MEHNAZ-VOCALIST/PERFORMER is an artist who would rather ‘hum than speak.’ She has been in the musical arena for 13 years and with her new album entitled ‘Manooghi Hi’ she is already four albums old at just 35. She began her musical training in Bombay, India, at age 13, in Hindustani classical music- a practice she continues even today. Along with singing, she trained in the traditional Indian dance disciplines of Kathak and Bharatnatyam and contemporary dance with Shiamak Davar.
In 1996 she released her debut album Miss India, which gave her a national hit ‘Banoongi Main Miss India,’ selling 1 million copies, worldwide. The song was an ode to the fact that excellence soars far above physical beauty, which struck an emotional chord with audiences everywhere. Earning accolades for her status as a youth pop icon in India, she won the Channel V and Screen awards in 1996, for ‘Best Female Pop Icon.’ Buoyed by this success, she released her second album ‘Mausam’ in 1999.
Mehnaz garnered international experience in less than a decade, spanning over a dozen countries and causes. Live performances are her forte and she combines her distinct musical style with high-energy dancing in each act. She has performed all over India and places like Seattle, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Dubai, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Sri Lanka, Austria, Bosnia and Poland. She has represented India abroad at performances hosted by the Indian government and for various charitable causes such as supporting the fight against AIDS, cancer foundations, earthquake relief, tsunami relief and fundraising in war-torn countries.
Collaborations with international artists are an equal passion. Mehnaz has performed in the hallowed company of fellow artists like Jon Bon Jovi, Spice Girls, Gwen Stefani and Bryan Adams at the Channel V Awards in Bombay and Delhi. She also collaborated with Air Supply and Malay sensation Iwan. She has provided songs for the soundtracks of indie gems like Bombay Boys, Split Wide Open and Snip.
In the midst of all this, she released her third album ‘Sajnaa’ in 2006. In 2007, she started training in the unique Indian art of ‘tabla boli’ which is the vocalization of a rhythmic passage that imitates how a tabla would sound.
Continuing her penchant for international collaboration, she recently set Seattle rocking in shows at the Triple Door, Jewel Box Theater and Nectar, summer and fall of 2007. She performed in English and Hindi and introduced Seattle to an unusual marriage of classical Indian and Seattle rock, collaborating with her new band ‘Manooghi Hi,’. From solo artist, Mehnaz is now part of a newly-formed band of seven Seattle musicians with her as the lead female vocalist. She has co-written songs on the new album, lending her knowledge of English poetry, Urdu and Sanskrit to lyrics which are sometimes tri-lingual. She introduced the band to the Indian version of musical nonsense rhyme which then became the basis of their signature song- Manooghi Hi. The musical arrangements play with rock, grunge, Hindustani classical, Sufi style, soul and Broadway music, creating a sound that is truly unpredictable.
Manooghi Hi is set to perform in Seattle and the West coast in June 2008 and at the Bumbershoot Festival in August 2008 after which the band will tour India in the winter of 2008-2009. She is currently writing new material for the band’s live performances. www.mehnaz.com
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Mark Nichols – Keyboards
Mark is a Composer/Lyricist/Multi-instrumentalist/Producer who writes and produces at least four large music projects each year. His musical plays, Little Boy Goes to Hell, Joe Bean, and Berthold Brecht's Caucasian Chalk
Circle, are regularly performed at venues worldwide. Mark is a vicarious winner of a European Grammy (Spellemannprisen) award for composing and producing the string parts on the Norwegian band, Midnight Choir's award-winning release: Amsterdam Stranded. His orchestral arrangements are respected for their originality and their integration into all types of pop music. Mark's more than eighteen movie soundtracks include: Farewell to Harry, and A Relative Thing. Mr. Nichols has toured with Jeremy Enigk, of Sunny Day Real Estate; The Walkabouts; Soul Coughing; Sean Nelson; The Squirrels; and Robyn Hitchcock. Mark is currently writing How to Survive the Apocalypse: A Burning Man Medicine Show, and PolyAma: A Two-person Show. Listen to Mark’s work at www.thereallybig.com.
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Todd Fogelsonger – Guitar
Todd’s love for the guitar began at an early age. In high school, he joined a band with current Mehnaz band member Mark Nichols. Following college, Todd honed his musical skills at The Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT),
now Musicians Institute, in Los Angeles. Upon his return to Seattle, Todd, Ava and JT formed Mass Hypnosis; he later worked with Full Circle. Next, Todd pursued his dream to create a mobile recording studio. It was from this studio that Mr. Fogelsonger produced and engineered live show recordings in the Seattle area, including: Live at the Crocodile; Colourbox Live; The Gits; Love Spit Love; Clinton Fearon and the Boogie Brown Band; Phat City Smokehouse; and 3 CDs for The Super Sonic Soul Pimps (SSSP). After the demise of SSSP, Todd returned to his guitar, and is currently composing original music.
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Jimmy Thomas (JT) – Bass
JT has been a musician for over 35 years. He began as a violinist, and then converted to the guitar, finally transitioning to the bass full-time in the mid-1980s. JT has played and toured with Mass Hypnosis, Full Circle, Deems
Tsutakawa, Mark Dufresne, The Squirrels, and Santana’s Michael Shrieve. He currently plays regularly in the greater Pacific Northwest with the band, Type A!. Mr. Thomas has a well-respected reputation for playing versatile and technically demanding material, placing him in high demand as a sessions musician in the recording industry. He has written soundtracks for several theater productions, and has played on movie soundtracks, in addition to engineering many recordings, which include spoken-word audio books, and numerous CD projects for Seattle-area bands. Occasionally, JT still plays guitar if someone insists. He's a stubborn Taurus and his current favorite beer is Corona (subject to change with the local temperature).
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John Hollis (Hollis) – Drummer/Percussionist/Singer
Once a budding competitive swimmer and gymnast, Hollis studied orchestral percussion with David Jarvis at Washington State University, and with Michael Crusoe, principal percussionist for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
His training earned him a second-chair percussion position with the Washington Idaho Symphony Orchestra. In 1991, Mr. Hollis began his musical adventure in Seattle with Mark Nichols in the Red Farm theater adaptation of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He has recorded and toured with Ian Moore, Gerald Collier, Sean Nelson, Pete Droge and Elaine Summers, The Buttrock Suites, Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Sister Psychic, Ruston Mire, Voyager One, the Squirrels, and The Burning Roadshow, among others. Hollis is currently involved in multiple musical projects and is wildly enthusiastic about the cultural/musical meshing of “Manooghi Hi”..
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Ava S. Chakravarti – Vocals/Band Logistics
Ava (Ah’vah) sang throughout grade school and into college, where she trained as a mezzo-soprano. On the road in the 1980s with the Seattle-based 13-piece rhythm & blues band, Prudence Dredge, Ava found her soulful side.
Shortly thereafter, she joined forces with the original funk/rock band, Mass Hypnosis. When the band released its self-titled album, it earned Ava a NAMA (Northwest Annual Music Awards) nomination alongside such vocal powerhouses as Diane Schurr and Duffy Bishop. After many years in the retail music business, ten years as a production staff member for One Reel Productions (Summer Nights at the Pier, and Teatro ZinZanni), and working with various local performers, Ms. Chakravarti is now finding her niche in Musical Artist Development and Promotion, as well as stretching her vocal cords once again with “Manooghi Hi”..
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Jarrod Kaplan PERCUSSIONIST/PERFORMER
At age 41, Jarrod Kaplan has earned a great deal of notoriety as the percussionist for iconic NW Acoustic Groups: Trillian Green, Devachan, Hanuman, and Taarka. He’s also toured & performed nationally with The CA Guitar Trio (featuring bass legend, Tony Levin), and the infamous pop song-writer, Dan Bern. Jarrod took part in the creation of Cirque du Soleil’s latest touring show, KOOZA, and completed a 15-month stint (Jan. 2007 – March 2008) as percussionist and “Skeleton Dance” soloist.
Jarrod has also performed and recorded with renown acts: The Fareed Haque Group, ALO, (members of) The Cronos Quartet, Billy Oskay, The Motet, The Tony Furtado Band, The Joe Bean Rock Opera, Artis the Spoonman, Critters Buggin', Tchkung, Green Apple Quick Step, Magical Strings, The Zen Tricksters, Leftover Salmon, The String Cheese Incident, Keller Williams, Victoria Williams, Merle Saunders, Bumbershoot’s Bumberdrum (1996 & 2000), African Cora master Moussou Kanute w/ Sweet Honey in The Rock, Alasdair Frasier (Scottish Fiddler), Trey Gunn (of King Crimson), The California Guitar Trio w/ Tony Levin, and Dan Bern among many others.
From the age of 3 Jarrod has been featured in over 100 television commercials (both local and national), and enjoyed a 5 year residency on "The Guiding Light" soap opera (CBS 1976-1981).
In addition to his musical skills, Jarrod enjoys travelling, swimming, fire spinning, gardening, & motorcycle riding. He currently resides at home with his family in Eugene
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