranian drum) and accentuated by valuable accents through the intensive study of Indian rhythm and its language in drum and music culture.
As a freelance musician and instrumental teacher, he also conducts workshops and collaborates in various projects and CD productions in the international jazz and world music scene.
Omri Hason is the founder of two quartets: Kedem Ensemble and Modus Quartet. The line-up of both formations is composed of members from different backgrounds. It is obvious that Omri Hason’s main interest is the dialogue of different cultures and their musical connection with each other.
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