Piano and flute to offer East-West musical fusion

Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Louis Banks are two great maestros due to play together on the same platform in Jakarta, creating a perfect sangam (fusion) of East and West with piano, flute and drums.

India Club Jakarta will host the event on the evening of Aug. 21 at Sahid Jaya hotel.

Chaurasia is an internationally acclaimed flautist. Playing a bamboo flute, he is known mostly for his outstanding contribution to popularizing Indian classical music around the globe.

The young Chaurasia had an immense love of music; by the age of 15 he was taking his first steps toward becoming a classical singer. Soon after he heard a flute recital by Pandit Bholanath, Hariprasad was so impressed that he changed his focus from singing to flute.

At the age of 19 he was playing at all the prestigious institutions in India. Gradually, with his wide-ranging ability and innovative approach he developed a style that was respectful of tradition yet full of innovation.

Over a lifetime he won a clutch of prestigious prizes like the national awards of Sangeet Academy, PadmaVibhushan, Konarak Samman, Yash Bharti Samman, and so on.

He has collaborated with a number of Western musicians, including John McLaughlin and Jan Gabarek, and has composed music for a number of Indian films. He heads the world music department at Rotterdam Music Conservatory, the Netherlands.

Banks is a composer, improviser, pianist and keyboard player who specializes in live acoustics and electronic performances covering all genres of music popular including jazz and Indo jazz.

He has performed worldwide with eminent figures like Eddie Daniel, Roseanne Vitro, Eddie Henderson, Angela Hangenbach, Zakir Hussain, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Shanker Mahadewan FayVictor, Leni Stern and many others.

As a jazz pianist and keyboard player Louis has represented India at many European music festivals including Berlin Jazz, The Cascais Jazz Fest, the Jazz Jamboree in Poland, and music festivals in Russia, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere.

His new fusion band, SILK, was well received at the Royal Festival Hall, London, and the National arts festival in Singapore.

A great improviser and a serious composer, Louis has several stage musicals, movie background scores and volumes of popular jazz compositions to his name. -- JP

(For further information contact India Club Jakarta tel. 9391949 or e-mail indiaclub@cbn.net.id)

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