Sarathy Korwar

Sarathy Korwar is a percussionist, composer, field recordist, and musicologist. Though born in the United States, he was raised in India and is based in London, England. His cross-cultural style combines East Indian classical folk musics, post-bop, modal jazz, and electronics. A longtime fixture on the London scene, he was accepted into the Steve Reid Foundation. He traveled to rural Gujarat and field recorded the Sidi Troupe of Ratanpur. He later added a studio session in Pune with jazz and electronic musicians. They resulted in his 2016 debut, Day to Day. In 2017, My East Is Your West debuted his ten-piece Upaj Collective, equally comprised of Indian and jazz musicians. 2019′s More Arriving was a collaboration between rappers, DJs, producers, singers, and players. That summer Upaj Collective recorded 2020′s Night Dreamer: Direct-To-Disc Sessions in a single day. In 2022 Shruti Dances, an EP with Auntie Flow (Brain d'Souza), appeared before Korwar released the Photay-produced Kalak. 2023′s KAL, a Kalak companion, was improvised and recorded at Real World Studios in late 2020, inspiring the album. Raised in Ahmedabad and Chennai by parents who were trained Indian classical singers, Korwar began his own musical education with the tabla at age eight. By 15, he was under the sway of jazz. He has cited John Coltrane and Ahmad Jamal as early influences. At 17, he began a study program in environmental science in Pune. His love of the tabla was unabated, and he studied Indian classical music with Rajeev Devasthali. He also began translating his rhythmic skills to a standard Western drum kit. Finishing his primary studies, he began to think about a music career; he immigrated to London and studied with master classical tabla player Pandit Sanju Sahai, graduating with a Master of Music Performance from the School of Oriental and African Studies. The focus of his thesis was the adaptation of the Indian classical rhythmic canon to non-Indian percussion instruments. After finishing school, he became a fixture on the London scene. He gained experience as a drummer and percussionist in a variety of settings. He worked in jazz and improvised music with Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, clarinetist Arun Ghosh, saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, and South African composer, multi-instrumentalist, and researcher Cara Stacey. He also played with Indian classical musicians Padmashri Pandit Pratap Pawar. Korwar cemented an idea for a solo project he’d had for some time. He planned a trip to India to field record the music of the Sidis, descendants of African tribes who came to India in the seventh century C.E. as merchants, sailors, slaves, and mercenaries. Their rhythms, vocal styles, and dances are the only remaining links to their culture of origin. Working the various music scenes in London, Korwar heard about the Steve Reid Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Gilles Peterson in commemoration of the late jazz drummer. Its two-fold objective of helping musicians in crisis and supporting emerging talent provided Korwar with an impetus. He applied with a three-minute video, was accepted into its development program, and mentored through his project by Peterson and foundation patrons Four Tet (Kieran Hebden), Floating Points, Koreless, and Emanative. Korwar traveled to rural Gujarat to record the Sidi Troupe of Ratanpur in the field, and later added another session in a professional studio in Pune. Jazz and electronic musicians — including Hutchings — were also added later. “Indefinite Leave to Remain” was released as a digital single in April 2016. Korwar’s debut album, Day to Day, was released by Ninja Tune in July of that year, followed by a tour with Kamasi Washington. The album was acclaimed by critics all over the globe and sold well enough to chart. The following year, Korwar joined saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings and electronic musician Hieroglyphic Being on the Association for Research & Enlightenment Project EP. Two years later, after touring internationally, Gearbox Records released the live My East Is Your West, by Sarathy Korwar and UPAJ Collective, performed and recorded at the sold-out Church of Sound. It combined a modern-day, handpicked, all-star London jazz quintet alongside five Indian classical musicians. The three-hour gig was recorded following a single 45-minute rehearsal, and the effort was awarded Contemporary Album of the Month by the Guardian. In July of 2019, Korwar released his sophomore studio outing, More Arriving, through the Leaf Label — it was centered around his honest reflections of his experience being an Indian in Britain, and it’s a confrontational album for confrontational times. The set incorporated rappers from Mumbai and New Delhi, English spoken word, and his own Indian classical and jazz performances. In July, Korwar and Upaj Collective entered a Netherlands recording studio and recorded Night Dreamer: Direct-To-Disc Sessions, which appeared in 2020. In August 2020, Korwar assembled a supergroup that included Bex Burch, Al MacSween, Tamar Osborn, and Dan Leavers (aka “Danalogue”), at The Fish Factory in London to improvise and record. They used cursory texts by Burch as a skeletal guidepost before setting off on an improvised musical adventure for the next 14 hours. Strut released a self-titled album by Flock in May. In February of 2022 he collaborated with Auntie Flo (electronic musician Brian d'Souza). Their recordings were released as the Shruti Dances EP in June on ManMakeMusic. In November, Korwar released Kalak. With producer Photay and the core band from More Arriving, the album is not only a sequel but an aural South Indian manifesto that juxtaposes and recombines India’s rich musical, cultural, and spiritual histories alongside their evolutionary reflections in 21st century. Before recording Kalak, Korwar convened his musicians at Real World Studios during the pandemic’s first break. It marked the first time any of them had played with another human being in nearly a year. Korwar showed them the Kalak symbol he designed and discussed the working of its rhythm. He said his intention was to ”…imprint this knowledge in the back of everyone’s head so it played out subliminally during our recordings.” Subsequently, they played a live improvised session. The jams ultimately inspired Kalak. Further, the original material was edited into the eight selections released as KAL in April 2023. ~ Thom Jurek