SIVAMANI & bands

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SIVAMANI – the creator !

Schooled in both the Carnatic rhythmic tradition and Western Jazz drums, Sivamani is the only Indian Drummer to be conferred with the most prestigious ‘Padma Shri’ by the Indian Government (2019). He is truly a World Percussionist -surrounding his kit with an array of instruments. He has played world over with some of the best International artistes & is also a part of World music outfits such as the Zakir Hussain World Drums Ensemble, SILK, Asia Electrik & Shraddha. Infact, no World tour of multi-Oscar and multi-Grammy winner A R Rahman is complete without Siva’s daunting presence. What makes him unique is not only his constant search for new techniques, new sounds & newer rhythmic configurations, but also his incredible showmanship.

Siva (as he is fondly called) creates magic with just about anything from his conventional cymbals to the timbale to the batajon to the vastly unconventional shells and conches and “Biryani Kadai” (a popular cooking vessel in Asia). Sivamani is exclusively managed by AMG India, under the personal guidance of Mr. Manish Savant.

His style is deceptive for the uninitiated. Deeply profound and mysterious at one moment; tantalizing and exuberant at the next. However, augmenting the brute power, are his rhythmic style and harmony, which surround the discerning listener with warmth, joy and bliss.

Watch the magic of Sivamani’s Solo Concerts by clicking the link below:

Siva, this rare phenomenon in the world of rhythm, is lucky to have inherited his rhythmic brilliance from his father S M Anandan, a well known drummer in the South Indian Film Industry, under whom he started his training. Siva was adept with his drumsticks even at the tender age of 7 and went on to give his first stage performance at the age of 12. His first studio break was playing for South Indian Master Creator K V Mahadevan. By the age of 13, he had a professional music career with recordings under the watchful eyes of Carnatic & light music legend S P Balasubramaniam. He was later inspired by the compositions and styles of international masters Noel Grant and Billy Cobham, with whom he later went on to share the stage at Rang Bhavan Mumbai.

Siva’s earliest experiments has been with Carnatic Maestros, Kunnaikudi Vaidyanathan, T V Gopalakrishnan as well as thavil masters Valayapatti Subramaniam and Pazhanivel and L. Shankar. His dream came true when he was invited to share the stage with Ustad Zakir Hussain along with Trilok Gurtu at Mumbai’s famed Rang Bhavan – opening up myriad musical possibilities. He was later exposed to the great rhythm masters Vikku Vinayakram (Ghatam), Lewis Pragasan (Drums), T K Murthy (Mridangam) and Late Nagarajan (Kanjira) and even started taking lessons from them.

A sought after performer both on Live-shows and recordings, Siva is widely recognized as one of India’s best drummers. One of the best pair of hands in the world of percussion, Ustaad Zakir Hussain in a live show presented him as a “phenomenon that walks the planet but once or twice in a century”. South Indian geniuses Illayaraja and A R Rahman and other Bollywood music directors all regularly engage his variety of percussion. He features along with legendary masters such as Billy Cobham, Vikku Vinayakram, Freddy Santiago, Terry Bozzio, Wil Calhoun, Mynta, Ranjit Barot, T K Murthy, Rikki Ray and Dr. L. Subramaniam commanding the respect of a true Master Percussionist.

He is the only Indian musician to be endorsing five of the biggest International brands in the live music industry, including Zildjian, Pearl, Roland, AKG & Remo. He has also been conferred with the highest State Honor in the field of Arts – the title of ‘Kalaimamani’ by the Tamil Nadu government, in January 2019. He was also honoured with the ‘Best Instrumental Act’ at the prestigious Live Quotients Awards (LQA 2015), and was also invited by the World renowned Berklee College of Music (Boston) for a special performance.

In 2015, Sivamani made his debut as a feature film Music Composer with the hit Tamil film Arima Nambi, for which he won the BEST NEW MUSIC COMPOSER award ! His 2nd movie Kanithan released recently was an even bigger hit both musically and at the box office. In 2020, he made his Bollywood film debut as Music Composer, with the award-winning film Atkan Chatkan, which won the BEST MUSIC award at the Jaipur International Film Festival..

Sivamani’s ‘high-energy’ fusion bands !

‘SIRAHA Trio‘, ‘The SIVAMANI Trio’ and ‘ASIA ELECTRIK‘ are spear-headed by wiz-percussionist Sivamani. Their music is mostly raag based but with western harmonies and orchestration woven into it. The composed themes are just vehicles for interpretation & improvisations making the parameters very wide, allowing plenty of room for improvisation, cross rhythmic explorations, call & response, jugalbandis & pure telepathic encounters.

Siva, one of the world’s most gifted percussionist, always grasps the essence of a composition early, adds inputs & ideas regarding rhythmic variations and the composition goes through various metamorphoses as they play a piece, never sounding the same twice.

In ASIA ELECTRIK, Siva is accompanied by Louiz Banks, who is the extraordinary music maestro who has been in the forefront of fusion music in India since its inception. He has played worldwide with the best international artistes & is acknowledged as India’s best keyboardist. The 3rd member is Niladri Kumar, who incorporates traditional Indian classical vocabulary into the band’s repertoire. He is a brilliant, young Sitar virtuoso with a unique ability to play pure Indian classical as well as modern world music with great mastery. The sound of Asia Electrik is new, exciting and riding the wave of the 21^st century !

SIRAHA TRIO features one of the finest Jazz pianist Harmeet Manseta alongwith young child prodigy U. Rajesh on Mandolin, younger brother of Mandolin maestro Late Shri U. Srinivas, who is highly acclaimed by critics and connoisseurs alike for his unique Soundscapes.

The SIVAMANI Trio features young Sitar prodigy Pt. Ravi Chary and the new-age keyboardist, singer, composer Sangeet Haldipur.

Sivamani has recently come together with versatile Ghazals, Sufi & folk singer Runa Rizvi to form a first of it’s kind fusion band NEW LIFE that does a unique Fusion of Ghazals, Sufi & Folk music with World Percussions & Jazz. Besides Sivamani on World Percussions and Runa on Vocals, the band features the multi-talented composer Vishal Dhumal (Keyboards & Harmonium) & Ojas Adhiya (Tabla) to enhance the ‘contemporary’ touch of the band.

Here is a Live Act that’s totally fresh, has a raw appeal and is embellished with the magic of the magician on drums Sivamani !!