John McLaughlin,Wayne Krantz, Marc Guillermont, Mattias IA Eklundh: Bada Boom new CD

Ranjit Barot: Bada Boom
John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, U.Srinivas, Wayne Krantz, Marc Guillermont, Matt Garrison, Scott Kinsey, Dominique di Piazza and others.

Hear the Music Sampler
Ranjit Barot is the Drummer on John McLaughlin's Floating Point

NEW YORK, NY – After decades spent honing his craft in a staggering array of roles, from composing for films to producing other artists to working as a sideman in a variety of contexts, Ranjit Barot is at last making his debut as a performing bandleader with Bada Boom. The son of a legendary classical Indian dancer, Ranjit Barot took up a western instrument – the drum kit – at age 12, inspired by the fusion and progressive rock revolution that was redefining possibilities for a new generation of musicians. Dividing his formative years between England and India, Barot developed a musical sensibility that gracefully intertwines the rich rhythmic and harmonic traditions of classical Indian musics with the improvisational fervor of jazz and the immediacy and accessibility of rock and other popular forms. "I want my playing to be the duality that I am," he reflects. "I am an Indian, but I dream in English."

The captivating and uniquely personal Bada Boom ("bada" being Hindi for "big," rendering the album a bilingual pun on the "big bang") draws from the pathbreaking example of Barot's biggest influences, John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussein – both of whom are featured on the project. McLaughlin contributes a blistering solo to the opening track, "Singularity," while Hussain provides the driving force for "Supernova." Composed of four original pieces and two striking reinventions of traditional Indian themes, Bada Boom investigates Barot's cultural and musical dichotomy with insight and inventiveness. Barot composes and arranges provocative, thoughtful dialogues from which these varied influences, textures, and techniques eventually emerge as one voice.

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