Violinist Dr L Subramaniam collaborates with Jazz legends across the globe

Dr L Subramaniam’s latest work is an Indo-jazz-blues-pop collaboration. Talking about it, he says, “In this album, I have collaborated with ten jazz legends from across the generations and from various parts of the globe including Europe, the United States, and India.

Stephane Grappelli

,

George Duke

,

Larry Coryell

, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke, Jean Luc Ponty, Billy Cobham, Hubert Laws, Corky Siegel and Ernie Watts are a part of this project. This is something that has never been seen before.”

Also featured in the album are senior Bollywood singer

Kavita Krishnamurti

and the award winning singer-songwriter

Bindu Subramaniam

. Many of these artistes have also performed in India as part of the prestigious Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, which is now entering its thirtieth year.

Dr Subramaniam says, “My dream project ‘Beyond Borders’ is in two volumes. As the name suggests, it transcends all boundaries and introduces different tonalities to the listeners – the micro tonal Indian raga, poly-rhythms of

Carnatic music

, harmonic variations and chromatic shifts of jazz, and so forth. This is perhaps the only album in history to feature so many jazz greats with the Indian

violin

taking the lead role.”

These songs were recorded in different places including India and the US, mixed in Poland, and mastered in Los Angeles. The title song features a solo by George Duke and an expressive emotional micro tonal solo by Dr L Subramaniam ably supported by Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham and Bindu Subramaniam. He explains, “It epitomizes the sentiment of the album – going beyond physical boundaries and speaking the universal language of music. The highlights are the musical dialogue between me and Stephane Grappelli in ‘Reunion’, the duet with Herbie Hancock with micro tonal and chromatic variations, the complex rhythmic changes in ‘Times Must Change’ with its flavour of Carnatic as well as

Blues/Jazz

and Pop/Rock, and the soothing ‘Lullaby’ with Kavita Krishnamurti and Chicago Blues Harmonica player Corky Siegel.”