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The band:
Kagura is one of the oldest surviving forms of performing arts in Japan and has had a major influence on Noh and Kabuki . The origins of Kagura can be traced back to Japanese Shinto mythology where it is represented in a famous story about the Goddess of the Sun - Amaterasu. Kagura is performed with masks representing various Gods or without masks accompanied by traditional instruments and singing. The performances include rituals to purify the performance space, which creates a suitable environment for villagers to welcome and hopefully communicate with the G ods . This often involves the villagers drinking sake and dining with the gods before they send the Gods back to heaven. Kagura performances often continue until dawn.
The tour will include exploring contemporary sound with Kagura rhythm by micabox mixed by Haruomi Osono (ex. member of Yellow Magic Orchestra) and a photo exhibition introducing the life of Japanese village people around Kagura from 1920-2000. Lectures and workshops led by the Kagura expert Noritake Kanzaki will also be available . This is a rare treat to see the enchanting performances of Kagura in the UK. THE HUA FAMILY SHAWM BAND (China) Shawm band musicians are the gypsies of China, and the Hua family band are among the most exhilarating. Led by master musicians Hua Yinshan (shawm) and his older brother Hua Jinshan (drum), the Hua family shawm band is busy peforming for funerals and calendrical ceremonies throughout Datong municipality in the north of Shanxi province. The ear-splitting sound of shawms (suona, with a flared bell and pirouette, the small reed enclosed in the mouth) and percussion has become an ubiquitous accompaniment to village ceremonial since around the 16 th century. In 2002 the band scored a big hit at Yoyo Ma's Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington where "their music sent American audiences wild" (Songlines 2004). The music makes an extreme contrast to the refined world of erhu, pipa and qin, but it is at least as old, of great beauty and complexity, with a corpus of lengthy and through-composed early melody veiled by a gutsy blues-like improvisatory feel. The Hua band is one of few still playing the ancient repertory.
Ghulam Ali was born in Sialkot district in 1940 prior to partition into a family of musicians: his father was a singer and a sarangi player from whom he received his initial training. Later he had a brief period under the legendary Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Bade Mubarak Ali and Barkat Ali. He rose to fame once he started to perform for Radio Lahore in 1960. His unique style is founded in classical music, a strong understanding and knowledge of poetry, a lovely voice and imagination and creative skills. GHAZAL has its origins in the devotional music of the SUFI shrines but has today become a very popular urban stage art form. Mehdi Hassan and the inimitable Jagjit Singh are other names that spring to mind when talking about contemporary ghazal singing. Accompanying artists will include tabla and sarangi. PIU SARKHEL AND AMIT MUKERJEE (India) A superb group led by the virtuosic khanjira player, B.R. LATHA, daughter of the legendary percussion maestro Shri H. P. Ramachar, and she is the only lady khanjira player in India. With her is the young M S LAVANYA - saxophone player and student of the great Kadri Gopalnath G. LAKSHMI is the brilliant mridangam player of the group while K SHASHIKALA plays the extraordinary ghatam. GOKA LAKSHMI for whom this will be her first time out of India plays the powerful tavil ; she has only recently been performing outside her village near Bangalore where her family are musicians attached to a local temple. Finally,G. MARAGADHAVALLI provides the vocals. A unique feast of Carnatic rhythm and melody not to be missed! THE SPIRIT OF FRIENDSHIP (INDIA AND PAKISTAN) Tours / Concerts / Education / Summer Schools / Artists / News / Shop / Asian Music Centre / Membership / Links
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Mrigya is a fascinating contemporary group from Delhi. Venturing to stretch the boundaries of music, Mrigya has now become the harbinger of a unique fusion band offering a rich blend of blues, funk, folk, latino, Indian Classical, and jazz. The objective of Mrigya is to expand in all directions and to play music without boundaries. Mrigya created history at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2001 by becoming the first Indian band to get a 4 star rating with the Scotsman. Mrigya is an experience not to be missed! 
The Kagura group we are bringing to the UK is known as Honkawa Kagura , a name referring to the village where it orignates from . Honkawa village is set deep in the mountains of Kochi prefecture in Shikoku - West of Osaka. Of the some 3000 Kagura existing in Japan today , Honkawa is well preserved in its original form with little influence from urban life and culture. Honkawa Kagura is dynamic and colourful, with different types of masks - the mask of the Mountain God was designed in 1687! Ho nkawa Kagura was designated an "Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property" by the Japanese government in 1980. 
Just when you thought it was safe to listen to Chinese music...
By way of an entertaining contrast to the classic suites, the band plays a repertory derived from local opera melodies. In this the band is often augmented by the sheng (mouth organ), Mei (flute), and huhu (fiddle). Tricks are performed playing trumpets with a whistle in the mouth, [a short curved trumpet] and on the shawm, dismantling and reassembling it, or by playing it through the nostrils, or in pairs. On demand the band may even play their pop music repertory; show old Hua Jinshan a drum-kit and he'll go wild! 
Ustad Ghulam Ali is probably one of the biggest names in the music of the South Asian sub-continent. He is one of the pioneers responsible for reviving the beautiful style of GHAZAL in the seventies. Ghulam Ali has been one of the major ambassadors trying to forge bridges across the border between India and Pakistan and he is admired equally in both countries, with a huge following all over the world. 
Piu Sarkhel has been making an impressive impact on discerning audiences everywhere. She is one of the rare artists who represents the Indore gharana - made so famous by her own musical mentor the magnificent USTAD AMIR KHAN. It is by way of paying a tribute to that most outstanding of musicians of India that Piu is performing in the UK. Her father - Sri Kamal Bannerjee was close associate and beloved disciple of the late Ustad Amir Khan for more that twenty years. Amir Khan used to stay with her family thus giving the young Piu a unique opportunity to listen to the Ustad and imbibing his style and technique. Her father was uniquely placed to teach the young Piu and train her into this beautiful Amirkhani style but at the same allowing her talent to develop its own personality. Piu is blessed with a tuneful voice and is very " surila" indeed: in the true Amirkhani tradition she has a certain graceful steadiness in her rendition based on "badat" and "vistar" - the step by step development of the raag- contrasted by powerful "sargams" (solfage) and "taans" ( fast passages). It is always wonderful to hear the old compositions of USTAD AMIR KHAN. 
Amit Mukherjee was trained by Shri Shankar Mazumdar, a senior disciple of the legondary late USTAD AMIR KHAN. He was fortunate to have listened to the maestro practice and talk about music, and in this way Amit Mukherjee was able to grasp the essence of Ustad Amir Khan's unique style. This style was characterised by abstract expression, the development of the music based on the concept of "merukhand ", " sargams" and "taans " and was intellectually invigorating. Amit Mukherjee had his own personal approach to the music he learnt and has received much praise and acclaim for his performances. He is a regular broadcaster on radio and television and has toured all over the world. He is currently the Executive Director of the ITC Sangeet Research Academy (SRA) in Kolkata. Amit Mukherjee
will also give seminars on the late
Ustad Amir Khan. 
The extraordinary all female group led by Latha Ramchar 
The Nizami Brothers perform exciting and rhythmic "qawwali" in the unblemished traditions associated with the shrine of the Sufi saint, Nizammudin Auliya in Old Delhi. Led by Ghulam Sabir and Ghulam Waris of the legendary Sikandra Gharana, the group perform devotional music rooted in the Sufi mystical traditions that are both lyrical and vitally rhythmic. In 2005 the Nizami's will be joined by their cousins from Pakistan who are led by Taufiq Niyazi Qawal.