Deepak Ram
bansuri

Close your eyes and let yourself float off on one of bansuri flute master Deepak Ram’s haunting melodies, and you never know where he'll end up taking you. With the ancient roots of north Indian classical music as his point of embarkation, this phenomenal player sets his compositions loose to range over a vast terrain, weaving together traditional elements from Africa and India with modern Western influences to create a sound that is both deeply spiritual and cosmopolitan.

Born in South Africa in 1960, Deepak Ram began his formal training in bansuri and tabla there before traveling to India to study flute; in 1981 he became the disciple of the world-renowned bansuri master, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. In addition to his accomplishments in traditional Indian music, Deepak Ram is well-known for his collaborations with musicians of other genres, including jazz pianist Darius Brubeck and the popular South African group Tananas, and for his vast experience as a composer of pieces ranging from jazz to choral works, ballets, and orchestral pieces. He has performed all over the world and has recorded numerous albums including Searching for Satyam, which won Best Instrumental Album in the 2000 South African Music Awards, and his most recent albums, Prasad - Blessing & Beauty in Diversity, both on Golden Horn. Deepak Ram

Jerry Leake
tabla and other percussion

Jerry Leake is co-founder of the acclaimed world-music ensemble Natraj, whose third CD, Deccan Dance, features his diverse percussion talents. He also performs with Club d'Elf, R.A.R.E, Moksha, and the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society. He is featured on many CDs and has released a solo recording of traditional and contemporary percussion vignettes. On tabla, he has accompanied Ali Akbar Khan, Steve Gorn, Sharafat Ali Khan, Kumkum Sanyal, Chitravena Ravikiran, Purnima Sen, Joti Raghavan, George Ruckert and Peter Row.

Jerry graduated from the Berklee College of Music where he studied jazz vibraphone with Gary Burton and hand percussion with Pablo Landrum. He studied tabla in Pune, India with Shreeram and Rajiv Devasthali, and extensive studies in Boston. In Chennai, India, Jerry studied Karnatic rhythm theory (and mridangam) with T. K. Ramakrishnan, as well as with Jamey Haddad in Boston. Jerry is a regular substitute teacher for Haddad’s frame drum and rhythm theory classes at Berklee College. He continues to study African percussion with Dolsi-Naa Abubakari Luna of the Dagomba tradition (northern Ghana) and has studied Ewe music with Godwin Agbeli (southern Ghana), and balafon and djembe with the Coulibaly family in Burkina Faso.

Jerry has written eight widely used texts on North Indian, West African, Latin American percussion, and advanced rhythm theory (www.RhombusPublishing.com). He is currently on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University, and presents percussion clinics and solo concerts throughout New England.

Michael Rivard
acoustic double bass & electric bass

Michael Rivard studied at Berklee College of Music, as well as at the Banff School of Fine Arts with award-winning jazz bassist Dave Holland, and privately with jazz improvisation guru Charlie Banacos. A member of world jazz group Natraj since '86, he also leads the acclaimed dub/world/jazz group club d'Elf and has produced 7 albums for the band which feature some of the premier musicians in the improv scene, including John Medeski, dj Logic, Dave Fiuczynski & others. Rivard has performed and recorded with a wide array of artists, including Chitravina Ravikiran, Dolsinaa Abubakari Lunna, Billy Martin ( MMW ), Hassan Hakmoun, Morphine, Either/Orchestra, Paula Cole, Jonatha Brooke & the Story, & many others. Besides acoustic double bass and electric bass his studies have recently included the Moroccan sintir and an immersion in the music of that country, including Gnaoua and Berber styles.