Cheb i Sabbah
Musical adventurer, global spiritualist and producer extraordinaire has returned to the Indian subcontinent for Devotion, his seventh album on Six Degrees. Hundreds of artists...have come and gone like bottle rockets, but Cheb i Sabbah's light keeps burning and it is his bhakti (devotion) to the spiritual essence of music, and to truth and humanity, that is responsible for his longevity.
Devotion (his most recent album) was produced in the past year or so but has been in the making for at least nine years. With each journey [to India] he has excavated an aspect of its culture and spirituality, with respect and taste, to produce sublime albums...considered gold standards by classical music purists and casual listeners alike, and remixes from these projects are club staples around the world. In the past, Cheb i Sabbah produced trippy and mellifluous prayers to the Hindu goddess Durga and sung beatific stories of Lord Krishna, but with this fantastic new record he gets to the center of the universe itself and investigates the nature of devotion.
chebisabbah.com
Fanna fi Allah
As the torch-bearers of the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan lineage, Fanna Fi Allah masterfully and ecstatically sing the verses of the Sufi mystics in Urdu, Farsi, Hindi & Punjabi. Each song embodies the mood of the poetry through sophisticated ragas combined with passionate spontaneity. Their youthful mastery has been granted through devoted study with extraordinary teachers. The booming Pakistani tablas, six voices, tampuras & harmoniums of Fanna Fi Allah have left audiences up and down the west coast and in Pakistan, Bali and Hawaii in either tears or ecstacy, or both. Fanna Fi Allah has recently returned from their fourth pilgrammage to study with their teachers in Pakistan.
fanna-fi-allah.com
Everyone Orchestra (Conducted by Matt Butler)
Devotional Jam with Members of Hamsa Lila, Zilla & More
Everyone Orchestra performances are designed to create space for each performer’s musical personality to shine, engage the audience as participants in the jam and to facilitate a massive celebratory coming together featuring a conductor directing both musicians and audience alike in interactive, lively, and highly danceable movements.
The EO has performed its shows nationally featuring members of The Grateful Dead, Phish, ALO, Disco Biscuits, The Derek Trucks Band, Fishbone, Poi Dog Pondering, String Cheese Incident, and Steve Kimock, G. Love, painters, dancers, hula hoopers, firespinners, stiltwalkers, activists, presidential candidates, storytellers and hundreds of others
everyoneorchestra.com.
Gaudi
Recently nominated for the “World Music Award 2008” with his landmark Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan remix album ‘Dub Qawwali’, Gaudi’s organic fusion of Dub, Electronica and Worldbeat is rarely off the playlists and is regularly being performed live all over the world. A classically trained pianist and Theremin player, Gaudi is widely known as a top remixer and has remixed some of the most important names in the business, most notably: Bob Marley, Simple Minds, Fatboy Slim, Scissor Sisters, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, 1 Giant Leap, Lamb, Trilok Gurtu, Ojos de Brujo, Artful Dodger, The Orb, Zion train, Africa Bambaataa, Shpongle, among others. Studio works with reggae legends such as Lee Scratch Perry, Horace Andy and Dennis Bovell, and "hip-hop pioneer" Grandmaster Flash, have further confirmed the talent of this fearless electronic producer.
watch video | gaudimusic.com
Riffat Sultana & Party
Riffat Sultana channels the musical wisdom of 500 years and eleven generations of master musicians in her family in India and Pakistan. But in all those years, she is the first woman in her family to sing in public. Perhaps one reason her performances today have such overwhelming emotional power is that she sings for all the woman in her distinguished family who never had that chance before. For Riffat, it took coming to America to free her musical soul, but now that she has, her amazing voice is being heard around the world. Where doors were always closed to her, now they are opening everywhere, and Riffat has collaborated with singers and songwriters from all over the world. At last free to create and perform as she pleases, Riffat now leads a unique, intimate acoustic ensemble featuring tabla, world percussion, and her husband Richard Michos on guitar. The Party, as she calls it, is the perfect vehicle to showcase one of the most passionate and exciting new voices in world music.
riffatsultana.com
Rik Masterson
Devoted student, performer & teacher of North Indian music, Rik began his formal studies in 1979 with Uma Roy, foremost sitarist of Nepal. In 1983 he sought guidance from and became a disciple of master vocalist Pandit Pran Nath.
He has studied, taught and performed in America, India, Germany and France with some of the most highly respected artists in the field including composer/singers Pandit Pran Nath, Terry Riley and La Monte Young, tabla maestros Ustad Zakir Hussein and Pandit Samir Chatterjee, sarangi master Ustad Hafizullah Khan & many others.
kiranawest.com
Michael Stirling
Michael began the study of North Indian (Hindustani) singing with Pandit Pran Nath in 1983 and subsequently traveled with him to India and became his disciple.
In his continuous devotion to study and performance, he has appeared onstage with Terry Riley, Ustad Hafizullah Khan, Sri Karunamayee, Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan, Lakshmi Shankar, Steve Gorn, The Gundecha Brothers and many others. His "Sound is God" classes, workshops and performances have now inspired and transformed hundreds.
kiranawest.com
David Starfire
Classically trained multi-instrumentalist/producer/composer/ DJ, who has performed all over the world, recently signed to international label Six Degrees Records, home to artists such as Bebel Gilberto, Cheb i Sabbah, Karsh Kale, Midival Punditz, Michael Franti, Gaudi, DJ Spooky and others. The digital EP "Bombay Beatz", merges hip-hop, breakbeat and traditional Middle Eastern instruments to create an exciting new, eclectic sound.
By 19, David was in a signed band and touring the states with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Filter and Skinny Puppy. After years of experimentation in his home studio, he mastered the art of mixing and recording electronic music and traditional instruments together. His interest [eventually] shifted towards world music; he started studying artists from the Middle East and incorporating these rich, textured sounds into electronic music.
davidstarfire.com
Jamie Janover
Jamie Janover is recognized as a true innovator with the percussion stringed instrument called the hammered dulcimer. He is influencing how the hammered dulcimer is played by applying techniques acquired from over 20 years experience playing many other percussion instruments including: drum kit, the mini-kit (which he invented), multi-percussion, tabla, congas, bongos, timbales, tongue drum, and udu.
Since moving to Boulder, Colorado in 1995, Jamie has toured with a diverse group of bands and solo artists including: ZILLA, SPORQUE, Zuvuya, The Everyone Orchestra, Rena Jones, The Motet, The Zambiland Orchestra, and his own band, Jamie Janover and Friends, among others.
jamiejanover.com
Jef Stott
Six Degrees Recording Artist Jef Stott has been deftly navigating the realms of the global remix for over a decade. As a producer, he has founded the projects LUMIN, and STELLAMARA, produced releases for for MC RAI, and SOM'MA. He has released many tracks and remixes for the Six Degrees Label as well as written tracks for the popular Sims Video Games, and composed for several modern dance, Tribal Bellydance and theater productions.
As a musical anthropologist, he has studied with master musicians from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Iran and Turkey which led him to become accomplished on several traditional stringed and percussion instruments of the Middle East. These instruments figure prominently in his composition and production work as well as inform his sensibility about cultural relativism and issues of appropriation.
His work has been released on several record labels including Universal, EMI, Six Degrees, Hearts of Space, Triloka and City of Tribes. He has performed at festivals and concerts in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hawaii, Istanbul, Edinburgh, London, and Mexico.
jeffstott.com
Jaya Lakshmi
Inspired by the deep devotional mood of Indian singing and music, Jaya Lakshmi began leading kirtan with harmonium and 12 string guitar and writing her own devotional songs over 15 years ago on the island of Hawaii, shortly after receiving harinam initiation from Srila Govinda Maharaj, a great Vaisnava saint. Her ecstatic singing and kirtan leading, often accompanied by master musician Deva Priyo on sarod and Spanish guitar, and other talented artists, has had a powerful effect amongst various communities in the islands of Hawaii, the West Coast, and Europe, always creating a deep sense of intimacy with the divine.
She has a unique style that blends beauty, power and purity to create a truly transcendental sound driven by her fiery devotion and love for God. Because of her pure mood, deep sincerity, passion for God and great musical talent, Jaya Lakshmi is rapidly becoming well known and loved as one of the few touring female kirtan leaders in the West.
jayalakshmi.net
