Bollywood Brass Band Feat. Jyotsna Srikanth
Carnatic Connection
After years of meeting and admiring each other's music at Indian melas and other festivals, Bollywood Brass Band and Jyotsna Srikanth decided to join forces to explore the riches of Indian film and classical music together. The result, produced by Steve Pretty of the Hackney Colliery Band, is Carnatic Connection, a new album that makes a musical journey to South India and features arrangements of songs from South Indian films alongside new works inspired by the ground-breaking film, Chandralekha (1948). In Bollywood Brass Bands trademark sound of funky brass and drums, you encounter Jyotsna Srikanths virtuosic playing and the sonic wonders of violin gamakas (decorations), supported by the mridangam (doubleheaded hand drum) and morsing (jaws harp). Here you find a true fusion of Bollywood and Carnatic filmi sounds; from Ilaiyaraajas classic Rakkamma to the ubiquitous AR Rahman, whose Jiya Jale, Kehta Hai Mera Dil and Kehna Hi Kya feature Jyotsna Srikanth's superbly mellifluous playing, while the Oscar-winning Jai Ho is given a dance-floor treatment. Deva Deva Kalayami lies squarely in the Carnatic tradition with a classical melody in raga Mayamalava Gowla, as Jyotsna leads on an improvisatory jugalbandi (duet) and the album closes with three specially commissioned remixes.