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.

Wahan Drums Anatolian Cymbals Meinl Percussion

I’ve always tried to tinker with my percussion set-ups, never having been satisfied with regular run-of-the-mill music store products. Finally I’ve found some fine professionals to help me put a unique set together. Check this out:

Willy Wahan built me a custom Tavil rack, below which is a 16″ Wahan bass drum (natural wood finish). Mounted on the rack is a floating 12″ Wahan Tom. I also use a 10″ Wahan snare drum.

Christian Krebs, from Box of Trix, invited me to test their new Anatolian Cymbals and I fell in love straightaway with a 20″ ride (Passion), a 18″ crash (Ultimate), 12″ Power Hi-Hat (Ultimate), and 8″, 10″ and 12″ splashes (Baris), which are part of my set-up now.

Mario Schmitt made it possible for me to receive some fantastic percussion products from Meinl such as the fibreglass IBO drum, Aluminium Dombak, Talking Drum, etc.
Two other unique instruments I discovered, to my good fortune, are the ‘Hang’ made by Felix Rohner and Sabine Schirer at Panart in Bern, and the ‘Pentajon’ by Christoph Franzen at Klangspiel.

KCP 5 with the WDR Big Band

The ongoing tour with KCP 5 has been a great success so far. The highlight up until now has to be the concert with the WDR Big Band at the Philharmonie in Cologne. This was a sold out affair and it was an incredible experience to perform Mike Herting’s arrangements of KCP 5’s tunes for the big band! To top it all off, U. Shrinivas as special guest on the electric mandolin was sensational!

Anatolian Cymbals
I’m very happy to have discovered the new range of Anatolian cymbals and am currently the latest addition to Box of Trix’s official endorsers.

Many Ways KCP 5

Many Ways by KCP 5 is now being promoted by Doublemoon Records and will be out in March 2007. This was recorded in Bangalore last year. Before going into the studio we performed an open air concert for World Space Radio. The CD-release tour starts beginning of March and includes a stint with the WDR Big Band. The tour dates are on this website.
Another CD soon to be released, is on Vitold Rek’s Taso label titled Home, featuring Jaroslaw Bester on accordion, Vitold on bass and myself playing percussion.

Kadim Tour 2006

I just returned from Switzerland after recording an album with Omri Hason’s group Kadim, which also features Madras Special members Sandhya Sanjana and Zoltan Lantos. Special guest this time was Maarten Meddens from Rotterdam playing Fender Rhodes in his unique funky manner!
We also performed 5 live concerts in Bern, Zug, Sion, Langenau and Zürich to enthusiastic audiences.
On this trip I added a new percussion instrument in my repertoire of instruments:the Pentajon, which is a 5-sided cajon and offers unique rhythmic and tonal possibilites! The Pentajon is Christoph Franzen’s creation. Check it out at: www.pentajon.de