This Women’s Day, Vignesh Iyer unveils the power of some independent female musicians across the city, along with some in collaboration with the male species.

The stage just got a facelift, a few men with unkempt hair and rugged looks playing instruments. Good stuff, just about normal really. What facelift? As the music flows, it echoes across the place. It just got better, great build up man! Can’t wait for it to explode, here it comes. Yes, that facelift. Where’s it? What makes that stage different? Fresh? Then the voice, the presence. Its different. Confident, alluring and feminine. Its here now, set to stay and resonate. Not just for a couple of hours but more, much more. This Women’s Day, we at The Big M thought we’ll tell you about a few of the fair folk who light up that platform.

SHEFALI ALVARES

Shefali Alvares

Armed with a repertoire matched by few, Shefali Alvares has performed alongside the country’s most talented musicians such as Louis Banks, Karl Peters, Loy Mendonca and of course with her father, Jazz musician – Joe Alvares. A performer since the age of 13, she grew up listening to R&B, Classic Rock, Jazz, Soul, Blues etc. Now performing with ‘The Band’ (Yeah, that’s the name), her originals have a healthy mix of these influences and they manage to stand out as the kind of music that’s laidback and ambient. Categorization wouldn’t do her music any favors, a sure sign of an artiste who has managed to carve out a niche for herself!

The Band is no ordinary band, it features some truly extraordinary musicians. Guitar Maverick Floyd Fernandes, On Drums Jai Row Kavi/Gino Banks(CV too elaborate to state), Bass maestro Sheldon D’Silva and Sangeet Haldipur/Jarvis Menezes on keys. Its likely that the voice may get overshadowed surrounded by such instrumental virtuosity. However, Shefali’s voice complements the music and successfully accomplishes the difficult task of bringing about a balance in harmony, thereby propelling the sound to greater heights.

Shefali and the band have been performing consistently around the country for a while now and are currently working on an album.

PIA SUKANYA

Pia Sukanya

20 years of training in Indian Classical vocals and listening to authentic American folk music meant that writing songs became second nature for this bohemian artiste. Pia Sukanya is a musician cum actor who handles a busy schedule while also managing to get in time for flights to New York, London or Bombay. Born in Cambridge, NY she took to music at an early age while also ensuring she completed her graduation in 2005 with a degree in Social Anthropology.

Her intimate sounding voice is warm, innocent, playful and instantly likable. The song ‘Not in control’ with its tastefully arranged guitar work is a perfect example. The influence of Indian classical music comes to the forefront in the pop – sounding ‘Promise me’ and a free flowing carefree song aptly named ‘Like a Kite’. Pia’s vocal flexibility and range is powerfully displayed in the song titled ‘Just routine’ with its intense mood, frequent pitch changes and use of vibrato. The instruments in most of her songs are in a background sort of a way, allowing the voice to take center stage and captivate listeners.

Confident that her songs will appeal to majority of the Asian listeners, she is in the process of making an album now in collaboration with lyricist Micheal.E.Ward, Arranger Philip Henderson, Guitarist Sanjoy Das (aka Bapi) and Jazz musician Zubin Balaporia.

ANURADHA PAL

Anuradha Pal

Star Tabla virtuoso & Percussionist Anuradha Pal is an internationally acclaimed popular Tabla soloist and versatile accompanist with top Indian classical, African, Jazz & World musicians in major festivals in U.K, USA, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok & Africa.

Training from Tabla legends Ustads Alla Rakha & Zakir Hussain, dedicated riyaaz, & the support from parents Devinder & Ila Pal & husband Shyam Sharma, have established Anuradha Pal as one of the ‘30 leading Women of India’ & ‘a percussionist par excellence’ (according to the India Today 2006). Clarity, tonal balance, pinpoint precision in rhythm & an amazing repertoire spiced with spontaneous creativity have made Anuradha Pal ‘The most influential female musician of Indian classical music’ according to the A. V Max Music Magazine, May 2001.

Anuradha Pal is the founder & music director of two distinct Fusion groups – Stree Shakti’ is Asia’s much acclaimed, all female percussion-based, instrumental and vocal fusion ensemble whereas ‘Recharge’ is a unique World music fusion group combining various elements of Indian, African, Latin and Jazz music. Anuradha composed the background score in ‘Gaja Gamini’, the acclaimed M.F. Hussain film, which won tremendous acclaim in the Cannes Film Festival. She regularly scores music for music albums, theatre & films.

ASHIMA AIYER

Ashima Aiyer

What started off as a hobby after school life turned into something more meaningful for this 23 year old singer/songwriter. Ashima Aiyer started taking guitar lessons and then progressed on to playing with a band called ‘Three degrees off something’. The band may not have lasted, but the musician in Ashima surely did!

Her song ‘Little green men’ is an extremely catchy number, its like that song which one happens to hear just as the day begins and hums it intermittently throughout the day, before dreams take over by night. ‘Any given Sunday’ has a consistent swingy guitar rhythm led by Ashima’s rich and bright sounding voice. While most of her songs have a hint of jazz, the use of unconventional chords is the most striking aspect. ‘Don’t ask me about scales and keys, I play by sights and sounds’ she states on her MySpace page and follows it up.

Influenced by Dave Matthews Band, Patty Griffin, Coldplay et al, passion for music and the love of playing live spurred her on to write her own songs and perform. Originally from Pune, this musician cum analyst at a consultation firm moved to Bombay about 7 months ago. The balancing act isn’t too difficult then, as she manages to handle work and regularly enthrall audiences while performing at the city’s many bustling nightspots.

SHAAIR N FUNC

Shaair N Func

Rated VH1’s TOP TEN emerging bands out of India, Shaair (Monica Dogra) and Func (Randolph Corriea ) form this pulsating Electronica band. Not wanting their music to be restricted to a select audience, their sound is world music personified. Known as one of the best live acts in the country, their costumes, performance and more importantly the music would be best described as path breaking. They’ve got two albums out – The love album and Light Tribe.

SHKABANG

Shkabang

MTV Viva girl Anoushka Manchanda is on vocals for this high on energy, electronic rock and roll group. Accompanying her on the band are Abhijit Nalani, Johan Pais, Pozy Dhar and Shiraz Bhattacharya. They have also come up with a video of their song ‘ I like crazy’. The music is in your face and so are the song names with ‘Asshole’(Up on Myspace) being the pick of the lot! They are currently working on an album.

SRIDHAR/THAYIL

Shridhar/Thayil

Started off as a collaboration in late 2007 between Suman Sridhar and Jeet Thayil. Their music comes out of Jeet’s guitar and a laptop, which might put the purists off but doubt they’d crib once they actually heard the groovy, beat oriented sound! ‘The Drowning song’ and ‘This be the beat’ are must listens. Suman has been described as a “wonderful ironic soprano” who “provides depth with a clear sound.”

Article by Vignesh Iyer