SUNDAR'S INDUSWEST PROJECT

SUNDAR’S INDUSWEST PROJECT is an edgy, hard-hitting jazz group led by Sundar that features many of Canada’s A-list jazz performers. Hope and Infinity is the band’s groundbreaking debut CD; the music is rooted in a driving, swinging jazz aesthetic with echoes of melodicism and atmosphere borrowed from Indian classical and Brazilian music styles. Weaving through odd-metres and incorporating an original approach to composition, the music references Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Dave Liebman and Lookout Farm, and cross-over groups like Shakti and Mahavishnu Orchestra. The album focuses around a central artistic vision - titles like ‘Look Skyward’ and ‘You can Fly, Dear’ speak of possibility­ and the 3-part ‘Kanishka Suite’, written in memory of the victims of the tragically sabotaged Air India flight in 1985 embodies hopefulness in the face of tragedy, and the ability of humans to transcend disaster. Of the title of the album: Infinity represents the Great Unknown and possibility that is inherent within Hope and our realities.

Of the group, Geoff Chapman of the Toronto Star says: “Experience truly stimulating contemporary world jazz here…” and Jerry D’Souza of allaboutjazz.com agrees: “Viswanathan swings with abandon, turning quick imaginative curves that blister and burn… (his) exploration of the two worlds should give enough cause to rejoice.”

The group features Sundar Viswanathan (alto/soprano saxes), Kevin Turcotte (tpt), Kelly Jefferson (tenor sax), David Braid (pno), Andrew Downing (bass) and Anthony Michelli (drums) and special guest Rez Abbasi (gtr/sitar gtr).