By Jazz Hack
Radha Thomas and Aman Mahajan will perform at the jazz festival in Bucharest, Romania
Famous vocalist Radha Thomas and—Berklee-educated pianist, composer and arranger—Aman Mahajan will fly the Bangalore flag at the EUROPA Fest in Bucharest, Romania. The prestigious 2-week festival (08 May through 24 May this year) comprises performances by over 300 artists from 45 different locations. Thomas and Mahajan are the only featured artists from India.
The duo first performed their act—titled “2 For The Road”—back in 2012 as part of the BIAF festival at Opus. Since then, the duo has gone to make a video directed by US-based filmmaker Indu Krishnan, featuring their version of the Herbie Hancock hit, “Watermelon Man”.
Their collaboration began almost three years ago began when Thomas invited Mahajan to join her as she formed her band, “UNK: The Radha Thomas Ensemble”, which also features famous musicians, saxophonist Matthew Littlewood and bassist Mishko M’Ba. While the band started by performing a wide variety of jazz standards, Thomas being an accomplished jazz singer in New York for many years and before that, “frontman” for the very famous Indian rock band, “Human Bondage”).
Mahajan has collaborated with Thomas in all her musical endeavours of the past few years and in the course of their work, quite naturally discovered their vibe and thus, the duo’s unique sound.
About two years into the band’s existence, Thomas released her album, “I Only Have Eyes For You” to considerable accolade in the press. The album continues to be played in hundreds of radio stations across the US and other locations.
In more recent times, UNK’s performances exclusively feature compositions by Thomas and some by Mahajan.
“I Only Have Eyes For You” can be heard here. Notable in the Bucharest set list will be the song that is quickly becoming known to Bangaloreans as UNK’s anthem, “Bangalore Blues”.
The duo will perform their set at Take 5, Indiranagar on May 25.
Radha Thomas 