DRUMS & TABLA and TABLA IN EUROPE
present

"OPEN MUSIC"between tradition and evolution

with
NIHAR MEHTA (tabla)

RICCARDO MISTO (sarod, rebab, yangqin, overtones singing, Cajon & percussion)

SILVIA REFATTO (tanpura)

17 september 2009 hour 9 p.m. in Padova (Italy), Piccolo Teatro, via Asolo 2.

Open Music will present a special event with one of the best new appreciated Indian tabla player, Nihar Mehta, leader of Tabla in Europe, who has played with many of the greatest Indian classical musicians. He will play with Riccardo Misto, founder of Drums & Tabla Connection, in Padova (Italy) the 17th of September ’09, in a concert that is intended to mix and fuse all their different musical roots, styles and cultural backgrounds, allowing the two performers to explore new expressive territories, without boundaries, between tradition and evolution.

Nihar Mehta comes from one of the foremost and respected families of Philosophers and Musicians of Ahmedabad. His great grandfather late Diwan Bahadur Narmadashankar Mehta was a well known Vedantist and Philosopher of India. His grandfather late Yashodhar Mehta was a Barrister and prominent Philosopher, Novelist and Astrologer of Gujarat. The family is also active in teaching and promoting Indian classical music through their well known Music Institute "SAPTAK" in Ahmedabad. Nihar was fortunate enough to learn Tabla from Pt.Kishan Maharaji Has accompanied with well known artists like Ustad Shahid Parvez Pt.Jasraj, Pt. Amarnath Mishra, Pt. Ramesh Mishra, Manju Mehta, Krishna Bhatt, Ustad Shaukat Hussain Khan, Shri Shubhendra Rao, Kala Ramnath, Purbayan Chattarjee, Pt Tarun Bhattacharya, Anupama Bhagwat and many other artists. He has also presented Tabla Solo performances several times. Since 2003 he is giving regulary Tabla and Pakhawaj lessons in Nice and Torino by conducting workshops and private lessons.

Riccardo Misto, italian musictherapist and multi-instrumentalist, has played with indian sarod virtuoso Partho Sarothy and tablist Angshubha Banerjee in summer ‘09, with his drumset and overtones singing, starting a collaboration with indian music that now goes on with this new exciting project, Open Music, which introduces the use of some interesting multiethnic melodic and percussive set, expressly elaborated: Yangqin, the chinese version of persian Santoor, afghani Rebab and indian Sarod, “Harmonic Chant” (overtones singing); dialogue with tabla will be realized by original drum-set, including latin Cajon, cymbals, tibetan bowls and other original percussions. On tanpura there will be Silvia Refatto, who also took care of graphic project.
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PARTHO SAROTHY in concert Indian Classical Music 2009 Italian Tour Featuring Angshuba Banerjee on tabla and, for "Drums & Tabla Connection Set": Riccardo Misto on drums,
Silvia Refatto on tanpura.

6 august: Padova, Palazzo Zuckermann's Garden Theatre
7 august: Vittorio Veneto (Treviso), Serravalle Castle
8 august: Varzi (Pavia), Casa Ganesh

THE NEW TIMES OF INDIA: DRUMS &TABLA CONNECTION
A music project for east-west integration
by Riccardo Misto, italian musician and musictherapist

(read italian version)

Main aspect of this project is the improvement of intercultural exchange between eastern and western musical approach, with a particular attention to Indian subcontinent area. It’s a long time that Hindustani and Carnatic music play an important role in the fusion process with west: from the first echoes present in some 60’pop music hits (Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones ecc.) to the deep and more articulated contamination, in a jazz key, realized by pioneer of fusion, John McLaughlin, with his group Shakti and, recently, with the recordings made in Chennai, where we can hear the young lions of Indian music, you can see how stimulating and interesting may be the dialogue between the two cultures. All this innovative ferment you find in the tracks of the new McLaughlin work “Floating Point”, where you can listen to very interesting east-west contaminations. The very new aspect of the modern musical dialogue between west and India is the great mastering of harmonic structures that some Indian musician are showing, yet keeping live and present their legacy with the classical roots of Raga. We can say that now the dialogue between the two worlds is more equal and complete: if in the past the Indian musician were the teachers, now we can see how they are more interested to western culture and instruments: starting from the typical drum set, going through synth keyboards and the modernisation of others (guitar and sitar, in the new transformation in zitar, elettrified and played in a very close-to-guitar way by Niladri Kumar). THE PROJECT Starting from this mixing and reciprocal influence, the project “The New Times of India” promotes the meeting and the cultural exchange moving just from that instrument, the western drumset, which among all, is the most distant from Indian musical tradition (strongly rooted in tabla, mridangam, pakhawaj and gatham, the typical percussions), but in which are more and more interested the Indian musicians sensitive to contamination between the two cultures. The program will be articulated in two main directions, one with a didactic/divulger character, and another more specifically musical. The musical proposal is based on "Tabla & Drums Connection" program, where the classical indian “Raga” is enriched and developed with the use of drum set, in constant dialogue and interaction with the tabla. By this way, yet in the respect of classical tradition, the expressive possibilities are enlarged, making a fusion of two different percussive sets , and so creating a further east-west bridge. Drum set is the propulsive motor of western music (pop, rock or jazz), and its articulated set allows the use of all player’s physical structure, getting coordinated movements of upper and lower limbs. Didactic/divulger program, based on drum set, forecasts a theoretic phase about the different rhythmic structures, a specific knowledge and analysis of all the physical elements (drums, heads, cymbals, hardware, accessories, ecc.) and the most advanced executive techniques. Besides the standard rhythms of western music (light or folk) a special section will concern the possible connections with rhythmic models of Indian music (tala), so to make possible and harmonious the insert of a drum set in the accompaniment of a typical raga. The program, developed in a theoretic/practical manual, will be directed to professional musicians and also to people which for the first time go approaching this instrument. A particular attention will be made to children and the possible applications in a therapeutic setting, considering the various pathologies concerning attention/ concentration/ memory and speech and behaviour disturbs (hyperactivity, aggressive and communication difficulties). All in association with Indian konnacol system. The final phase of this project will be a series of live performances, in which will be presented the different way of playing the drums in various contexts (western music, classical raga, fusion music and musictherapy setting). The program, in the spirit of a 360 degrees communication, will find application as in Europe as in India, with Kolkata as a starting point, with the precious help of Partho Sarothy, intelligent and mindopened to sperimentation musician and oriented to the meeting of different cultures.
All this project will be documentated in a musical CD realised in Kolkata with Indian musicians, where will be recorded two compositions: one based upon the introduction of drumset in a typical classical Raga, and another upon the use of Indian instruments in a western musical atmosphere.
There will be also a DVD with a booklet in which will be resumed all the working phases, from the starting idea to the final products.

Present Times is a contemporary Jazz ensemble that suggests a musical performance where the extemporary exsecution of melodic lines, phrases and impovised structures become a vibrant sonor presence. The listeners are wrapped in the “here and now” of creative process, in a continuous becoming. Time - in the different rhythmic, percussive and narrative features – connects compositive cells in constant movement between east and west, in a space acoustically opened to multiethnic contaminations. The group, conducted by Riccardo Misto, was born by the Mishra ensemble experience, the musicl project that italian polyinstrumentalist has conceived many years ago, distinguished by interesting solutions, directed to the very different musical cultures meeting. For this new proposal he’s coming back to drums, the instrument by wich he has started his performing career, more than 40 years ago. With him the jazzmen Nicola Tuzzato (on saxes and flute), Claudio Conforto (on electric piano), and Silvia Refatto (on indian tanpura).

Riccardo Misto: Drums
Nicola Tuzzato: Sax, Flute
Claudio Conforto: Electric piano
Silvia Refatto: Tanpura

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