Jazz Festival in Germany

Click here to view the video clip of the Jazz Festival.

Jazz buffs talk about intermingling of classical Indian music with modern Western jazz sounds. Never was this "fusion" more apparent than in the Jazzfest held in West Berlin in 1983. But the show was really stolen by thirteen-year old boy's wonder, U.Shrinivas, whose performance on the penultimate day earned thunderous applause and perhaps more notice backstage than any other act. " He's got it in him. He's fantastic" raved Don Cherry, a great jazz trumpeter, who has studied Indian music under the Dagar Brothers in Bombay. Shrinivas' virtuoso handling of the mandolin was even more remarkable considering his placement in the festival; pitted against Miles Davis and his All-Star band, the young prodigy was billed to perform under high pressure conditions on his first exposure to foreign audiences. He was obliged by the audience to extend the 45 minute set by an hour long encore, and then the concert was broadcast unprogrammed and in its entirety on television and radio the next day.

Cevantino Festival, Mexico 1987

In October 1987, Shrinivas toured Mexico and Cuba to participate in Cevantino festival, Mexico. He is the first Carnatic musician to visit Cuba and the first South Indian Carnatic musician who participated in this festival. Paloma, the wife of the Mexican President, who had intended to satisfy formality with a 10 min appearance, was so captivated by Shrinivas' music that she stayed back for a whole hour.

Olympic Arts Festival at Barcelona, 1992

There were artistes from 60 countries and Shrinivas was the only one from India. The duration was 45 minutes. One has to stop at the 44th minute, but the minute when Shrinivas stopped, the 9000 strong audience started clamouring "once more" and he was accorded a non-stop standing ovation. So the organisers finally gave him another 10 minutes.

Fusion Albums

Dream

Dream, a mix of classical Indian music, electric mandolin and soaring electric guitar creates a worldly fusion of ragas, progressive rock and ambient/techno, a musical fever dream accented with other oddities, from violin and cello to drum loops. It's highly improvisational, with Michael Brook contributing King Crimsonish guitar against Shrinivas' nimble runs on the mandolin.

The sharp twang of the plucked strings of Shrinivas' echo-drenched mandolin provides a striking contrast with the cello and violin. The somber title track features droning wordless vocals from Jane Siberry, while Brook's guitar soundscapes and Nigel Kennedy's violin underlie Shrinivas' melodic play on "Run". Drum loops set the hypnotic tone on the upbeat "Dance". "Think" offers a quiet meditation.

Full of dense atmospherics, "Dream" feels close in spirit to Brian Eno's groundbreaking, wistful "Before and After Science" and other landmark ambient works. Brook jokingly refers to "Dream" as an "ambient-crossover-techno-fusion record".