17.01.09
Winter 2008/09
I just returned from India about a week ago to minus temperatures and snow chaos in Europe! My flight from Chennai to Paris was delayed, and after I finally arrived in Düsseldorf, I found out that my suitcase went missing! It was delivered a week later. By then I was already in Mannheim rehearsing at the Nationaltheater for further performances of the Barock Opera 'Alessandro' (with touches of Bollywood)!
The trip to South India was very rewarding, what with performing two concerts at the Chowdiah Memorial Hall in Bangalore featuring international musicians; being in the midst of the Chennai Music Festival and having a chance to catch concerts by U.Shrinivas, Ravi Kiran, Palanivel, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman and many others; taking part in a panel discussion at Brhaddwani; being invited for an interview by the Southern Spice Music TV; spending quality time with my family in Chennai and Bangalore, eating fantastic food and enjoying the terrific weather. All these experiences made my trip really worthwhile! Now I look forward to an early spring with fervent hopes that the financial world will see the futility of greed and that Obama will succeed in spite of politics!

07.09.08
Summer 2008
Looking at it weather-wise, the summer in Germany wasn't anything to write home about. I guess only the UK had worse weather. I know this because of all the washed-out cricket matches this season! Still, I had the good fortune to make it through several open air festivals without them having to be cancelled, although some were damp enough to affect my Tavil and Kanjira, both drums with natural skins. Interestingly, the concert I played in Varna, Bulgaria, on the Black Sea was rained out, and we had to move to another venue, an art gallery. However, I did manage to swim in the Black Sea on the afternoon of the concert and it was sunny and warm with no hint of the thunderstorm brewing in the background! 'Blitz und Donner' as we say in German, is what it was! Barely two weeks later I was back on the Black Sea coast in Mamaia, Romania, to play at the 'World Music Festival' with Madras Special. Things couldn't have been more perfect. And now, before gracefully accepting the fact that autumn is upon us, I'm flying to Madrid to play at the Global Perfussion Meeting with Luis Fernandez, Nacho Arimany and a host of other percussionists, and thus hope to eke out the last few summer days! Good thing I'm headed for India in December but more about that trip later :)-

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.


07.02.07
Many Ways KCP 5
Many Ways by KCP 5 is now being promoted by Doublemoon Records and will be out in March 2007. This was recorded in Bangalore last year. Before going into the studio we performed an open air concert for World Space Radio. The CD-release tour starts beginning of March and includes a stint with the WDR Big Band. The tour dates are on this website.
Another CD soon to be released, is on Vitold Rek's Taso label titled Home, featuring Jaroslaw Bester on accordion, Vitold on bass and myself playing percussion.


16.12.2006
Kadim Tour 2006
I just returned from Switzerland after recording an album with Omri Hason's group Kadim, which also features Madras Special members Sandhya Sanjana and Zoltan Lantos. Special guest this time was Maarten Meddens from Rotterdam playing Fender Rhodes in his unique funky manner!
We also performed 5 live concerts in Bern, Zug, Sion, Langenau and Zürich to enthusiastic audiences.
On this trip I added a new percussion instrument in my repertoire of instruments:the Pentajon, which is a 5-sided cajon and offers unique rhythmic and tonal possibilites! The Pentajon is Christoph Franzen's creation. Check it out at: www.pentajon.de

25.10.2006
Madras Special Autumn Tour 2006
Our tour started in Taipei on October 5th at the Migration Music Festival! We played a one hour set at the Da'an Park Amphitheatre in front of an incredibly receptive audience. I was invited the next day to conduct a percussion workshop where some Taiwanese kids really took to the South Indian drum language, Konakol, and had a whole lot of fun clapping and singing TakaDimi TakaJonu! Zoltan and I stayed on a couple of days longer to collaborate with Yufeng, a gifted young Taiwanese Pipa player.
Returning to Europe, our tour continued with concerts in Frankfurt, Aachen, Schorndorf, Irsee (Germany), Innsbruck, Vienna, and Rudersdorf (Austria). There is an upcoming gig in Essen on the 2nd of November, after which all members of Madras Special will be busy with other projects until spring 2007. We thank all the people who supported us by coming to the concerts, buying our CDs, and thus inspiring us to keep making good music!!

18.09.2006
Video Clips
Two video clips-'Xillob' featuring Sandhya, Zoltan, Christian and myself, plus 'Gruß an Shiva' (Greeting Shiva), a percussion solo-can be seen on the website now. This footage is an excerpt from a live concert in Luxemburg in February 2006, filmed by Nanna Schmidt, Philip Przybyl and team.

18.09.2006
Workshops/Clinics
I've been invited this November to conduct workshops in Dublin, Frankfurt and Brussels......more details to be announced shortly.

17.09.2006
KCP 5
Another ongoing project that I’ve been involved with for over 20 years has been rechristened KCP 5! This quintet includes singer Ramamani and percussionist T.A.S. Mani from the Karnataka College of Percussion, saxophonist Charlie Mariano, pianist Mike Herting and myself. We have a brand new CD titled Many Ways, soon to be released by Doublemoon Records. The group will be on tour in Europe in the spring of 2007, which includes another stint with the WDR Big Band.

17.09.2006

Madras Special's new CD 'Urban Folkore' released by Double Moon Records.

Ramesh Shotham endorses Wahan Drums and products; also plays the 'Hang' made by Panart.

24.07.2006
Madras Special 2006
In spite of individual members of Madras Special being very busy with other projects, the band has still managed to come together and promote its new album Urban Folklore, playing concerts in Germany and Luxemburg during the first half of 2006. In August they will appear at the Kilkenny Arts festival and JJs in Dublin. In October the group has been invited to travel to Taiwan and perform at the Migration Music festival, followed by a tour of Germany and Austria.