Pete kicked off 2009 at NAMM to help launch the new REMO Kanjira. It was then off to
India for the launch tour of his new
album with Bickram Ghosh. The album,
entitled 'Kingdom of Rhythm' is out on the HMV / Saregama label
and was launched in Kolkatta by the governor of Bengal along with a sold out concert
featuring flame throwers and fire dancers. The show was broadcast live on
TV.
Pete was then off to
Argentina for an extensive performance /
Clinic tour which took him to Buenes Aires, Mendoza and
La
Plata.
Then it was straight to Frankfurt for solo performances on the main
stage, a duo with Dave Langguth and a guest performance with Selva Ganesh, Jonas
Hellborg and Niladri Kumar.
Then it was a solo slot at the
Adams drum festival in
Belgium and also a duo slot with Simon
Phillips. This was followed by a short
clinic tour in Holland.
Around this time Petes new book received 5 stars in Modern Drummer
magazine. Pete was also featured around this time on Jon Hassell's new release
on ECM, 'Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street' Pete was
also featured heavily on Benny Grebbs DVD and also Russ Millers DVD, both on
Hudson. Pete is currently working on some
material with Mark Schulman for a duo release and also a track on his new
DVD.
Back into 2008, November saw Pete on
tour with the 'World drummers Ensemble' for the Big Bang tour in
Holland.
The quintet featured; Simon
Phillips, Baba Sissoko, Carlo Rizzo, Arto Tunçboyaciyan and
Pete.
Then Pete featured with Shlomo,
Jarvis Cocker, Seb Rochford and a big list of celebs for a collaborative show at
the Queen Elizabeth Hall which was sold out.
One of the highlights was the trio feat Pete, Seb and
Shlo.
The TAALISMAN CD feat Pete and Amit
Chatterjee (Zawinal syndicate) was released in
India in late June 08 on new independent
label Indiabeat. He finished recording work on another new album feat Vikku
Vinnayakram and Bickram Ghosh which will be out in 2009 on Music Today records
in India. At this time Pete's web site was
also voted website of the month on the BBC Tom Robinson
show.
Pete also then got his teeth into
recording and arranging all the ethnic percussion on the 2008 Bond flick,
'Quantum of solace'.
Then Pete was back in
India for a four city tour with Bickram
and guitarist Giuliano Modarell. Around
the same time anothe Indian release came out on the Indiabeat label featuring
Pete, Henrik Anderson and Shashank for an album entitled ROR. Pete also features strongly on the title
track on the new album by cult Indian rock band, Bandish.
It was then in the studio for work
on Kiwi singer/songwriter legend Dave Dobbyn’s new album. Pete then performed
with the group Sunev, feat Bickram Ghosh inc a show at the Darbar festival in
the UK. Live performances with Steve
Smiths Vital Information followed, inc Ronnie Scotts in
London. Work with Jon Hassell followed
with a performance with Maarifa
street and a premiered work with a 150
strong choral group in Norwich cathedral. Then came live
performances with Lee Scratch Perry & Aid Sherwood and then a mini tour of
Russia with George Brooks and Kai Eckhardt
(John Mclaughlin) along with the Goatika project. Pete then performed at
Glastonbury with beat box star, Shlomo. This
coincided with the release of Petes new book on
Hudson music, Indian rhythms for the drum
set. It is the first book ever written
covering this topic. The book was
considered 'Book of the year - 2008' and given 10/10 by Slagwerkraant magazine
in Holland.
2008 kicked off with performances in
India with U Shrinivas, U Rajesh and Loy
Mendosa. Pete then had extensive recording work on the new Incredible Hulk film
with Craig Armstrong.
Pete is currently working on
collaborative albums with Airto and also with Russ Miller.