12.05.08
Spring 2008
It has been a very interesting period, this spring. I started rehearsing with the ensemble at the National Theatre of Mannheim for a production of 'Alessandro', an opera written by Gian Francesco de Majo. Its been a great experience doing something completely different to my usual musical activities, meeting and working with opera singers, actors, and stage crews. Also, its been a real pleasure to work with a unique director like Günter Krämer.
In between I managed a week's trip to Tallin with Stefan Bauer's band to play at the Jazzkaar Festival. It was terrific visiting one of the newest additions to the EU! We spent a pleasant week with our wonderful Estonian hosts.
End of April I spent 3 days in Kaiserslautern, rehearsing and performing Sigi Schwab's 'Ramayana'. The premiere was on the 1st of May: a grand success! In my opinion, Sigi Schwab was really inspired by this ancient Hindu mythology, and wrote some fine music which told the story beautifully.
I'm now enjoying the wonderful sunny days, travelling between Köln and Mannheim and looking forward to the summer gigs!

08.02.08
Egypt
I just returned from an interesting trip to Cairo and Alexandria. I was invited, along with Mathias Frey, Büdi Siebert and Ramani Krishna, to play two concerts at the Opera Houses in Cairo and Alexandria. It was great to also interact with some fine local musicians like Hossam (Kanoon) and Yousuf (e-violin). The locations were really nice and in both places the sound technicians did a pretty good job!
I was able to finally visit the Pyramids!!

08.10.07
Interview in Jazzdimensions
E-Mail: rs@shotham.org


http://www.jazzdimensions.de/interviews/the_world/2007/ramesh_shotham.html

28.06.07
Wahan Drums Anatolian Cymbals Meinl Percussion
I've always tried to tinker with my percussion set-ups, never having been satisfied with regular run-of-the-mill music store products. Finally I've found some fine professionals to help me put a unique set together. Check this out:

Willy Wahan built me a custom Tavil rack, below which is a 16" Wahan bass drum (natural wood finish). Mounted on the rack is a floating 12" Wahan Tom. I also use a 10" Wahan snare drum.

Christian Krebs, from Box of Trix, invited me to test their new Anatolian Cymbals and I fell in love straightaway with a 20" ride (Passion), a 18" crash (Ultimate), 12" Power Hi-Hat (Ultimate), and 8", 10" and 12" splashes (Baris), which are part of my set-up now.

Mario Schmitt made it possible for me to receive some fantastic percussion products from Meinl such as the fibreglass IBO drum, Aluminium Dombak, Talking Drum, etc.
Two other unique instruments I discovered, to my good fortune, are the 'Hang' made by Felix Rohner and Sabine Schirer at Panart in Bern, and the 'Pentajon' by Christoph Franzen at Klangspiel.

I've heard from several people that one cannot reach me via 'Contact'.....sorry about that! Please use rs@shotham.org to communicate with me. Thanks.

03.04.07
KCP 5 with the WDR Big Band
The ongoing tour with KCP 5 has been a great success so far. The highlight up until now has to be the concert with the WDR Big Band at the Philharmonie in Cologne. This was a sold out affair and it was an incredible experience to perform Mike Herting's arrangements of KCP 5's tunes for the big band! To top it all off, U. Shrinivas as special guest on the electric mandolin was sensational!

Anatolian Cymbals
I'm very happy to have discovered the new range of Anatolian cymbals and am currently the latest addition to Box of Trix's official endorsers.