Rajeev Raja
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangment
Rajeev Raja’s boyhood ardour, like hundreds of thousands of others in India, was cricket. Unlike many who had to sacrifice it on the altar of teachers, Rajeev obtained to pursue it, thanks to his household that was loopy concerning the sport. Rajeev’s youthful brother, Arjun, went on to play for Karnataka with Rahul Dravid. His 267 versus Bengal is among the many highest scores by a Karnataka batter within the match. Rajeev’s cricket profession, nonetheless, was beset by a again drawback. After being the opening batsman for his school, he left the sport when he was simply 17.
The heartbreak of quitting cricket was quickly healed by one other love he found: music. When you hear Rajeev’s story of how he obtained into music, it’s tempting to consider that he was destined to get into it.
“Apart from cricket, my family was into arts. My dad was heavily into theatre. My mom was a good Bharatanatyam dancer before she got married. So, we were surrounded by classical music and Kathakali (we are from Kerala). Though I have sung occasionally in school, I never knew I had the talent. After the back injury, I was dabbling with music in college. I used to play the mouth organ and someone came up to me and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you check out the flute?’”
These informal strategies can generally start life-altering journeys. Rajeev checked out the flute that day. Today, he’s a well known jazz fusion flautist in India, other than being a veteran advertiser. In hindsight, Rajeev believes the again harm that prevented him from pursuing cricket was windfall. “If I had been a cricketer, I would have stopped playing by now. So, I am glad that I can still play the flute.”
Concert schedule
Jan 18, eight pm- RCB Café, RSVP: 9980999944
Jan 19, 7 pm- Natakvalas, Koramangala, Tickets ₹799/-
Jan 20, 7 pm- Bangalore International Centre. Free entry, first come, first served
Jan 21, eight pm- KGA, Members & Guest
Latest experiment
His jazz fusion band, The Rajeev Raja Combine, based mostly in Mumbai, has give you a new undertaking referred to as ‘Jassplorations’, 10 years after their maiden album, Cosmic Chant.
The band emerges for his or her first stay concert shortly with a brand-new repertoire of unique compositions impressed by their collective influences and experiences over the previous few years. The compositions pay tribute to the cornucopia of musical kinds, sub-genres and cultural nuances that type the common material of jazz. Creating of their wake an natural and seamless fusion that blends components of Blues, Rock, Funk, Latin and Indo-fusion music.
Rajeev, in a collection of stay concert events in Bengaluru, might be accompanied by a few of Mumbai’s best musicians together with Hitesh Dhutia (guitar), John Jaideep Thirumalai (bass), Arka Chakraborty (piano/keys) Vaibhav Wavikar (drums) with particular visitor artists Chandana (vocals), Vinayak Netke (tabla).
Rajeev desires to take his music past jazz aficionados. “What I have been doing over the past few years is to merge all the elements of jazz and create my compositions, and express them in a way that is much more meaningful to our audiences,” he says.
The Jazzplorations concert events will serve the identical objective. For Rajeev, who now lives in Mumbai, it is usually a homecoming.