Ramesh Shotham | |
|---|---|
 Ramesh Shotham (background) | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Madras, South India |
| Genres | Jazz, Fusion, Rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | percussion, drums |
| Years active | 1970–present |
Ramesh Shotham (born May 7, 1948 in Madras, Tamil Nadu, India) is a percussionist and drummer.
Ramesh Shotham was born in Madras, South India. He graduated with a degree in zoology from Loyola College, University of Madras. He began his musical career as a self-taught drummer, co-leading a rock band called Human Bondage established in 1970 in Bombay and Bangalore then hitting the road gigging in clubs all over the subcontinent. Musical influences at this stage were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and others. It took a live Ravi Shankar concert in Delhi, and a chance meeting with a tourist, who was heading back West and wanted to hock his albums, amongst them ‘Birds of Fire’ by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, for Shotham to begin discovering his own musical roots: the vast ocean of Indian music.
During the mid-seventies Shotham returned to Madras to take up study of the thavil (a traditional temple music drum), under Vidwan K.P.Ramu. Since then, he has lived and worked in Europe. Shotam is recognized as one of the most successful percussionists around. [1] He has performed not only with leading European and American Jazz and Rock musicians, but also with artistes from Africa, Australia, China, Korea and several Arabic countries. During the last 20-odd years, Shotham has recorded over 250 LPs and CDs and has worked for almost all the leading TV [2] and Radio stations in Germany and Europe. Mid-2000, he and his wife Alexandra established an independent record company called Permission Music Productions.
In 1987 Shotham was responsible for introducing the late mridangam artist TAS Mani and his Karnataka College of Percussion (KCP) to the German rock group Embryo, paving the way for Mani's popularity in Europe. [3]
His current solo project, Madras Special, features Christian Zurner on electric bass, Zoltan Lantos on violin and Sandhya Sanjana on vocals.
Cornelius "Sonny" Fortune was an American jazz saxophonist. Fortune played soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, clarinet, and flute.
Rabih Abou-Khalil is an oud player and composer born in Lebanon, who combines elements of Arabic music with jazz, classical music, and other styles. He grew up in Beirut and moved to Munich, Germany, during the Lebanese Civil War in 1978.
Howard Levy is an American multi-instrumentalist. A keyboardist and virtuoso harmonica player, Levy "has been realistically presented as one of the most important and radical harmonica innovators of the twentieth century."
Gabriele Mirabassi is an Italian jazz clarinetist.
Michel Godard is a French avant-garde jazz and classical musician. He plays tuba and the predecessor of the tuba, a brass instrument known as the serpent.
Embryo is a world music band from Munich, Germany, that began in 1969. Its origins have even been traced to the 1950s in the city of Hof, when musicians Christian Burchard and Dieter Serfas met at the age of 10. The band was described by one critic as "the most eclectic of the krautrock bands."
The Karnataka College of Percussion (KCP) is a music school in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, which is dedicated to the teaching of the Carnatic percussion and vocal music of South India. It was founded in approximately 1964 by the mridangam player T. A. S. Mani.
Luciano Biondini is an Italian jazz and folk music accordion player that has appeared on the albums of various musicians, including Gabriele Mirabassi, Fratelli Mancuso, Ivano Fossati, Samo Šalamon and Rabih Abou-Khalil.
Milton Cardona was a percussionist, vocalist and conga player from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
Blue Camel is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil. The album fuses traditional Arabic music with jazz. It was recorded in 1992 and released on the Enja label.
Al-Jadida is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, fusing traditional Arab music with jazz, which was recorded in 1990 and released on the Enja label the following year.
Tarab is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, fusing traditional Arab music with jazz, which was recorded in 1992 and released on the Enja label the following year.
The Sultan's Picnic is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, fusing traditional Arab music with jazz, which was recorded in 1994 and released on the Enja label.
Arabian Waltz is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil, featuring the Balanescu Quartet, which was recorded in 1995 and released on the Enja label the following year.
Odd Times is a live album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil which was recorded in Germany in 1997 and released on the Enja label.
The Cactus of Knowledge is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil which was recorded in Germany in 2000 and released on the Enja label the following year.
Morton's Foot is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil which was recorded in Germany in 2003 and released on the Enja label.
Journey to the Centre of an Egg is an album by the Lebanese oud player Rabih Abou-Khalil with German pianist Joachim Kühn and percussionist Jarrod Cagwin which was recorded in Germany in 2004 and released on the Enja label the following year.
Songs for Sad Women is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil which was recorded in Germany in 2005 but not released on the Enja label until 2007.
Em Português is an album by the Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil which was recorded in Germany in 2007 and released on the Enja label the following year.
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