It’s not often that a band finds its own sound and sticks to it. But for city-based jazz fusion band MoonArra, it has hardly a challenge. Pioneers in their own ingenious soundscape, the band has often set the standards in music par excellence with musicians as endearing as the band’s name which means ‘three streams’.
Scheduled to perform at the second ‘Jewel In The Lotus’ showcase as part of a series of transcendental music concerts organised by Guruskool, MoonArra is all set to take their audience on a musical journey with a repertoire of fantastic sounds and songs they can clearly call their own.
Comprising founder and composer M.R. Jagadeesh on guitars and oud, co-founder, singer and songwriter Madhuri Jagadeesh and award-winning songwriter Prakash Sontakke on slide guitar and Hindustani vocals, MoonArra teams up this time with guest artistes Chaitra Sontakke on Hindustani vocals and Adarsh Shenoy on tabla. On the gig, the band has planned to do a different set-up. Jagadeesh says: “It’s an intimate and, yet, an ambient space. We will be performing compositions that carry a different feel which will be more acoustic with percussions and voices.”
“Chaitra’s voice blends well with our soundscape and has a nice vibe. The emotional component is high. It’s the same with Adarsh. He focuses a lot of showcasing the melody in his rhythm,” elaborates Madhuri.
We will focus on emotionally intelligent music, points out Madhuri. “We always appreciate our audience listening and connecting with us on an emotionally intelligent level.” She adds: “Most bands rarely do anything slow. Everyone wants to pick up the crowd frenzy. On the other hand, we want to actually get the emotion across. We’ve deliberately slowed down some of our songs.”
Preceded by a lec-dem, MoonArra will share insight into their music, instruments and their technique in song writing before their concert.
Jagadeesh points out that for quite some time now, they’ve been performing in various combinations. “From solos to duets and trios, audiences are used to seeing us in different arrangements. So it is no surprise that we are trying out new collaborations.” Madhuri pitches in and emphasises that they sees music as a co-operative and not a competitive endeavour. “For the growth of our music, we work on inspirational models and not aspirational ones.”
Entering their ninth year together, the future looks promising for MoonArra. Jagadeesh says they will continue to always make better music. “Our music will keep growing. We’ve done so many collaborations and we hope to do more elaborate ones on the long run.”
Catch MoonArra live at Rangasthala, S.V. Road Metro Station with the workshop at 6 p.m. followed by the concert at 7 p.m. Passes available on indianstage.in
