krosswindz India Great news-JPF Awards Nashville nomination in 2 categories

Krosswindz has been nominated for the Just Plain Folks 2009 Music Awards(The Grass root Grammys in the US) held in Nashiville Tennesse USA .Krosswindz has been nominated in 2 categories best Indian album and Best Indian song.
BEST INDIAN SONG NOMINEES-
The song Jajabor Pokkhi written and composed by Chandrani Banerjee and music arranged by Tuki and KROSSWINDZ from the album MISIKI MISIKI has been nominated in the Best Indian Song category.Other nominees include notable composers like AR Rahman,Ilaiyaraaja,Corina Bartra from New York etc.

BEST INDIAN ALBUM NOMINEES-
The album MISIKI MISIKI by KROSSWINDZ has been nominated in the Best Indian Album category.Other nominees include notable composers like AR Rahman,Ilaiyaraaja,Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt with Ramkumar Mishra from British Columbia etc.

The Just Plain Folks Music Awards

"We're excited to announce the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Award nominees. (Click the button below to see who made it). Congratulations to all the nominees and a special thank you to our volunteers who worked to screen the 42 thousand albums and 560 thousand songs submitted in the largest music awards of any kind in world history! We hope to see you all in Nashville, TN at the awards show on August 29th! "

Just Plain Folks is a community of over 51,500 Songwriters, Recording Artists, Music Publishers, Record Labels, Performing Arts Societies, Educational Institutions, Recording Studios and Engineers, Producers, Legal Professionals, Publicists and Journalists, Publications, Music Manufacturers and Retailers and about every other type of member of the Music Industry. - and host to the world's largest independent music awards. Our organization was created to provide a network of cooporation and inclusion for musicians. We welcome you to join us. We warmly embrace and welcome ALL genres of music, and everyone who creates, facilitates and consumes music around the world - and membership is free!

Our members have won Grammys, Emmys, CMA Awards, Academy Awards, Clios and about every local and regional music related award there is. Our members belong to and are staff and board members of the finest National and International organizations such as NARAS, BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, SOCAN, PRS, NAMM, AES, NARM, NAPM, SGA, AFTRA/SAG, Indiegrrl, CMA, NSAI, TAXI and most of the regional and local songwriter and music industry organizations around the world.

Our goals here are simple and straight forward.

1. To provide a networking environment of inclusion and cooperation between our members for the benefit of the group and individuals involved.
2. To share wisdom, ideas and experiences with others who have been there, and to help educate those who have yet to make the journey.
3. To form long term relationships with a myriad of other industry professionals whose talents and efforts need a venue to be enjoyed and benefited from.
4. To set the example for the world of the power of the Internet and total freedom of communication, when it is not restricted by the boundaries of the corporate world, or damaged by the adversarial nature of the music industry in general.
5. To show others that deep down, we are all much more alike than different. The thoughts and hopes and dreams we all share are much the same whether we are Grammy Winners, Hit Songwriters, Industry leading Superstars in our fields, or we are an 11 year old kid with a new dream, or a 78 year old who still dares to dream!
6. And the most important goal: To have a lot of fun doing it!

So please join us! Participate. Learn. Teach. Share your dream, and help others achieve theirs! Remember...

"We are all in this together."

This is a general note to all the nominees in the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards! This is the first time I am contacting all the nominees together, but if you missed the general announcement made Thursday (yeah, bad day to announce a music related story) congrats on getting a nomination in what is literally the world's largest music awards. The judges were given 1 criteria to judge: Does the music move you? If you're reading this (or representing an artist who is nominated) that means you moved a lot of people to make it all the way to the nominations from the largest body of music ever considered.

Below is a link to this year's nominees and some other important information you might want. Contacts for any questions or needs you have are also below. We'll be back in touch with more info as it becomes available! Now, on to the show!
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Nominations and Awards Show:

The 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards Nominees
http://www.jpfolks.com/default.php?page=awards

On that page you'll also find links to buy tickets to the awards show which takes place on Saturday, August 29th in Nashville, TN at the Wildhorse Saloon. We'll also be doing a Pre-Awards event at BB Kings the night before on August 28th. This is our first time to hold the awards in Nashville and we're excited about the new venue and the Southern hospitality we're sure to enjoy! This should give a lot of folks from the East Coast to the Rockies a chance to get to the show much more easily. And we hope our West Coast nominees will still join us as we take a year off from doing them in Southern California, our host since 1998.

If you are puzzled by this email or can't find your name, send me a note and I'll get you up to speed!
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Awards Show Performance Slots:

We are currently working on lining up performers for the awards show as well as the pre-awards showcase. All nominees are eligible to be considered, but we book most of the slots from folks who have already purchased tickets, so we know for sure you're going to be there. Even if you haven't purchased tickets yet, please let us know right away if you are interested. We book an extremely diverse show that will feature a sampling of music from around the world as well as all the major styles and genres we can fit in. With Nominees in over 80 countries and 95 genres of music to choose from, we can't wait to see what amazing talent is available to present that night!

Please email me personally at jpfolkspro@aol.com and place "Awards Performance" in the subject of the email. Inside please include a short bio and links to any live performance videos (such as on YouTube or your own Website) that we can look at to see what you do in a live setting. No need to send more music, we already have it (remember?). = )
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Press Information and Photos:

We'd also like to get some press info on all of you, so please email press kits (including high res press photos if you have them) to us. We'll try to feature some of the nominees (especially those with cool press photos) on the website and elsewhere when we start doing press. Email that to (and this is different than the last one) justplainfolks@aol.com and please place "Press Info: (insert name of nominee and category(s)).

Example: Press Info: Skamp: Live Album, European Album, ReMix Album

That way when we have an opportunity, we can quickly find it.
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Nominee Listing Errors:

If you find an error on the nominations pages, please email Linda at justplainlin@aol.com In the subject place "Listing Error" and inside please provide all needed info to correct the problem including all of your contact information so we can follow up if needed. Problems might include incorrect location (often we list the location where a submission came from which is different than the location of the artist/songwriter), typo of a name, missing co-writer etc. Keeping up with over a half million song entries is no small task.

If anything else looks strange to you, don't hesitate to bring it up. We want it all to be correct before we actually start judging in the finals next week and this is our first chance to ask you directly to verify things. We also use this information for Trophy Inscriptions so it's important to have it exactly the way you want.
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Press Release Help and Nominations Graphics:

We've had many requests for help promoting the nominations. We are putting together some sample templates you can use for press releases if you'd like. In addition we will be adding some graphic logos for both Song and Album Nominations for you to use after next week. We will notify you all when they are available. Also, if you have sent out press for your nominations already, or have gotten any write ups that you can send us, please do. Email justplainlin@aol.com and place "Press Clippings" in the subject.
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Voting to determine the Winners

We will be doing online voting to determine winners starting next weekend. We've already begun collecting requests from interested judges. If you'd like to do some Peer Judging (which means you're a fellow artist or songwriter) you are welcome to. However we can't count votes in your own category. We understand there is great curiosity to hear the other nominees and that is fine. You can sign up but just don't vote in your own categories. Also, you can have your fans vote, but also not in your category. This is NOT about who has the most fans and we have no reason to ask you to recruit people to vote for you (yuck!). We won't count them even if they do! That isn't to say they can't vote in other categories, so if you want to refer ANYONE to vote on some great music, just have them use your email address as the person who referred them and they are welcome and encouraged to join us. Please don't make efforts to manipulate results. Frankly it's not worth it and would corrupt any win you might get from it. This is an honest awards and we'll take every action possible to exclude attempted fraud from the process. That sounds like a breath of fresh air eh?

If you'd like to sign up to judge yourself, we'd love to have all the nominees participate in the spirit of all the work non-nominated artists, writers, fans and industry folks did to nominate you. I think you, as a fellow nominee, will be proud to see for yourself the breadth and depth of talent nominated alongside you.

Register to vote here:
http://wilshiremedia.com/jpf/signup.aspx
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Network with us, ask questions and just say hi!

We have a great networking message board on our website. We have nearly 18K Musicians and Industry professionals on there and it is tightly moderated by me personally to keep it friendly and helpful. If you're a seasoned pro, we even have a Mentor program where you can share your knowledge with everyone else. (And with the immense talent levels of this year's nominees, I bet many of you could really help the up and comers and young artists and songwriters in the community by sharing your experiences).

To register on the message boards: (It's a separate registration from JPF membership):
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?action=agree

If you're previously registered, or once you do, here's a post where you can stop in and introduce yourself to the other nominees and general members of the site:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=733772&page=0#Post733772
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In closing:

I've spent the last 14 months of my life working on this project. It's not perfect, nothing done by humans ever is. But we've worked hard to be fair and make the criteria for judging, "Does the Music Move You" meaningful. I do this work not for a big payoff (all this work is done on a volunteer basis) but because I understand deeply how important a little sincere, honest and positive support can be for doing more great work into the future. It doesn't matter if you're already successful and famous, or just getting started. Honest praise and support uncorrupted by all those things out there that corrupt most everything, is hard to find. I hope to all of you this is a healthy heaping portion of sincere support for the work you are doing.

I'd sincerely love to hear from all of you to know that news of the nominations has reached you. Just send me a note and say hello. I've met over 25,000 JPF members in person in their own hometowns over the past 12 years but there's many nominees I still haven't met. And even if I have, I'd still love to hear from you.

Send me a note!

Brian

Brian Austin Whitney
Founder
Just Plain Folks
www.jpfolks.com
317-513-6557

 

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Celebration of strings
A TRIBUTE TO THE INSTRUMENT, AN ALL-NIGHT GUITAR FESTIVAL NEAR BANGALORE, WAS A HISTORIC EVENT, WRITES VIKRAMJIT "TUKI" BANERJEE
(Above) Krosswindz at soundcheck at the Guitar Gurus festival;(Below) Amit Heri and Sanjay Divecha

Being on the road as a touring musician, I have had the opportunity to meet a huge cross-section of people - the music fan,the hobby musician and the full-time professional musician. On one of my numerous sojourns around the country with my band Krosswindz, I found myself playing two back-to-back concerts in Bangalore in June 2008. I always make it a point to let my friends know when I am passing through their town, and in Bangalore I have two good old friends - former Krosswindz bassist Dwight and his brother Peter Pattison. They came for the shows and in the break, Peter just casually requested me to start the next set with a guitar instrumental. I was taken by surprise as we had not rehearsed a guitar instrumental so I did what I often do live - I made up a composition on the spot and we announced it as Peter's Song. There was a spark in Peter's eye and a spring in his step when he met me backstage after the show. "I just got a great idea!" he said. And that's how Guitar Gurus - a concert featuring only guitarists - was born.

iNTO THE GROOVE

When Peter called me about four months ago, he had already floated a music event and production company called Strange Brew, along with his partner Latha Papa.He had whittled down the star performers to five well-known guitar players of the country, namely John Anthony, Amit Heri, Derek Julien, Sanjay Divecha and yours truly, Tuki.

The venue was fixed after extensive research as it was planned to be an all-night music concert, which is not possible in Bangalore town due to restrictions. Fireflies Ashram on Kanakapura Road on the fringe of Bangalore was chosen for its mystic appeal and Roman amphitheatre.

Me and my backing band Krosswindz had the comfort of being flown a day earlier to enjoy the ambience of the resort and venue. Once there, we were greeted by huge, shady banyan trees and quaint cottages nestling on a hillock covered with dense foliage and little pools with lotus plants. As we walked along, we were surprised by strains of high-energy jazz-rock resounding in the resort guest rooms. Electric guitar guru Derek Julien was already settled in his room and had set up his amplifiers and the whole band was playing a full-out set list, rehearsing last minute musical changes and arrangements. We got ourselves introduced to the extremely humble Derek and his band. Of course, I knew Dwight on bass (being former bandmates in Krosswindz); there was Sameer Nichani on keys and Dennis Coelho on drums.

Coming back in the night I was greeted by a house party on in full swing. India's best live concert sound engineer Michael Furtado was chatting with Chennai guitar legend John Anthony at a table; I went across and introduced myself and learnt that John had driven from Chennai to Bangalore for the gig.

READY TO ROCK

Next morning, I was greeted by a totally different sound - the fluid alaap of Ustad Faiyaz Khan, John's sarangi player/vocalist - practising his vocals. After a lovely brunch, we were off to the amphitheatre. Simply put, it looked gorgeous, with stone-cut steps steeply climbing up from stage. The stage was a concrete platform built around a massive banyan tree with a lake as the backdrop.

Derek sound checked first and we got to hear what a brilliant guitarist/composer he is. Next was our turn and we were really happy with the clear yet thudding mix that Michael gave us. We stayed and watched John Anthony do his set up and then had to move back to get ready for the gig. I had to open the show. Peter was skeptical that he wouldn't get enough people to come for the concert, but by the time I took stage to kick off the festival with a solo guitar demonstration, the venue was completely packed. It was just 8pm, early considering this was an all-night affair.

John came on first with his band Karnatrix. He got a beautiful, fluid sound out of his PRS guitar. His music was spacey, ethereal, bordering on lounge with ample use of laptop-generated loops.The sarangi added a new dimension to the sound of John's set and they ended with a rocking piece with the crowd egging him on.

Next, the acoustic guitar duo of Amit Heri and Sanjay Divecha took stage and ploughed into a reworking of classic Beatles tunes like Eleanor Rigby and Get Back. The crowd enjoyed the interplay between them but suddenly the rain gods decided to play spoilsport. Umbrellas came out and the musicians took a five-minute break.The crowd was not demoralised at all by this, as they had come prepared with bed sheets, cushions, rain coats, umbrellas and even food and drink.

Next it was the turn for Derek Julien to take centre-stage and he blew the crowd with an eclectic mix of melodic rock, jazz-rock and funk. It was really late - 2.30 AM - when I was called on to play. My set included the compositions Peter's Song, Letter To Pat, Space Guitar, Around Dawn, Road To Shillong and the epic Jeff Beck tune, 'Cause We Ended As Lovers. I had a ball and the band sounded awesome on stage.

SECOND COMING

Time for the final jam - Derek Julien on guitars, Dwight Pattison on bass, Dennis Coelho on drums and me on guitars/vocals. We chose the beautiful Hendrix composition Little Wing; it was a free-wheeling jam that lasted almost 20 minutes with solos by everyone.

I think this concert will go down in history as the first true and definitive guitar festival in India, as a tribute to the instrument, the players and the music. I look forward to Chapter Two of GG, which is tentatively poised for a November comeback featuring legendary Toto guitarist Steve Lukhather as the headliner.

In the meantime, you can whet your appetite with the DVD of Guitar Gurus, which is slated to be released in July 2009 by Strange Brew Records.

 

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Fireflies Presents Guitar Gurus -the concert 5 of the hottest guitar players from all over India namely Amit Heri (Bangalore), Derek Julien (Pune), Sanjay Divecha (Mumbai), Vikramjit 'Tuki' Banerjee (Kolkata) and John Anthony (Chennai) will come together on one stage. Each artist will play for one hour and the show will end with a mother of a jam involving all artists Event info www.strangebrewcrew.comMay 30th Fireflies Kanakapura Road Bangalore 8 pm onwards (All night long) What exactly is Guitar Gurus? Guitar Gurus, which we hope to make an annual affair, is a rare congregation of some of India’s finest guitar players, each a master in the art of wielding an axe. What’s the program? The evening will begin at eight sharp (we’re serious). Each artist will occupy the stage for approximately one hour. The show will end with a mother of a jam involving all artists. Somewhere in the middle of all this, one lucky devil in the audience will win an accoustic guitar signed by all artists! When and where? May 30th, 2009 at the Fireflies Ashram on Kanakapura Road. Located about 40 km from Bangalore, this open-air amphitheatre on the banks of a lake, is easily one of the finest venues in and around Bangalore for a concert. Please note, this is an outdoor event. To make the most of it, we suggest you bring umbrellas / raincoats, mosquito repellants, picnic rugs etc. Three ways to book your ticket (Rs. 500 only): 1. Click here to book online www.bookmyshow.com2. Call Book My Show by dialing 3989 5050 3. Buy your ticket at the venue

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Publication:Times Of India Kolkata; Date:Apr 3, 2009; Section:Special Report; Page Number:26


‘LET'S BRING KOLKATA INTO THE GLOBAL MAP OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY'

 


Growing up in Calcutta in the 70's and 80's, I remember standing in line and buying tickets for mega international bands like Wishbone Ash, Shakti, Ritchie Heavens, Woody Shaw, Dizzy Gillespie, etc. I still remember feeling the adrenaline rush as I walked down Southern Avenue and I heard Wishbone Ash sound checking. I was running to get to OAT now called Nazrul Manch. The show left me speechless and the venue was bursting at the seams, there were people literally falling out of the stands. That was the level of interest an international Rock concert generated in those days. Sadly now there are hardly any sponsors who want to come forward and sponsor a real mega international act and Kolkata is getting sidelined. I wish sponsors would support live music more and get international bands to Kolkata just like Bangalore and Mumbai get all the big names.

In cities like Edinburgh, Austin (USA), London and San Francisco, music festivals/fairs are a common phenomenon. I have been to the Kolkata Book Fair from childhood and have often felt it's a missed opportunity for musicians. I have been left with a sense of loss at what could be achieved from a musical standpoint. With a little bit of support and organisational ability on the part of local event managers, the Kolkata Book Fair could take on a different colour like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with parallel music concerts in and around the fair. A festival along the lines of WOMAD held in the UK or South by South West in Austin USA could easily be organised in Kolkata and it would be so nice to have continuous music performances, seminars on music and technology happening all across the city for an entire week like abroad. It would give a platform for new artists and experimental music performers to showcase their talent.

One problem I face quite often is getting my guitars repaired or modified to suit my playing style. I miss the fact that Kolkata

does not have a dedicated custom guitar craftsman. The only one I know lives in Pondicherry and I cannot afford to leave my instruments in a far off town. An indigenous custom guitar/instrument manufacturing company would be a welcome addition to the musical landscape of Kolkata.

I also miss the fact that Kolkata does not have a modern performance based music school like the Berklee College of Music in Boston or the Julliard School of music. I think performance as an art form has moved on and modern elements of the art form should be taught like in universities abroad that teach music production, music marketing, etc along with standard music theory and grammar.

I believe Kolkata has the heart of a truly magical cultural city that can blossom into an epic centre of the creative arts. I think people should come forward and nurture this special magical facet of the city and chip in our own ways to bringing Kolkata into the global map of the music industry. We are all in this together let us help each other bring our best facets to the front and help Kolkata rise to be a truly international city.

(Banerjee is the band

leader of Krosswindz)

VIKRAMJIT "TUKI" BANERJEE

 

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Kevin McDonald Presents...Krosswindz live in Seattle unplugged

http://kevinmcdonaldpresents.mypodcast.com/2007/10/Kevin_McDonald_Presents_Krosswindz_Part_2-48434.html

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KROSSWINDZ at the Jimi Hendrix Experience Music Project(Seattle) concert performance stage performing Wild Thing and ALbatross which was also recorded for release on the next album

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