Happy Holidays!

I hope you are all having a great year and managing through the chilly weather. Here are some pictures from some recent concerts:


At Stanford. Blur.


VidyA at Stanford, November 2008. For the ASHA V Charity concert.


Guest drummer Jaz Sawyer


With Keenan Webster and Balafo at the Nike Marathon.


VidyA at LIMN Gallery for a Obama Fundraiser, with Eric Vogler and Howard Wiley.

I got to spend some time with my dad over the Thanksgiving here in the Bay Area. Here is a pic of Sausalito I snapped with my new phone.



He also got to see a Nefasha Ayer concert, and took a few photos. Here is one.


Go to http://flickr.com/prasantmusic to see my photostream and subscribe!

Speaking of Nefasha Ayer, we are going in to the studio to record a new album tomorrow! More news to come.

Last Friday, September 19, 2008, we performed at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, CA. It was great to play in the beautiful hall they have there. Despite the presidential debates, we had a receptive audience. We had a special guest on bass, Eric Vogler, filling in for David Ewell. Aside from playing bass, Eric is a genius at programming music through his computer.

Here are some pictures. View the whole set on flickr.



















It was a fun two concerts -- for YBCA at the Red Poppy and Hillside Club in Berkeley. Sameer has gone back to New York. We should all be getting together and playing again soon. In mean time, you can support us by checking out our new album if you have not already.

Wow, that's a mouthful. Its a long title, but it was the easiest way to convey what this new show would be about. Yes, I actually decided to start a "podcast." Its basically like a radio show that is online. I decided to refer to it as a "set," because I hope that there will be a good dose of music in the show itself as well -- kind of like going to a concert.

You can subscribe to the show here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/prasantmusicpodcast. You can also check ..s at http://podcast.prasantmusic.com.

The show should be on itunes shortly, if it is not there already. The first episode briefly discusses why I decided to start the show and is followed by a clip of Bhairavi ragam on the saxophone. I actually had entertained the idea a couple years ago, but finally decided to take the plunge now for a few reasons. I will give more details soon.

Without further ado, hit the link to listen to the show (or right-click to download).

Listen Now!

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would let you know when the new VidyA CD would be available at major retailers online.



Well, its a bit delayed, but here are the links you might have been waiting for.

Some independent music stores like Amoeba, Rasputin, Aquariu etc., will also carry it. If you don't see it, ask for it! There are also other online services that have it as well.

I have finally done it. At long last. I actually brought my recorder with me and recorded last Friday's VidyA concert that took place at the Red Poppy Art House as part of YBCA (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts) Bay Area Now series. The recorder was actually placed behind us, because there was no other place to put it, but you can still hear everything pretty well.

I felt the concert went quite well musically and I think its mainly a result of trying to keep the songs fresh every time and take chances with the compositions.

I decided to make a part of it available online for you to download and enjoy. This is the first part of the 2nd set. A new ragamalika (multiple raga) exploration that segways into Kauveri, which happens to be another song with multiple ragas. Click the link below to download (right-click to save it).

Nine / Kauveri (VidyA live 9/19/08)

To coincide with our new VidyA CD release, we finally got some photos taken by a great Bay Area photographer, Nate Keck (who also happens to be a friend of the Red Poppy).

I think we were able to get a few nice shots -- the whole thing was natural with very limited actual posing for the pictures. That was great for me, because posing is not my forte. I think David has it down though.

Anyways, I uploaded all the color pictures to flickr, so please check them out and tell us your favorites in the comments or via e-mail. It hard to decide looking at so many pictures of ourselves. We eventually have to choose two or three that would be used for most purposes.

View the pictures here.

Here is my favorite: L-R: Sameer Gupta, David Ewell, Prasant Radhakrishnan.



Thoughts?

If you are in the Bay Area, make to sure to check out two exciting concerts we have this month! Info here.

Sax player melds jazz, Indian classical music

Check out the article

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that we are going to be doing a residency at the Red Poppy Art House in SF starting in March. We are doing two shows a month, featuring new compositions and also some exciting collaborations with artists from other disciplines.

March 4 is the first one, and March 23 we are doing a collaboration with poet Alyssa Nickel. The other two collaborations are still a secret, but they may involve dance or film....or maybe even painting!

Should be awesome.

Check out http://vidyamusic.com for more details.

Just wanted to mention that we were named among the groups to "stalk" and watch out for in 2007 in a January 10, 2007 San Francisco Chronicle article! Other artists mentioned included the SF Jazz Collective, our good friends Meklit Hadero and The Red Poppy Art House, Gonzalo Rubacalba to name a few. Check out this link for the article: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/10/DDGTFNF6OE1.DTL

Another thing that wasn't mentioned in the article, is that VidyA is going into the studio this year and will have a new album out this summer! We will keep you posted as things progress. In the mean time, check out our upcoming performances at Red Poppy where we will be doing some unique colloborations with artists from different genres as part of a residency at the Red Poppy Art House.

It looks like the next few months will be an exciting time for vidya. We are performing at the artwallah festival this weekend and l.a. and soon we will be playing at SFJazz summerfest in September! We are also coming out with a limited demo of our work, recorded at a live show recently, that will be released at Artwallah.  Up till now we had just posted some songs that were in the works. Some of the songs will also be available for download hopefully on our website.  If you want to get a copy you can always message or email us to find out how (that is, if you wont be able to come to any of our performances).

The group is getting tighter as time goes on...only a matter of time now! See you soon!

prasant