Sarathy Korwar is a US-born, Indian-raised, London-based drummer, percussionist, composer and bandleader. He works predominantly in a jazz and Indo jazz field but also incorporates elements of hip-hop, and other fusions.
Background
Born in the US, Korwar grew up in Chennai and Ahmedabad in India and began studying tabla aged 10. He later moved to Pune to study Geology from Fergusson College, Pune before making the decision to dedicate his time to music, continuing to study tabla with Rajeev Devasthali as well as translating his skills to the western drum kit and playing as a session musician. He then moved to London and continued his studies with Sanju Sahai at SOAS.
Career
In 2016 Korwar released the albumDay To Day on the Ninja Tune label. This record incorporated field recordings of the Siddi people of Southern India blended with his own compositions drawing from contemporary jazz and electronic music. He leads the UPAJ Collective, a collective of Eastern and Western musicians formed play a residency at London's Jazz Cafe. The group recorded the live albumMy East Is Your West at London's Church Of Sound, released on Gearbox Records on 9 November 2018. The group performed compositions by jazz musicians Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson as well as Indian classical music and Indo jazz. On 26 July 2019 Korwar released his second studio album, More Arriving through The Leaf Label. Recorded over three years in Mumbai and London, the album incorporates rappers from Mumbai and New Delhi with spoken word and his own Indian classical influence and jazz instrumentation. The album featured the Jamaican-Indian rapper Delhi Sultanate, the London poet Zia Ahmed and the Abu Dhabi writer Deepak Unnikrishnan among others. Korwar describes the album as a protest record and said: "This is what Indian music sounds like to me right now, and that means incorporating multiple brown voices. If anyone has a problem with that, they should be questioning what they think Indian music should be." Korwar has collaborated with Shabaka Hutchings, clarinettist Arun Ghosh and producer Hieroglyphic Being, as well as groups Penya and Ill Considered. He has toured with Kamasi Washington, Yussef Kamaal and Moses Boyd. In 2016 Korwar was selected for the Steve Reid Foundation's mentorship programme, a charitable foundation set up by Gilles Peterson.
