Streams of India and Blues Essence

February 6, 2012

MoonArra

Indian Accent (Rock and Raaga WMC21, 2010)

Indian Accent is the debut album by Bangalore-based world fusion band MoonArra. The musicians make a fascinating mix of Indian music, jazz and blues. Their sound is characterized by engaging vocals that include three styles: poetic English language vocals with jazz and blues inflections, Hindustani vocals and konakkol (vocal percussion).

On the instrumental side, MoonArra presents superb musicianship, where the slide guitar morphs from blues style to Hindustani style and interacts with other guitars and oud. The finely-calibrated rhythm section features drum kit and Indian percussion, and electric bass.

MoonArra means three streams. It is a 5 member ensemble that has performed at major international festivals throughout Asia. Band members include Madhuri Jagadeesh on vocals; Jagadeesh M.R. on acoustic and electric guitars, and oud; Prakash Sontakke on Hindustani slide guitar, Indian classical vocals; Karthik Mani on South Indian percussion (ghatam, khanjira) drums and konnakol; and Wilson Kenneth on electric bass.

Indian Accent is an impressive debut album by one of the emerging talents in the Indian world fusion scene.

Angel Romero

Angel Romero is the founder of World Music Central. He has been involved with the music business and media for over twenty years. Angel was a producer for Musica NA (TVE), an eclectic music TV show. In the mid-1990s he produced three boxed sets: Duende (flamenco), The Big Bang (world drums and percussion), and Planet Soup (world fusion and cross cultural collaborations) for Ellipsis Arts. He later founded world music label Alula Records. Alula's roster included flamenco guitar master Gerardo Núñez, kora virtuoso Mamadou Diabate, Hassan Hakmoun, Susan McKeown, Jamshied Sharifi, Tim O'Brien, Akira Satake and many more. Angel later founded World Music Portal which eventually became World Music Central. http://worldmusiccentral.org/