Eddi began his musical career as a very good, very fast rock'n'roll guitarist, which led to numerous bands ending up in the London's post-punk 1980's. Later he discovered the sitar which altered his life leading him to ten years of intensive study in India. His guru is none other than, one of the world's greatest sitar virtuosos, Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee, whom he met in Italy and finally convinced to take on a private student. Ed eventually moved semi-permanently to Europe after years of playing classical Indian concerts all over the continent. He provides the voice of friedsitar combining the sophistication and longing of Indian music with the excitement, sounds, and energy of his roots.
scott white
CONTRABASS
A dynamic and highly creative bassist from Canada, Scott began playing and singing rock n roll at a young age but turned to jazz and classical music by his late teens. After years of study at various institutions including Banff School of Fine Arts, McGill University and with celebrated teachers such as Dave Holland and Joel Quarrington, he toured much of the world with various ensembles. In 1997 he moved to Germany to assume the roll of musical director of the prestious Cirque du Soleil which tours Germany.
emil heyrovsky
TABLA/DRUM KIT
Aside from being an accomplished mathematician, pianist, and computer wiz, Emil chose rhythmic expression as the primary thrust of his life's work. His passion is for spontaneous, interactive improvisation, and Indian tabla and jazz drumkit are his prefered medium.
Although still in his 20's Emil has developed a very impressive technique and is considered to be Czech's foremost tablist. Emil's non-neurotic perfectionism keeps him studying and practicing diligently guaranteeing himself a very promising future.
...a fusion of
differences and similarities
East and West
meeting in a friendly conversation
laughing joking sometimes more contemplative
as friends always are together.
An approach to composition and performance
allowing the players to express themselves
explore new ideas and have very satisfying
and entertaining musical
experiences.
In today's world the word "fusion" has lost it's punch in describing original music, but friedsitar, which combines Hindusthani music with jazzy blues-rock, is indeed unique. The unlikely ingredients; sitar, contrabass, tabla and drums, fit perfectly together, like the reunification of long separated friends. Friedsitar has discovered a true meeting point between ancient Eastern and modern Western systems of improvisation and composition, with spontaneity, aliveness, and subtlety.
The concept was born in Victoria, Canada in 1996 after a meeting between it's founding members; Edward Powell and Scott White. Over the succeeding years Powell and White performed with several percussionists to finally settle with the young and very talented Emil Heyrovsky of Prague. As a trio the group has performed widely in Europe and is capured on it's debut CD "FRESH"
FRIEDSITAR "Fresh" (1999-2000) has been praised by some as being one of the most unique, "refreshing", and beautiful recordings to emerge in the last 3 dedades. Nothing quite like it exists elsewhere. The groups focus is very clear: "sitar/tabla" meets "jazz doublebass/drums", although the Edward and Scott make no attempt to hide their 70's Rock roots. All songs were rehearsed then recorded LIVE in the studio with and absolute minimum of overdubbing and editing, so what you hear is REAL and ALIVE, the resulting 'humanness' of this album is uncanny. Several of the compositions were not compositions, but group improvisations (or, "spontaneous composition"). Available today are thousands of "fusion" CDs but most are not fusion at all - more like various different musics "glued" together somehow - but "FRESH" is without doubt one of the very very few albums where TRUE fusion really is captured.
Hello Eddi,I hope your day is going well,I just heard your music,your trio sound great"nice arrangements. My connection to Egypt is more about me studying the culture/Civilization. it's more like Jazz musicians learning about European classical music and music from India. In America most of us aren't taught the greatness of African civilization. As artists i'm sure you/we know how important foundation is.
Thanks for adding me. ¶ Love, but not blindly — don't confuse it with sleep. Love all people, but not all ideas; think to distinguish helpful ideas from hurtful ones. We must end our culture of destruction before it ends us. ¶ Our many problems have a common root: Bullies, liars, thieves, & murderers — particularly those in public office — believe people are motivated only by greed & fear. They want us to share that belief, because they use it to justify themselves & to manipulate us. That belief shapes the world's political & economic systems, perpetuating war & poverty. But you & I have found something better inside ourselves & our friends. It's in everyone, even tank drivers & bomber pilots, if we can just wake them: we're all one flesh & blood. Let us spread that insight, for until we do our other advances will be minor & temporary. The outcome of the ideological struggle is not yet determined, so no one can afford to be just a spectator. Join the global conversation. ¶ The Iraq war, like most wars, was based on lies, & now the occupation is making new enemies faster than it can kill them; that's helpful only to arms dealers & politicians. Ending the occupation won't change much — the next war is already being planned. (Same war, new location!) The economy is all wrong too: the rich get richer & fewer, everyone else gets screwed, & the ecosystem gets trashed. These problems are not new, but lately they've become so blatant that we've begun to understand them. It's time to end the military-industrial complex & the corporatocracy. We the people must control government, & government must control business, not the other way around. A good start would be transparency in government, public financing of election campaigns, trustbusting the news media, & ending corporate personhood. ¶ Question authority. Keep fighting, loving, hoping, singing. Hand in hand, we may still be able to heal the world. — Love, Eric
Hello FriedSitar, Oh yes! all those instruments meet so well together and bring us such in a nice mood... So, friendly! Olivier Marchand a musician from Paris
