DAVE  SHARP WORLDS QUARTET

Enjoy an afternoon of improvisation and world and folk music fusion, featuring vocalist Charu Swaminathan, bassist, bandleader and composer Dave Sharp, guitarist Elden Kelly, and multi-instrumentalist/percussionist Carolyn Koebel.

Dave Sharp brings both his upright and electric bass skills to a wide variety of music groups as well as collaborations with Bollywood musicians (Parthiv Gohil, Jointa Gandhi) and touring Kirtan (Girish, Prema Hara) artists.

Charu Swaminathan is a Classical Singer trained in the North Indian style. She has studied with renowned masters both in India and in the US and has been performing and teaching Indian Classical music for the last 15 years.

Elden Kelly is an improviser, band leader, guitarist, composer and singer-songwriter known for classically-influenced jazz and world music. In addition to nylon string guitar, Kelly is known for his work on the Glissentar, an 11-string fretless guitar which conjures up sounds reminiscent of India, Africa and the Middle East, or “Indo-Turkish bluegrass.”

Carolyn Koebel’s early studies are rooted in the Western traditions, while the past 20 years have found her slowly traversing the globe in search of indigenous folk roots and traditional rhythmic materials from Latin & South America, West Africa and the Middle East, and all points in-between.

This event is held in conjunction with Rasa, the innovative India-themed multi-arts festival, produced by Akshara, and held annually in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti in September. It is designed to promote a deeper awareness and appreciation for the effulgent richness and abundance of cultural heritage that stems from India. It is multi-arts and multi-disciplinary, presenting traditional as well as cutting edge work in performing, visual, literary, media/films, and culinary arts, in partnership with prominent Ann Arbor arts organizations.