Jugalbandi: The Crossing

Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy is a singer and composer trained in Carnatic Music under eminent musicians Rama Ravi, Kiranavali, Mangalam Shankar and G.Madhavan. She studied Hindustani classical music under the Padma Bhushan awardee, the late Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan Saheb. Suno Bhai, a collection of Kabir songs, is her first album and was created in collaboration with Vedanth Bharadwaj. The pair has also composed music for the Tamil feature film Aruvi. The Kannada film Harikatha Prasanga marked her debut as a music director. She has also worked on various other short and documentary films.

Enzo Favata is among the most active and noted Sardinian musicians of the Italian and international jazz scene, is a versatile artist who likes to fully investigate the universe of sound. A Jazz saxophonist, composer, soundscape designer. Enzo Favata’s music comes from the ancient roots of his island, Sardinia, mixed with jazz, Latin American and contemporary music. His artistic journey brought him through the experimentation of different musical languages, the combination of modern and archaic ingredients and the exploration of different music cultures far apart from each other.

He plays soprano, sopranino and tenor sax, bass clarinet and ethnic woodwinds instruments, especially the ones  characteristic of the Sardinian tradition. He is also able to use live electronics that employs together with acoustic  instruments. His musical career started in 1983: after growing in the traditional jazz sphere he decided to leave  mainstream to study Sardinian folk music and later became truly knowledgeable on the subject. Based on this models  and other influences, such as the South American one, he developed a truly original style. He’s also a composer of  scores for movies, television and radio programs, theatre. He’s a soundscape designer for exhibitions and art  performances.

He released 16 albums as a leader and collaborated in 5 different compilations of international artists. He played in Europe, Japan, China, Iran, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Kuwait,  Ethiopia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, at many prestigious festivals and shows. He played with: Dino Saluzzi, Mulatu Astatke,  Trilok Gurtu, Enrico Rava, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Omar Sosa, Django Bates, Miroslav Vitous, Dave Liebman,  Anja Lechner, Lester Bowie, Flavio Boltro, Michel Marre, Tenores di Bitti, Metropole Orkest, National Orchestra of  Tirana and many more. Since 2001 is the artistic director of Musica sulle Bocche Festival, held in Santa Teresa Gallura  that comes out at the top of the Jazz festivals in Sardinia.

Giacomo Riggi is an Italian vibraphone and marimba player, born in Barga (LU). He graduated in classical percussions with honours in the high musical education Institute P.Mascagni in Livorno with Master Gionata Faralli’s guidance. With an exceedingly gifted skillset in classical percussion, vibraphone, marimba, piano, and timpany, the artist also dabbles in singing and composition from “classical” to “jazz” and music for children. The artist has travelled the world on tour to Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Romania, France, Spain, Germany, England, Russia, China, Japan, Taiwan, Bulgaria, United States, Colombia, and Mexico.

Jagadeesh Ramanujam Mudambi is a self-taught guitar player, composer and founder of Moon Arra, based in Bengaluru, India, Jagadeesh is an experienced guitarist performing with pop, rock, jazz and fusion ensembles for three decades. From a young age, Jagadeesh was exposed to Indian Classical sounds as well as Western Classical music. Playing both nylon guitar and electric steel string guitar, Jagadeesh has been collaborating with many international artists. His interest in flamenco music led him to Spain where he spent a month studying under Juan Maria Paul in Seville. The musician also developed an interest in playing the Oud after a trip to Cairo, Egypt. As Head of Events at Radio Indigo (till 2008) Jagadeesh was instrumental in conceptualizing a number of international quality concert events, reviving and putting together what is arguably Bangalore’s finest and one of India’s best Jazz Festivals – The Indigo & Blues Festival in2007 – and in 2009 a 3 Day Jazz Festival at the UB City for the Bengaluru Habba.

Marco Frattini is a drummer, composer and recording artist. In addition to his percussion skills he is also an educator for the same. The drummer has learnt under the guidance of John Riley, Gregory Hutchinson, Dave Weckl, Bob Moses at the New England Conservatory, Boston including a master class with Jimmy Cobb, Bobby Durham, Benny Golson, Jesse Davis, Giorgio Rosciglione, Gege Munari and Massimo Manzi and Stefano
Palini (1989-2017). Travelling throughout Europe, playing music with various bands, including having performed with Pasquale Mirra and Enzo Favata earlier, Marco Fratinni has many musical achievements, awards and albums to his name, participating in many music festivals. The artist has also made many local radio and TV appearances such as RTV in Slovenia, MTV, Primo Maggio Roma, Serata Tenco (RAI 2), Gazebo, Ill Terzo Anello(RADIO 3) & Caterpillar (RADIO 2).

Varijashree Venugopal is daughter of HS Venugopal and TV Rama both accomplished musicians. She was found to have the rare ability to identify about 40 ragas at the tender age of one and a half and about 200 ragas at the age of 4. She was initially trained by her father. Varijashree began undergoing formal training in Carnatic music under Vidhushi H. Geetha at the age of 4. She has also been learning a few rare compositions from Vidhushi Vasantha Srinivasan and Vidwan D.S. Srivatsa. At present she has been learning higher music lessons under the tutelage of Gaanakalanidhi Vidwan Salem P. Sundaresan. She has also been undergoing flute training under her father Vid. H. S. Venugopal from the past twelve years. She gave her first rendering at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja at the age of seven.

Varijashree is part of the famous quartet fusion band from Bangalore “Chakrafonics” along with talented musicians Praveen D Rao, Ajay Warrier and Pramath Kiran. Chakrafonics is famous for its unique blend of traditional classical music with other genres of music.

Vedanth Bharadwaj is a student of Indian classical music, currently under the tutelage of Ramamoorthy Rao. He is a singer, guitarist and composer and has his own studio. Having produced and released two albums, Mati Kahe and Suno Bhai (in collaboration with Bindhumalini), he also sings songs written by mystic Sufi and Bhakti saint poets. He has performed at several music festivals and venues in India and abroad, including The Playhouse Theatre Company in South Africa, the Mumbai Kabir Festival, The Repertwahr Festival and the Sacred Music Festival at Pondicherry. He is currently working on an album of abhangs with singer Shruthi Viswanath and composing music for a feature film called His Father’s Voice, both slated for release this year.