Aditi Malhotra is an Indian born singer and composer who is about to move to Brooklyn, New York. She studied Hindustani Classical Music and later was influenced by Black American music. She’s performed at the Kennedy Center, Festival da Jazz in Switzerland, and the Panama Jazz Festival among others. She is a 3x recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. Her music combines ideas of identity, longing and home
My featured song is "Take Me”, from the album PGS 7. Spotify link.
CONNECT WITH ADITI:
@aditimalhotra
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SONGFEST:
1. Manto (20:22) — string quartet with Aditi singing; inspired by a short story by Saadat Hasan Manto; written while she was in school, string arrangement added afterwards.
2. [Second Track] (22:07) — opens with the sung line “Blue is the sun”; acoustic bass opening, then vocal; Aditi painted the cover art herself, inspired by a Charles River / Esplanade view in Boston.
3. A Home That Isn’t Mine (23:32) — her setting of a poem by an Indian poet; Aditi sings and plays piano, having taught herself the piano part.
4. Anaarti (25:31) — named for her first childhood home; about her family, childhood and growing up singing classical music, combining those worlds with childlike play.
DISCUSSION SEGMENTS:
- 3:39 — Growing up in New Delhi and studying Hindustani classical music; Sa, the drone, and ragas as moods tied to times of day and seasons
- 6:02 — Singing first, not an instrument; accompanying herself on harmonium and tanpura, and the Sa/Pa (root and fifth) drone
- 9:40 — Discovering Black American music: Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Stevie Wonder, introduced by a school teacher in India
- 12:29 — Moving to the US in 2019 on a Berklee College of Music scholarship, returning home during the pandemic, and back since 2021
- 16:36 — Berklee Global Jazz Institute: finding community, and its emphasis on rhythms and harmony from around the world
- 17:57 — Three-time ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award recipient; the first win, in 2021, for a piece recorded remotely by musicians in India, Atlanta, Italy and France during the pandemic
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ROBERT'S LATEST SINGLE:
“THE BUZZ” - Ft. Darius de Haas (vocals) and Dave Eggar (Cello).
"Short, Sweet and Totally Different"
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Audio production:
Jimmy Ravenscroft
Kymera Films
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Website - www.projectgrandslam.com