sarathy korwar: day to day

The extraordinary debut album from percussionist and producer Sarathy Korwar – “Day To Day” – fuses traditional folk music of the Sidi community in India with jazz and electronics. It’s a collaborative release by Ninja Tune with The Steve Reid Foundation – a charitable trust established by Brownswood / Gilles Peterson with the dual objective of helping musicians in crisis and also supporting emerging talent. Sarathy is an alumnus of the Foundation’s development program, mentored by Four Tet, Emanative, Floating Points, Koreless and Gilles Peterson – all trustees of the foundation. “Sarathy instantly caught my attention when he said he wanted to make an album that embraced both Indian folk music and jazz - two worlds that have had a big influence on me. His album succeeds in bringing these things together in an elegant way, but it’s his own style and ideas that come through the most in the music. Refreshingly different, this is a deep and powerful listening experience.” Four Tet The musical roots and routes of the Black Atlantic have been discussed and documented extensively, butSarathy is highlighting a different dispersal of people in the other direction, from East Africa to India. The Sidis travelled to India from Africa as merchants, sailors, indentured servants and mercenaries from as far back as 628 AD and have settled in India ever since. Conceived on an extended trip to rural Gujarat, followed by sessions in Pune, Sarathy made field recordings of The Sidi Troupe of Ratanpur whose vocals and percussion form the backbone of “Day To Day”. Born in the US, Sarathy Korwar grew up in Ahmedabad and Chennai in India. Finishing his studies, Sarathybegan to think about pursuing a career in music and moved to London, where he trained as a classical tabla player under the guidance of Sanju Sahai and graduated with a MMus in Performance from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) focusing on the adaptation of Indian classical rhythmic material to non-Indian percussion instruments. Working the angles in London’s jazz scene, Sarathy connected with Shabaka Hutchings , Cara Stacey and played with clarinettist Arun Ghosh. He was, however, itching to create under his own name and he started formulating the concept for “Day To Day” and planning a trip to India to record the Sidis. It was late in 2014 when Sarathy heard about the Steve Reid Foundation. He applied and was accepted onto the project.