Friday, June 18, 2010

The Beas on the Road with Cirque du AR Rahman

The Beas On the Road with Cirque du AR Rahman - June 18, Chicago

JAI HO (may victory be yours) to everyone! Hope you are enjoying the first part of summer.

I’m on one of the most ambitious music tour I could ever have imagined, which is not only expanding my musical palate with AR Rahman’s intricate, infectious and intriguing compositions, but my visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory senses are hyper awake by the psychedelic sets, lighting, video, technical fireworks, the multitude of Indian nuances and expressions in the classical dances and songs, the hypnotic acrobatics and pounding street dancing, the superb versatility of all of the musicians, the stunning voice of AR; and with the mix of the sweat of 90 people coming together for this production, it surely is a complex masala.

YouTube promo and rehearsal clips for a preview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS8j-T-ZVCQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2rp82ID8w4

Meet the Musicians and Dancers on the bus on the road:

http://www.arrahman.com/

Hell Has no Curry Like AR Rahman’s Reheasals and Tour

As Music Director, I packed in a month’s worth of technical rehearsals into two weeks! After a 7 days of sound checks, we discovered that the digi-design monitor console wasn’t saving the scenes….whoa! But the band held together and despite looooong hours to make up for lack of rehearsal time, we managed to nail the first three shows (New York, Atlantic City and Washington, D.C.)!

We’re wrapping up our first 3-day break since early May. I spent it trying to forget how I was mixing pro-tools from 7am to 10am; holding band rehearsals for the next two hours, then the tech, staging, dance rehearsals, set moves, lighting, video had to be done at break-neck pace until about 11pm at night. The amazing Peter Morse came in at 11pm to 7am to work his magic with lighting. And Amy Tinkman, the Creative Director – WHAT A VISIONARY!

I salute AR for his incredible patience while we pieced together this jigsaw quilt. He and his music were surely the anchors.

You da PEOPLE!

I was surely impressed by AR’s loyal and new fans. We felt the thunder of 20,000 people singing along, dancing spontaneously and yeah going crazy.

Come join us:

AR Rahman’s Tour Schedule – U.S., Canada, Europe and UK

Friday June 18, 2010 : Chicago - (Sears Centre Arena)


Saturday June 19, 2010: Detroit - (Pontiac Silverdome)


Sunday June 20, 2010 : Toronto - (Air Canada Centre)


Saturday June 26, 2010 : San Francisco - (Oracle Arena)


Sunday June 27, 2010 : Los Angeles - (The Forum) - YEAH LAKERS!


Wednesday June 30, 2010 : Vancouver - (PNE Collesium)


Saturday July 3, 2010 : Houston - (Houston Toyota Center)


Sunday July 4, 2010 : Dallas (American Airlines Center)


Friday July 9, 2010 : Boston - (Tsongas Center)


Saturday July 10, 2010 : New Jersey - (Sun National Bank Center)


Sunday July 11, 2010 : Raleigh - (North Carolina)


Friday July 16, 2010 : Zurich - (Hallen Stadion)


Saturday July 17, 2010: Paris - (Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versaille)


Sunday July 18, 2010: Germany, (SAP Arena, Mannheim)


Friday July 23, 2010 : Birmingham - (LG Arena)


Saturday July 24, 2010: London - (O2)


Sunday July 25, 2010 : London - (Wembley)

Last Tuesday, Alex Gallafent from that terrific show BBC/PRI The World interviewed me about playing with AR. Have a listen and there’s a video also. When you go on their site, do SHARE on FB so more people will find out about AR’s music.

http://www.theworld.org/2010/06/15/ar-rahman-on-tour/

JAI HO!