Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

Sachal can sing

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Last Monday, I went to hear Sachal Vasandani croon jazz at a hole-in-the-wall, basement club in Manhattan. He’s friends with my cousin the conductor. The bar was packed with University of Michigan music alumni, a more raucous crowd than the usual jazz audience. Vasandani and his band had the early show, the 7pm show before the headliner comes on.

Because of the friend connection, I wasn’t expecting more than a pleasant evening out. And though I love jazz classics, I’m not fan enough to dig the dissonance of an improv jam session. Vasandani emerged from the gloom of rear stage. He was tall and floppy-haired and stood a bit stiffly, like a pre-makeover John Mayer. He wore a blazer, but he wasn’t as natty as chart-topping young fogies like Harry Connick Jr. and swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We plunged into our sidecars and lemon drops and waited for the show to begin.

When Vasandani opened his mouth, we utterly forgot about the drinks. The first time you hear a magnetic singer pull from his bag of vocal tricks, it’s like falling in love. Those who hadn’t heard him before were shocked. I wore a silly, involuntary grin and told my cousin, ‘He’s really good!’ He smiled smugly. Listen to Vasandani singing ‘Embraceable You’ (thanks, Ankush; warning: it’s a crappy, mono WAV clip that doesn’t do him justice).

After a few standards, Vasandani cut loose with a couple of original compositions by the band and one by a friend. His voice seems to emerge via ventriloquism; it’s bigger than his body can sustain and more classic than his look. He’s like Charlotte Church in terms of the surprise factor. He has a very mainstream, full new jazz sound; he’s won a slew of awards, and the NY Sun has compared his sound to Connick Jr.:

Sachal Vasandani was a total surprise: He looks like the leading man in a Bollywood musical but is a very traditional jazz crooner…

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Get some culture tonight…if you’re in DC

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Need something to do this humid evening in swamp city? I’ll be at Chorduroy’s concert in Clarendon, but if rockin’ covers of songs like “Float on” and “A Little Respect” which sound even better than the real thing aren’t your thing, I’ve got an alternate bit of lovely for your friday night.

Your parents will be so proud:

Friday, June 10, 2005 PERFORMANCE Ramesh Misra, sarangi; Nitin Mitta, tabla 7:30 pm, Meyer Auditorium Enjoy this rare opportunity to hear a solo recital by Ramesh Misra, a master of the sarangi, the traditional fiddle of South Asia. Misra was a student of Ravi Shankar and has played before worldwide audiences for more than forty years. This concert is made possible in part through support from the Parnassus Foundation.

Just imagine how pretty the Mall will be, with the sun setting over the befuddled tourists:

Freer Gallery of Art – Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Auditorium
12th Street and Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20560
Phone: 202-633-4880
Metro: Smithsonian (Orange, Blue lines)

Hmmm. Chorduroy aren’t on ’til 10ish…wonder if I could hit both. I love me some live tabla. Did I mention that this event is FREE? You can’t beat that with a bat.

via DCist. They helpfully suggest that you get to Meyer Auditorium early if you want some music. Free stuff goes fast, you know. 😉 Continue reading →

Apul–Bigger and Browner

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We have been getting a bunch of questions as to what became of Apul since he left Sepia Mutiny. Here are a couple of examples:

I’m outraged by Apul’s resignation. Why is he resigning in Nixonian disgrace? What are these new projects? How can Sepia Mutiny be respected as a serious outlet for online blogtastic journalism when its cherished contributors is uncermoniously swept under the rug? [link]

Where is Apul going!? We have to know so we can follow his career! [link]

Well now we have our first word of what became of Apul since his exile. Like many others before him, Apul has decided to leave an ensemble cast and go solo. He’ll be performing his stand-up act this Friday night in Hollywood. Sleuth that I am, did he really think I wouldn’t be able to hunt him down? Tickets can be purchased here. I will be in the audience to check out his act, as well as Sanjay Shah, Nikki Chawla, Reggie D., and Tarun Shetty. They will be filming at the show for a broadcast on desivision TV. I would LiveBlog from the event but then I’d just be a freak.

As an aside, after reading this I have been considering going solo as well.

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Explosive writing

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The Times of London

 reveals that Salman Rushdie narrowly escaped a bomb attack in 1989, only five months after Iran issued its Valentine’s Day fatwa (thanks, Abhi). A Lebanese militant building an RDX bomb in a hollowed-out book made a bid for the Darwin Awards just a couple of miles from Rushdie’s London home:

The radicalised Lebanese citizen, born in the Guinean capital, Conakry, had joined a local Hezbollah… cell while in his teens… Mazeh… [took] a train to London on July 22, 1989. He checked in to Room 303 at the Beverley House Hotel, a five-storey building in Sussex Gardens, Paddington.

On the afternoon of August 3, a large explosion killed him in his room, destroying two floors of the building. Anti-terrorist squad detectives later said that he had died while trying to prime a bomb hidden in a book with RDX explosives. A previously unknown Lebanese group… claimed in a letter to a Beirut newspaper that Mazeh, whom they referred to as Gharib, died preparing an attack ” on the apostate Rushdie”. [Times of London]

In 1998, protesters in Tehran praised the would-be assassin:

After the rally, the militants unveiled a huge wall portrait of Mustafa Mazeh, who was killed by a bomb explosion in London in 1989, which Iranians believe was intended for Mr Rushdie. [BBC]

Die Gazette reports [in German] that an Iranian village gifted Mazeh’s parents with a house on the Caspian Sea, 1.2 acres of land and ten carpets. In Tehran, Mazeh got a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier-style shrine:

“Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh… Martyred in London, August 3, 1989. The first martyr to die on a mission to kill Salman Rushdie.” [Times of London]

This actual plot against Rushdie’s life is slightly more disturbing than Lollywood’s assassination fantasy. I preferred it when poison-pen literary reviews took the form of Michiko Kakutani.

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Everyone recycles (updated)

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Apache Indian resurfaces as a dreadlocked auto mechanic in a remix of Desmond Dekker’s 1969 Jamaican hit ‘The Israelites‘ (thanks, Ashish). His heroines, like the cutie in ‘Pyaar Pyaar,’ used to be fly Punjabans; this one’s a standard-issue, Wonderbra-chested blonde. It’s a smooth tune, but he looks all grown up now. Watch the video.

The Black Eyed Peas just sampled Asha Bhosle (thanks, Harish and Umang). The first 15 seconds of the lead single off their new album, ‘Don’t Phunk With My Heart,’ are a sped-up version of ‘Yeh Mera Dil Yaar Ka Deewana.’ Listen to the original and the new version. Watch the video.

The song from Don is pure masala western. Bhosle also starred in a remix of that song a couple of years ago. The video, with a woman taking revolver-revenge upon her cheatin’ man, was ubiquitous on MTV India.

Here’s a review of the Peas’ new album, Monkey Business:

Other guests of note are… Sting on “Union” (sonically inspired by the former Police-man’s “Englishman in New York”), while funk legend James Brown contributes to a scorching soul track dubbed “They Don’t Want Music.”

Update: Manoj and iTwofs point out that the rest of the melody is lifted from Apradh’s ‘Aye Naujawan Hai Sub Kuchh Yahan’ (1972), also by Bhosle. Listen to the original.

Maybe we need a HollyCat. Although the Peas should credit the composers, it’s hard for the Indian creative industries to take the moral high ground here.

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The Lion, the Witch, the Wardrobe,…and some Indians

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I’m still a little upset that some hypersensitive individuals dared to criticize the Lord of the Rings as being “too white.” In my opinion that is just like saying that the Ramyana is “too brown.” In order to head off a future discussion along these lines I felt as if we should get it all out of our systems now. With that in mind I wanted to point out that the upcoming film The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe WILL have minorities in it, and YES, they will be beasts. Narniafans.com reports:

…several short Indian actors have been casted by Indian based casting director Sameer Bhardwaj for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Bhardwaj had earlier also helped in casting for The Lord of the Rings. The role of these actors is currently unknown, although speculation would lead us to believe that it is for many of the Talking Beast roles in the Chronicles of Narnia.

Well isn’t life a bitch? The casting director is Indian, and we’re still bound to get complaints. Not to fear though. Minorities have yet another chance in a Bhardwaj project (from last year): Continue reading →

Mirchi is more than a metaphor

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As snarky desis, we use mirchi constantly, in both our writing and our food. However, there is a human face to all this heat:

In temperatures of over 45 degrees, 80 year-old Rajima sits under an asbestos roof preparing chillies for export to Britain. For eight hours at a stretch her aching fingers pluck the stalks from the red chilli pods, releasing a pungent dust that fills her nose and throat making her cough and sneeze. For this, she earns 30 rupees, the equivalent of 40 pence, or less than a third of the cost of a small jar of chilli powder in a British supermarket. Rajima and her 50 co-workers are the hidden face of India’s spice trade. [BBC]

Think about the effects to Rajima’s health from all of this exposure to pepper. Pepper farmers and processors go through alot and earn very little:

Watching his produce weighed at Warangal market, one farmer complains that the 800 rupees he’s getting for each 40 kilo sack is too little to cover the growing costs. “I took huge loans for agricultural investment – mostly pesticides,” he says. “Now there will be no alternative for me but to commit suicide”. [BBC]

Furthermore, demand for pepper is down, due to a recent food scare concerning a food coloring carcinogenic additive. Bad weather has spoiled much of the Indian pepper crop, causing desi farmers to lose business to those in other countries. It’s a rough life for farmers from Andhra Pradesh.

According to state records, 4,500 farmers have killed themselves in the past seven years, driven to despair by poor harvests and financial worries, and that figure would be far higher if other family members were included. The epidemic of suicide started with cotton farmers but it is now spread to spice growers. Ironically, most die by swallowing the pesticides that have helped get them into debt.[BBC]

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Baked Dånish cøøkies

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What do you do if you’re an aspiring European desi pop star with a catchy yet disposable sound derivative of Jay Sean? You find a producer from Cøpenhagen and put out a stoned vision of a video. The Bombay Rockers are neither rockers nor from Bombay. Discuss.

24 year old Indian Navtej Singh Rehal is the central musician behind Bombay Rockers. Navtej is born in Denmark (Copenhagen), but has his roots in India. He grew up at Nørrebro and has gone through the whole public system – from nursery to gymnasium in Denmark, except for two years, where he went to school in India… Together with the two Danish producers, Janus Bosen Barnewitz and Thomas Sardord, Navtej is the core of Bombay Rockers. [Culturebase]

The Hindu shows why you don’t turn to a paper called The Hindu for music reviews:

The twosome have innovatively mixed an evergreen Punjabi folk song called “Ari Ari” in two versions… one only wishes that they had done away with the slang in the lyrics. [The Hindu]

Their first single, ‘Ari Ari,’ was the rage in Danish dance clubs, & their latest single, ‘Rock tha Party,’ was a hit in Europe & the CD has spent 10 weeks at #1 in India. [Beautiful Atrocities]

Except for the bass, their version of the old bhangra song ‘Ari Ari’ hews pretty closely to the original, there’s no Jay-Z breaking in. If unsweetened, traditional bhangra can make in Europe, could it make it in the U.S.?

Punjabi Boy reviews the ‘Rock tha Party’ video for you, though I’m guessing the state in which something’s rotten is actually Denmark:

The Punjabi dude and the Swedish hero pick up a couple of blonde chicks in Stockholm and have a groovy one night stand with them…. But the Swedish chicks are vexed because they got played. So they call this assasination hit squad of giant teddy bears…

Pretty people being chased by ridiculous assassins? Bad guys subtitled with silly monikers? Wonder if Punjabi MC’s ever done something like this.

Watch the supremely silly video. Sajit’s previous post here.

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Singing at the gates or Mordor

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Spamalot and The Light in the Piazza were the big winners at Sunday’s 59th annual Tony Awards. Any early favorites for next year? From April’s Detroit Free Press:

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The next big thing in theater, the musical version of “The Lord of the Rings,” is scheduled for its world premiere in 2006 in Toronto. Previews won’t begin until Feb. 2 and the show has yet to be cast but producer Kevin Wallace offered a preview Thursday night to tour operators and other invited guests at the Renaissance Center.

Emphasizing “LOTR’s” human aspects before he mentioned its special effects, Wallace called the show “as powerful and emotional a story as you’ve ever experienced in the theater.”

Some particulars: The show will run 3 1/2 hours, including two intermissions; the music is by Indian composer A.R. Rahman (“Bombay Dreams”) and Finnish folk group Varttina, and there will be Hobbits mingling with playgoers before the show.

Playbill.com recently noted that advance tickets are already being snatched up:

In the first week of sales toward the February 2006 Toronto world premiere of the musical The Lord of the Rings, theatregoers snapped up $7 million (Canadian) in tickets, a spokesperson for the Toronto producers confirmed.

One might cringe imagining a quirky show tune of sweet admonition from Frodo called “Oh, Sam!,” about hobbit pal Sam’s dogged faithfulness. Don’t expect it: Traditional musical theatre is not what India’s most popular composer, A.R. Rahman, and the Finnish group Värttinä, collaborating with Christopher Nightingale, write.

What would the elves sing? What is the sound a hobbit dances to? Can an orc carry a tune?

Expect varied Asian- and European-influenced sounds to suggest the many tribes of the story.

No word yet as to whether or not the Orcs will dance Bollywood style in the background.

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Sachal Vasandani sings jazz tonight (NYC)

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Speaking of desis in jazz, check out jazz vocalist Sachal Vasandani tonight in Manhattan:

“Sachal Vasandani’s singing reveals emotion and intellect,” says Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. “Versed in the blues, standards, and modern jazz… his sound is consistent and unique…”

After being named Collegiate Jazz Vocalist of the Year by Downbeat Magazine in 1999, Vasandani moved to New York and, after a year of working on Wall Street, quit his job to begin his career as a singer… Vasandani’s debut solo album is due out later this year.

Monday, 6/6/05, Zinc Bar (90 W. Houston / LaGuardia Pl.), 7:15-8:45pm (he’s on ~7:30pm), $5; Sachal Vasandani, vocals; Jeb Patton, piano; David Wong, bass; Quincy Davis, drums Continue reading →