KUALA LUMPUR: Think you know a lot about fusion music? Well, you might want to think again.
Local sitar maestro Samuel Dass and his team of six musicians will showcase the novel fusion between traditional Indian music with myriad genres and sounds at tonight’s one-night-only performance dubbed “SwarAsia Malaysia”.
Kuala Lumpur-based Samuel, together with his musician friends — Prakash Kandasamy (tabla), Mariamlisa Zainal Abidin (cello), Marco Antonio Alonso De La Rosa (guitar), Selvendrrah Krishnan (cajoun), Dhivager Murahani (percussion) and Eliezer Enan (bass) — will serenade the crowd with their soothing music.
At the SwarAsia Malaysia, Samuel will lead the two-hour performance in his specially-composed and arranged music. The aim of the perfomance is to raise funds for his non-profit art school, Swara Community Arts Center, in Petaling Jaya.
In the international music circuit, the late renowned sitarist Ravi Shankar was widely-known for his creativity with the plucked stringed instrument.
But what do Ravi Shankar and Samuel Dass have in common? Well, both artistes possess deep affection for the sitar and have played major roles in influencing other musicians with their skills.
“All of the artistes who will be performing at the SwarAsia Malaysia are renowned local musicians, except for De La Rosa, who is from Cuba. Besides performing music, we will also be recording the live performance and releasing it on CD and DVD later,” says Samuel.
Samuel started learning the sitar at age seven under the tutelage of his father, Jabamalai Dass, another locally-renowned sitarist. He later joined the Temple Of Fine Arts in Brickfields, and learned to perfect his craft under Maheswaran Orme, a disciple of the late Ravi Shankar himself.
At the same time, Samuel also sought guidance from world-class sitar maestro, Ustad Shahid Parvez, in Pune, India for seven months in order to understand the instrument better.
One of the most exciting sitar players in the world, Samuel has left audiences around the world mesmerised by his “gayaki ang”, or “to play as though sung”, where he cleverly infused both classical Indian and contemporary music into his sitar recitals.
His ability to blend beautiful melodies has also earned him top honours at the Cameronian Arts Awards 2004 – Best Original Composition and Best Solo Performance.
A recording artist to boot, he has to date released seven albums. They are Sitarasa, Sitarasa Nostalgia, Vrajalila, Biography Of Swami Sivananda, Vidiyal, Raja Moods and Prana.
Art is a subjective matter and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. This is the reason why Samuel leaves much of the music interpretation to his audience.
“I don’t set a certain style in my music. Music is all about exploring possibilities. For SwarAsia Malaysia, I want to be able to see the type of music that we can create by putting together music from the East and West,” he says.
At the SwarAsia Malaysia, the audience will get to listen to the different sounds derived from different elements.
“There’s the classical Indian music and then there’s also the Brazilian and local Malay and Chinese music influences,” he says, adding that the show will feature seven music pieces.
As for the preparations, they have been practising at the studio every other day. Acclaimed Cuban guitarist Marco will serenade the crowd with some Spanish tunes.
“This will be my first time working with Samuel and the rest of the musicians. I’m excited and can’t wait to share the stage with them,” says De La Rosa, who has been preparing for this music showcase for the past five months.
De La Rosa, who has been living in Malaysia since 2003, had previously worked with popular local artistes such as Reshmonu, Datuk Siti Nurhaliza and Anuar Zain, just to name a few.
Besides travelling extensively for his performance, the multi-talented artiste is also skilled at playing the piano and percussion, and dancing the salsa.
After their performa
nce here, the group will be heading to New Zealand in April for a performance in conjunction with World Peace Day.
For more information on SwarAsia Malaysia, visit https://www.facebook.com/SwaraCAC/
Infobox:
WHAT SwarAsia Malaysia
WHEN Today at 8.15pm
WHERE Shantanand Auditorium, Temple Of Fine Arts, Kuala Lumpur
Entry is by donation. For tickets, call 016-682 0919 or 03-7496 9700
Quick Facts
Name Samuel Dass
Date of birth March 16, 1968 (age 49)
Place of birth Klang