Susheela Raman

Infobox musical artist
Name = Susheela Raman


Img_capt = Susheela Raman performing in Paris Plage, 2007
Img_size = 100px
Landscape = yes
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Susheela Raman
Alias =
Born = 1973, Hendon, London, UK
Origin =
Instrument =
Genre = Ambient, classical, jazz, blues, folk, trance,
Occupation = Singer, songwriter, composer, arranger
Years_active = 1997–present
Label = XIII Bis
Narada
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.susheelaraman.com susheelaraman.com]
[http://www.myspace.com/susheelaramannew Susheela Raman Myspace]
Notable_instruments =

Susheela Raman (born in Hendon, London, UK in 1973) is an acclaimed British-Tamil singer-songwriter, composer and musician. Raman has released four albums since 2001. Her debut album "Salt Rain" was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2001.

Biography

Early years

Susheela Raman's parents are from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, India, who arrived in London, UK in the mid-sixties. At the age of four, Raman and her family left the UK for Australia. Susheela grew up singing South Indian classical music and began giving recitals at an early age. She recalls how her family "were eager to keep our Tamil culture alive." As a teenager in Sydney she started her own band, describing its sound as “funk and rock and roll”,cite web | author= Biswas, Premankur | title= Musical Alliances | work= Express India | url= http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Musical-Alliances/267805/ | date= 01 February 2008 | |accessmonthday=15 February | accessyear=2008] cite web | author=Cartwright, Garth | title= BBC - Radio 3 - Susheela Raman interview | work= BBC | url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/intsusheela.shtml | date= January 2002 | |accessmonthday=15 February | accessyear=2008] before branching out into more blues and jazz-based music, which demanded quite different voice techniques. She tried to bring these streams together when in 1995 she travelled to India to rediscover her roots by way of further exploring Carnatic music.

Music career

Returning to England in 1997, she started to work with her partner, guitarist/producer Sam Mills who had made a record called "Real Sugar" with a Bengali singer named Paban Das Baul. This record inspired Raman, because according to her "it bridged a gap and found common ground for one particular kind of Indian music to be expressed to a new audience."cite web | author= | title= Susheela Raman Biography | work= Narada.com | url= http://www.narada.com/SusheelaBio.htm | date= 2002 | |accessmonthday=15 February | accessyear=2008] In 1999, Raman co-wrote songs for the album "One and One is One" by Joi, also performing on the track “Asian Vibes.” Mill's had worked with West African musicians in the group Tama which also opened musical contact points within the Parisian music scene.

After a period of three years experimenting and collaborating with Sam Mills, Raman made her first album "Salt Rain". Released in 2001 on Narada, an American subsidiary of EMI, it went gold in France and in the UK was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize. She also won the Best Newcomer award from BBC Radio 3. "Salt Rain" drew on traditional Tamil music blended with jazz-folk and pop influences.cite web | author=Cartwright, Garth | title= BBC - Radio 3 - Awards for World Music - Susheela Raman | work= BBC | url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/world/awardssusheela.shtml | date= November 2001 | |accessmonthday=15 February | accessyear=2008] It featured original material, as well as old songs Raman sang at recitals when younger.

In 2003 she released her second album "Love Trap" which featured amongst other collaborators the Nigerian drummer Tony Allen and Tuvan singer Albert Kuvezin of the group Yat-Kha. The title track is a re-interpretation of an Ethiopian song from the seventies by the singer Mahmoud Ahmed. In 2005, came a third album, "Music for Crocodiles". This was partly recorded in Chennai (Madras) in India. This included "The Same Song" which was used by Mira Nair for the end credits of her film "The Namesake". (Nair also used Raman's version of the 60's Hindi film song "Ye Mera Divanapan Hai' from the previous album). She sings for the first time in French with the song "L'Ame Volatile". Her training in classical music makes its presence felt in Tamil classical titles such as "Sharavana," her singing "Meanwhile" (on the same album) in a rāgam called Kanakaangi, and in the song "Light Years" which features a melody in Kalyani rāgam as well as the veena playing of Punya 'Devi' Srinivas.

In 2006 Susheela was again nominated for a BBC World Music Award and was the subject of a one-hour documentary by French-German TV Channel ARTE, called "Indian Journey" directed by Mark Kidel.

Susheela's deal with Narada ended in 2006 and that year she independently recorded an album "33 1/3" which is a set of re-imaginings of some album tracks from the sixties and seventies. Artists covered include Bob Dylan, John Lennon, The Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, Jimi Hendrix, Can and Throbbing Gristle. The album features long term collaborators Sam Mills on guitar, Vincent Segal on cello, and tabla player and percussionist Aref Durvesh.

The album was released in April 2007 in France on the independent label XIII Bis.

Raman has also garnered acclaim for her live performances.cite web | author=Denselow, Robin | title=Susheela Raman, London | work= Guardian Unlimited Arts | url= http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,705427,00.html | date= February 15 2002 | |accessmonthday=15 February | accessyear=2008] She continues to research and discover music from South India, studying in 2007 with the Bhakti singer Kovai Kamla.

Discography

* "Salt Rain" (2001) #29 FRA
* "Love Trap" (2003) #32 FRA
* "Music for Crocodiles" (2005) #51 FRA
* "33 1/3" (2007) #120 FRA

References

External links

* [http://www.susheelaraman.com www.susheelaraman.com]
* [http://worldmusic.about.com/od/reviews/gr/RamanMusicCrocs.htm Music for Crocodiles CD Review]
* [http://www.narada.com/SusheelaBio.htm Susheela Raman Biography]
* [http://www.globalbeatfusion.com/features/susheelaraman.html Susheela Raman feature]