Shared Values Festival: Jesse Bannister Saxophone / Giuliano Modarelli Guitar/ Kash Killion Double Bass / Sanju Sahai Tabla

Jesse Bannister is a unique musician who is respected as the leading Indian Saxophonist in Europe. Bannister is a truly global artist with an international reputation for original composition, outstanding performance and dynamic delivery. He has toured internationally in Asia, Europe and the US and now comes back home to tour in the UK with his quartet. “Jesse has a unique sound that will challenge the horizons of saxophone players worldwide for many decades.” – TAPLAS Jesse has performed throughout England, regularly bringing new and inspiring projects to the UK Music scene. Gigs include London Jazz Festival, Darbar, Musicport, Bridgewater Hall, BBC venue and QEH. “he is the future of Indian Classical Music”- Pandit Jasraj Jesse has composed music for the Halle Orchestra, Film, TV, Theatre and Dance productions. He co-founded and co-lead Raga Nova and Samay. Jesse has collaborated with many artists including Bickram Ghosh, Siva Raman, Talvin Singh, Andy Sheppard and Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Balbir Singh Dance company as composer for 2012 Olympiad project ‘Synchro.’ “An intricate and evocative fusionof Jazz and Indian music” – Jazz FM In 2012 Jesse conceived and composed the IOS app Groove India, in collaboration with Leeds College of Music and Mosquitodigital. In 2013/14 Jesse Toured USA for 7 weeks with Indian Classical Trio Trilogy, Toured Synchronised in UK, Composed music for Rugby world Cup and Tour de France Celebrations, worked alongside Asian Underground master Sri Sriram. Giuliano Modarelli Originally from Italy, Giuliano Modarelli is a London based guitarist, composer and producer with a unique voice.Having studied Jazz at University, he went on to develop through the Indian classical tradition studying under UK renowned sitarist Dharambir Singh, Indian classical maestro Buddhadev Dasgupta and his senior disciple Prattyush Bannerjee. His unique and exceptionally innovative style has led to collaboration with internationally renown artists such as Shankar Mahadevan, Bickram Ghosh, BC Manjunath, Shankar Tucker, Mysore Manjunath, Pete Lockett, Talvin Singh, Soumik Datta, Sarathy Korwar, Jyotsna Srikanth and many others. Modarelli is the leader and co-founder of the award-winning music collective Kefaya. This innovative and talented collective combines traditional forms with a range of contemporary influences to reinvent the sound of folk music. As well as an accomplished performer, Modarelli is a prolific composer and producer for dance, theater and cinema. He regularly collaborates across disciplines with artists such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Gregory Maqoma, Mavin Khoo, DV8, Jose Agudo and many more. KASH KILLION Kash Killion is a San Francisco based cellist, bassist, sarangist, vocalist, and composer, who began his professional music career at age ten. Kash is a visionary musician who stretches the boundaries of what one would expect from string instruments. He hears the cello as a bass, a violin, a guitar, a saxophone, and a piano, and he seeks to share that with his listeners. He strives to put the string instruments in unusual situations and play any style of music and make it sound authentic. His focus is to create something unique, and from that his music and CDs have wide appeal, as there is something for everyone to enjoy. Kash records and performs with various ethnic music ensembles and chamber orchestras ranging from the Sun Ra Arkestra to Cuban/Salsa bands such as Roberto Borrell y Orquesta La Moderna Tradición to classical music and Indian classical music, and has over a hundred recordings to his credit. He also performed as a singer on the movie The General’s Daughter and numerous other movie and commercial projects. Kash has played extensively with musical icons such as B.B. King, Cecil Taylor, John Zorn, Julius Hemphill, Reggie Workman, Sun Ra, Butch Morris, Paul Murphy, Glen Spearman, George Lewis, Alvin Baptiste, Chocolate Armenteros, Richard Egues, Larry Willis, Steve Berrios, and Francisco Aquabella. Kash also has a deep interest in world music. He studied sarangi and cello with the great Indian musician, Ali Akbar Khan, and recorded with his orchestra. He has also studied sarangi with the great masters Sultan Khan and Rhamish Mishra. He has recorded Afro-Cuban music with several salsa groups. He composes and performs for both dance troupes and poets. Major poets he has accompanied including Amiri Baraka, Alice Walker, Quincy Troupe, Shirley Le Flore and Jessica Hagdorm. Born in Alton, Illinois (Miles Davis’ home town), Kash was raised listening to jazz—his brother was a jazz trumpeter—in the very fertile music scene in and around East St. Louis. Drawn first to clarinet, then voice, flute, electric guitar and electric bass, Kash started performing at age ten. Through high school he was working in doo-wop, funk, soul, rock and church groups. In college he studied classical contrabass, violin, and cello. He attended L.A. City College and holds a B.A. in Performance and Musical Composition from Antioch University. Piano giant Horace Tapscott became his mentor and Kash played bass in Tapscott’s Ark Orchestra; drummer Billy Higgins was part of that scene, too. This rekindled his interest in straightahead jazz. On the straightahead jazz front, Kash has played with great players like Donald Byrd, George Cables, Billy Higgins, Bobby Hutcherson, James Newton, and Billy Bang. Kash’s interest in avant garde jazz was ignited by Sun Ra in 1978—and further heightened by meeting and playing with Pharoah Sanders. In L.A. Kash was playing bass as his primary instrument, but getting more and more interested in cello. When he moved to the Bay Area in 1984, he switched almost entirely to cello, mainly because it provided him with the freedom to play in a variety of groups because of the versatility of the instrument. In addition to recordings and live performances Kash’s contribution to music extends to educating others. He has taught string instruments, music theory, and performance arts to students from ages three to adult. Teaching venues range from elementary schools to Rutgers University, North Carolina University, and Duke University. He teaches masters classes in cello and sarangi. He’s also an accomplished luthier and repairs all string instruments. His passion for world music has kept him exploring different possibilities of combinations of the right vibrations. SANJU SAHAI Sanju Sahai (also known as Vishnu Sahai) , is currently one of the finest and most sought after Tabla players of his generation. Belonging to the Benares Gharana (lineage) and being the 6th generation of Tabla players in the lineage, he began playing at an early age. Being a child prodigy, he gave his first Tabla solo performance at a major festival in Benares at the tender age of 9. He gained his Bachelor of Music at the age of 13 and Master of Music at 18 years of age. A phenomenal and outstanding Tabla player, he is well known for mesmerising and captivating his audience with his power, virtuosity and complete spontaneity. His meteoric rise in popularity in the field of traditional Indian Classical music has led Sanju to regularly collaborate with different genres such as Jazz, Egyptian, Flamenco, Opera, Western Classical, hip hop, folk, blues music and the world of contemporary music and dance., This makes him an imaginative and sensitive musician, having an elegant and poignant style of his own. He has and continues to collaborate with various international artists from around the globe such as: Manuela Carrasco (Flamenco dance), Michael Nyman (British composer), Patricia Rozario (opera), BBC Philharmonic, Naresh Sohal (composer), Pete Lockett (multi percussionist), Yair Dalal (oud), Jason Carter (guitarist), Matthew Barley and Anup Biswas (cellists), Don Li (clarinet), Harp Quartet, Dominique Vellard (Gregorian chant), Gilles Petit (composer and instrumentalist) and the acclaimed dancer Akram Khan. Sanju is an international artist and performs all over the UK, India, Europe, Middle East, USA, Australasia and the far East. He has accompanied many of India's legendary musicians and dancers such as: Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia (bansuri), Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and Pandit Bhajan Sapori (santoor), Ustad Vilayat Khan Saheb, Ustaad Imrat Khan Saheb, Ustaad Shahid Parvez, Pandit Kartik Kumar and Pandit Manilal Nag (sitar), Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (mohan veena), Pandit Birju Maharaj, Natraj Gopi Krishna and Smt Sitara Devi (Kathak), Ustaad Aasheesh Khan and Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan (sarod), Pandit Jasraj, Smt Girija Devi, Pandits Rajan and Sajan Misra, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty and Smt Veena Sahasrabuddhe (vocal) Ustaad Sultan Khan and Pandit Ramesh Misra (sarangi), Kala Ramnath (violin) and maestro Umyalpuram Shivraman (mridangam) to name but a few. More Info below.