Falu: Musical Bridge between East & West
Falguni Shah who performs under the name Falu was born in Mumbai India. From the age of 3 she studied classical Hindustani music and Vedic chant - quite possibly the oldest continuous vocal tradition in the world. It has 22 notes per octave instead of the Western 12 note scale. She would practice so hard, up to 16 hours a day, that sometimes she had to write down what she wanted to say to her mom when she would lose her voice! She was good enough to train with the legendary Ustad Sultan Khan - perhaps best known here in the US for his work with Bill Laswell in Tabla Beat Science -
At the age of 19, she moved to the US in 2000 as a student of other kinds of music, at Berklee School of music in Boston. visiting lecturer at Tufts University in Boston. There she was in the band Karyshma for a bit -
Through her Beat Science connection she then joined on with Tabla drummer and DJ Karsh Kale ending up touring across the nation with his Asian Massive project.
After a couple of years she moved to New York and started her own group. Like any talented musician, she found a community, and has worked with -
Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road project.
Wycleff Jean and Angelina Jolie for the score to the movie “A Place in Time.”
Carnegie Hall - She was a “Musical Ambassador to the City of New York.” and is still an Artist in Residence there.
She also performed for the Obamas, with Slumdog Millionaire composer AR Rahman.
The late great Bernie Worrell - here she is performing live with Parliament/Funkadelic benefit to pay his medical bills -
She released a collection of songs in 2013 based on music originally performed by courtesans naming it for the street in Bombay where they could be found “Foras Road”.
In a sharp topical turn, her latest album “Falu’s Bazaar” was nominated for a Best Children’s album Grammy in 2019.
She utilizes the power of music to heal, and to build community. She created this album to help her 4-year-old son Nishaad understand why he is different from the other kids in his pre-school, and to help other kids from diverse backgrounds to build confidence in their own sense of identity. Her band uses electronics / pop / alternative / rock influences to augment their basis in traditional Indian forms. Fans of Kid Creole and the Coconuts would recognize her bass player (and producer) Danny Blume :)
Website
https://www.falumusic.com/