The Mahindra Percussion Festival is back with its third edition and a formidable line up

It’s almost 10 weeks since the passing of Ustad Zakir Hussain and tribute festivals continue to be organised around the world. The following evening, drummer Ranjit Barot and theatre director Roysten Abel will present BeatRoute, a musical production that seamlessly blends Indian folk rhythms with modern electronic music, highlighted by Ranjit’s drumming. The other performers this year are sitar exponent Ravi Chary and his project Crossing, the Trilok Gurtu Project, and Chennai percussion duo Snax, consisting of drummer Ramkumar Kanakarajan aka Kanaxx and mridangam player Sumesh Narayanan. Trilok Gurtu’s team will feature brilliant artistes such as Chandana Bala Kalyan on vocals, Dhruv Ghanekar on the guitar and Rahul Wadhwani on the keyboard, besides a rhythm ensemble consisting of Prashant Paradkar on the drums, Umesh Warbhuvan and Vaibhav Wavikar on the percussion, and Rohit Khawle on the dholki. The festival will end with Ranjit Barot and Roysten Abel’s BeatRoute, which among other things, aims to showcase the new sound of Indian percussion.