Dave Sharma is the flame-haired percussionist who gave his dhol a good thrashing nightly by the Bollywood Dreams stage. I later ran into him at the State of Bengal show. He’s got a rep as a bad-ass dholi and also seems like an all-round good guy. (Disclaimer: he’s dating a friend o’ mine.)

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p>Sharma, who’s part Himachal Pradeshi and part white, is a member of Dhol Collective. He sometimes plays with DJ Rekha and Tanuja Desai Hidier’s band. He’s also played at the Brooklyn Museum’s Fourth of July fest and on Sarina Jain’s bhangra aerobics videos.

His college band, The Scholars, toured the country and even did a video for MTV. [Link]

This year, Santa Dave brings New Yorkers a dhol ‘n bass Christmas:

… I’m beyond excited to be part of an extra-special session of DirectDrive, NYC’s longest-running weekly drum n’ bass party… I pack up my records and tablas to throw down the freshest in subcontinental grooves, dubby jungle, fresh dubplates, funky DnB and just generally really hot records alongside DD residents Jaggi and Shichman…

So jump out of midnight mass early and swing down to Rothko; I’m on @ 12:30 for the DJ set, and will be playing tablas alongside Jaggi’s set afterwards.

DIRECT DRIVE PRESENTS: XMAS EVE WITH BOLLYDUB D&B

Schichman spinning liquid beats early
Sharma in the center slot
Jaggi cleaning up, w/ Sharma on tablas

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p>Listen to an audio clip.

Blurry ‘Bombay Dreams’ photo snuck in before the usher shush