About Ramesh

Ramesh Shotham-Biography ‘All music is, in some sense, a journey, but some musicians travel further than others. Percussionist Ramesh Shotham is one such. Originally a rock drummer with one of India¹s most successful bands Human Bondage, he underwent something of a conversion in the mid 1970s and was drawn back towards the music of his homeland. He has been steadily clocking up yet more miles in this musical journey, collaborating in the 1990s with jazz visionaries like saxophonists Steve Coleman and Charlie Mariano, composer Carla Bley and oud player Rabih Abou Khalil. Then came his own group, Madras Special, which may be a summation of all that he has learnt and discovered along the way.’ (Cormac Larkin in the Irish Sunday Tribune, 23.07.06) Based in Germany, since the early 1980s, Shotham chose to live permanently in the city of Cologne around 1990, and became a German citizen in the year 2000. Nowadays, Shotham¹s arsenal includes a bewildering array of percussion Instruments, ranging from diverse Indian traditional drums to selected pieces of the modern drum kit. He has been, over the years, working closely with companies such as Meinl Percussion, Wahan Drums and Anatolian Cymbals in developing, enhancing and endorsing their products. Shotham’s use of traditional Indian drums in Orchestral and Big Band settings is quite unique. His work with the Carla Bley Big Band (Escalator Over The Hill), the WDR Big Band (Sketches of Bangalore/Karnataka College of Percussion, Niedecken’s ‘Deutschlandlieder’), BujazzO (Tour of India during the German Cultural Year 2011) and Phoenix Foundation (Indian Tour 2013), is well documented. He has been closely associated with the Renga project of the LPO (London Philharmonic Orchestra), playing original ‘World Music’ compositions with some of the finest classical musicians from London. His forays into the Western Classical world also saw him playing percussion in Nationaltheater Mannheim’s production of the Baroque Opera ‘Alessandro’, directed by the famous Günter Krämer. Besides fulfilling his busy touring and studio schedules, Shotham has been active in the field of music education. He has created special concepts for teaching rhythms to musicians (as well as to lay people), based on the unique drum language and mathematics of the music of South India. ‘GlobalTala’ and ‘Talking Rhythm’ Workshops represent these concepts. Shotham has conducted workshops at music conservatories in Weimar, Cologne, Nürnberg, and Rostock. During the last 3 years, Shotham has been involved in ‘Kultur und Schule’ projects, working with children. He is currently a regular member of the World Percussion Academy’s annual meetings at the Landesmusikakademie in Heek.

WDR Jazz Prize 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

Die Preisträger des WDR Jazzpreises 2018 stehen fest: Der Kompositionspreis geht an Hendrika Entzian, Gewinner in der Kategorie „Improvisation“ ist der Saxofonist Roger Hanschel. In der Kategorie „Musikkulturen“ zeichnet der WDR den Perkussionisten Ramesh Shotham aus. Den Nachwuchspreis bekommt das Young 7Teen Jazz Orchestra. Der Ehrenpreis 2018 geht an die Jazz-Spielstätte Bunker Ulmenwall in Bielefeld für besondere Programmprojekte. Die Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger wurden von einer Jury ausgewählt, der Jazzmusiker sowie Jazzkritiker und auch die WDR 3 Jazz & World Redaktion angehören.

https://presse.wdr.de/plounge/radio/wdr3/2017/11/20171123_jazzpreis.html

Eastern Flowers / Mumbai Project / Mumbai Project + hr-Bigband 2016-2017

During 2016/2017 my main musical activities were with the Trio Eastern Flowers with Jarry Singla and Christian Ramond. We toured and played at various jazz festivals in Bolivia and Argentina.

End of September 2017 the sextet Mumbai Project came together with the hr-Bigband in Frankfurt to rehearse and record, followed by two highly acclaimed live appearances.