The Jazz Gallery Presents: Vagabonds

Clockwise from left: Rajna Swaminathan, Ganavya, Utsav Lal. Photos courtesy of the artists.

Rajna Swaminathan, Utsav Lal, and Ganavya are Indian-American performers exploring the confluences of South Asian musics and contemporary improvisation traditions. They’ve frequently played in each others’ projects, and have now come together as a collective called Vagabonds. In a previous interview with Jazz Speaks, Swaminathan talked of the process of working in that confluence of traditions:

When [a band] gets together, I don’t know if we’re sitting and talking about differences, so much as just jumping in and finding spaces to move around. I remember during a rehearsal with RAJAS, Anjna [Swaminathan] and Stephan [Crump] were rehearsing and they hadn’t gotten to this certain cue point yet, and Stephan was like, "You know what, don’t worry, because no matter what notes you play, it’s gonna sound good." And that was interesting to hear, and it just opens up so many things to accept the fact that they both could be playing their own structure but still finding these points of intersection that work no matter what direction you take it in. It’s just been a series of discoveries honestly, more than just sitting and discussing things. There might be different possibilites that emerge from the same rhythmic idea, so rather than discussing differences, I think we collectively build a larger palette of possibilities, and then we work with that larger palette and learn from each other.

This Saturday, the trio will perform at The Jazz Gallery, combining original compositions with choice covers from their collective book of personal standards. In addition, they will invite two special guests to the stage—saxoponist Aakash Mittal and trumpeter Amir ElSaffar.

Vagabonds plays The Jazz Gallery on Saturday, January 28, 2023. The group features Rajna Swaminathan on mrudangam & voice, Utsav Lal on piano, Ganavya on voice, Aakash Mittal on saxophone, and Amir ElSaffar on trumpet. Sets are at 7:30 and 9:30 P.M. $30 general admission ($15 for members, $10 for student members), $40 reserved cabaret seating ($25 for members), $20 for livestream access ($5 for members) for each set. Purchase tickets here.