Artist image: Sarathy Korwar
Photo: Fabrice Bourgelle

Sarathy Korwar

August 17, 2024

City Hall Square, Main Stage

17.45

- Experimental jazz with political overtones and undertones

Since making his debut in 2016, tabla player and percussionist Sarathy Korwar has emerged as one of the most original voices in the UK's exploratory jazz scene with his uncompromising and groundbreaking rhythms.

Korwar was born in the US, grew up in India and eventually moved to London to pursue music. He has studied both tabla and western drums, and fuses these into a sound that draws inspiration from everything from Southeast Asian ragas, avant garde hip hop, dub and contemporary jazz. He has collaborated with artists such as Shabaka Hutchings, Arun Ghosh and Anoushka Shankar, and toured with Kamasi Washington, Yussef Kamaal and Moses Boyd. He has also initiated the UPAJ Collective, where Southeast Asian jazz and classical musicians come together through a shared love of the creative spark that arises through collaboration and improvisation.

The political also plays an important role in his musical project, as exemplified by the concept album Kalak from 2022, where Korwar uses music to create an anti-fascist and anti-colonialist musical manifesto.


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