The Eli Yamin Jazz Quartet Plays With Carnatic Musicians

Anil Srinivasan, Ari Roland, Stefan Schatz, Todd Williams, Eli Yamin, B.S. Purushotham and Madipakkam Murali take in the ovation at the Taj Coromandel Hotel.

The Eli Yamin Jazz Quartet, consisting of Eli Yamin (pianist and composer), Ari Roland (bass), Todd Williams (saxophone) and Stefan Schatz (drums), joined Carnatic musicians for two fabulous concerts in Chennai on August 26 and 27.  Musical collaborators included B.S. Purushotham (kanjira), Madipakkam Murali (ghatam), Chitravina Ravikiran (chitravina) and local jazz pianist Anil Srinivasan.

The combination of instruments and sounds, and Carnatic classics intermingled with American jazz standards, was without doubt greater than the sum of the parts.  The audiences at both concerts, one at the Taj Coromandel Hotel and the other at the Sivagami Pethachi Auditorium, were ecstatic.

Thankfully, more is to come when the quartet plays with Carnatic vocalist P. Unnikrishnan (along with Srinivasan and Purushotham) at the Vyloppilly Samskriti Bhavan, Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram, at 7:00 pm on August 29.  The public is invited, with seating provided on a first come, first served basis.