Jazz breaking news: Into the mystic as Tagore Festival returns to Dartington with Zoe Rahman, Kuljit Bhamra and Arun Ghosh

Taking place from Friday 6 April to Monday 9 April Tagore, now into its second running, is based at Dartington Hall near the west country alternative culture hub of Totnes. It’s a festival that takes its name and is inspired by the distinguished Indian-Bengali writer and visionary Rabindranath Tagore (inset). He has proved a fertile inspiration for jazz pianist Zoe Rahman, who drew on the music of the non-conformist mystic on her album Where Rivers Meet. Gurudev as Tagore was also known was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, the first non-European to receive the accolade. He was a key part of the Bengal renaissance in the 19th and early-20th centuries and as an avid humanist and anti-imperialist was known for his stories, songs and verse dramas across India and what is now Bangladesh.

Rahman, recently touring with Courtney Pine’s popular Europa band was also joined on Where Rivers Meet by the influential tabla player Kuljit Bhamra, who is also appearing at Tagore this year. Jazz fans will also know of Bhamra’s work from Andy Sheppard’s Movements in Colour band, which released its debut album for ECM three years. Tagore beyond music also encompasses other art forms, and presentations this year will include a puppet theatre show, a film screening of Michael Winterbottom’s new film Trishna, his just released reworking of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and there are also participative mbira workshops, an introduction to gamelan, kathak dance, traditional folk singing and tai chi.

– Stephen Graham

Main photo Zoe Rahman (above, left)  

For more go to www.tagorefestival.com

 

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