Avijit Sarkar

Avijit Sarkar is a musician, painter, writer, poet and actor and hails from a family of performing artists. He has hadtraining both in Indian classical and Western music and has been in the music industry for over twenty seven years. His music encompasses a wide variety of musical forms including light classical, ghazals, devotional, folk, film and pop; and his compositions reflect this wide repertoire of styles and techniques. He has mastery over many musicalinstruments and uses a myriad of techniques - from the very traditional up to modern digital music technology.
 

Avijit has also been trained under one of the world's foremost puppeteers Meher Contractor and has participated in international drama and puppetry festivals.

Avijit, who was associated with All India Radio and Doordarshan in India, has completed over 1600 live concerts around the world. He has composed music for Australian documentary films, radio and theatre in Sydney. In the last few years, he has devoted many of his concerts and recordings for charity and fund raising in Australia. He has also been recognised and endorsed by APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association) as a music writer and composer.

Avijit is also a prolific painter and writer. His stories, essays and poetry have been published in leading newspapers and on web magazines. His cartoons and illustrations have been published both in India and Australia.

Avijit is currently Associate Vice President of Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan in Australia.

Avijit has recently opened Australia's first professional School for Performance and fine arts.  Check out his website at http://www.natrajacademy.com.au

Sadiq Rehmani

Dr Sadiq Rehmani came to Australia with over 14 years experience as a professional musician in Pakistan.  Before Jazba he had been performing as a freelance artist around Sydney for well over a year before joining forces with his good friends Abdul Sajwani and Salim Juddani.  Sadiq had managed to secure the praise of many great artists around Sydney including Riaz Shah, Bupinder Mintu, Dr Rajesh Dinaker and Sam just to mention a few.  The more he performed the more he imposed himself upon Sydney and its music lovers.  His core strength comes not only from his amazing ability as a gifted vocalist & rhythm guitarist, but actually from his extensive vocabulary of Indian & Pakistani Songs.  Wether its old filmy, classical, ghazals or the latest bollywood jives, this man has the ability to pick it up and deliver on a consistent basis. 

Srijani Dan

Srijani is a brilliant young singer who started learning music at the age of four.she started her first lessons from her mother.srijani then learnt Hindustani classical vocal from Guru Imam Gulam of Allahabad –praayag gharana in kolkata.

Srijani has recorded a good number of albums for several organisations  in India. She has not only given many live concerts in India but also very popular on Indian television.

 With her unique style of delivering  enchanting music Srijani has become one of the chosen Sydney favourites.

Puspa Jagdish

Arguably the most prominent and well known female Singer in Sydney's Bollywood musical history. Puspa is an amazing talent and great inspiration all musicians in Sydney.

Her South Indian background ensures that she has the best teachers of music that India had to offer. She has served her community with her voice and also helped Saraswani Orchestra Rise to fame in the 90s.

Nasha-e-Sangeet is pleased to welcome Puspa for the first time to its stage, however if you were at the last Lata night where Puspa lit up the night, then you know exactly what to expect.... nothing short of brilliance!

Gurpreet Singh (introducing)

Jazba would like to introduce a new singer to the mix.

Gurpreet has been in Sydney now for about 3 years but has largely gone un-noticed. He has been teaching music professionally for over 7 years and is full trained and qualified Classical Singer.

Its his strong musical background which makes him a tempting prospect for Jazba, as he also brings the band variety in the form of Punjabi Songs and high pitched tones.

We look forward seeing Gurpreet make a good impression in his first concert with Jazba

Abhijit Dan

A young talented tabla player who started his journey at an early age of 5 years.

Tabla, the instrument craved his attention and plunged him in to the music world. Abhijit started his first tabla lessons from Shri Harihar Das of Lukhnow gharana and later on received regular lessons from Prachin Kala Kendra, Chandigarh.

Since 1994 Abhijit began his tabla training, from the tabla maestro Pt. Swapan Chaudhury of Lucknow gharana. Abhijit was selected from West Bengal, India to participate in the National Tabla competition in Delhi. He was also awarded “Sangeet Bhushan” from Prachin Kala Kendra, Chandigarh.

Abhijit is a regular Radio and Television artist in India and also performed in various programmes in India and Australia. Has also taken part in national multicultural festival, 2009 at Canberra. Besides a tabla player he has also been a good composer and has launched several albums in India.

Presently Abhijit is the tabla teacher of Australian Hindu School of Multicultures at Quaker Hills, Sydney.

Bobby Kumar

Jazba's bass guitarist and someone who has been in with the group from their very first show!

Bobby musical experience ranges from all forms of indian music but his amazing versatality comes from his exposure and experience in western genres of reggae, swing, jazz, rock, pop and the list just goes on and on.

The bassist is the glue that binds the melody section of the band to the rhythym. So metaphorically speaking its the bass line upon which sets the foundation of a song. We're definately glad that the foundation of Jazba's music is therefore so strong!

It is rare to find a group in which most members posses amazing cross skills. Bobby is one such individual in Jazba and second only to perhaps Avijit Sarkar when it comes to multi skilled. Bobby can also throw his hands around a drum kit, extract great sounds from a tabla or dholak, strum a nice rhythm on a guitar or lend his voice behind in backing vocals!

When it comes to music therefore Bobby can be seen as an embodiment of musical passion. It comes naturally to him now and his renditions reflect his wonderful personality!

Rakesh Swami

Jazba's drummer who is one of only a few in Sydney that have not made a pre-mature switch to electronic instruments alone. Rakesh's strength is his strong sense of timing and control over tempo. This only comes from a musician who has done the hard yards in the acoustic realms to ensure that physical boundaries are crossed so that technical abilities can transcend.

Rakesh has been performing in Sydney now for over a decade and overall has been professionally performing for a few decades. His experience is also diversified, and its this very diversity which makes him such a valuable member of the group.

Rakesh is an imposing figure behind the set of any drum kit, but his big bright smile can be seen from the last row of any hall in Australia!

Shivanji Vyaas (unavailable due to studies)

She was the first of Jazba's two female vocal sensations, Jazba had gone almost one and half years without any lead female vocalists until they heard Shivangi.

She has been on Indian Idol and has caused a storm while performing for Jazba in Sydney. Her versatality is what stamps her as a singer. She can sing many styles, from many singers from many era's.

She has had 7 years of classical vocal training. In Ahemdabad her home town she was the 'Lakiya bros' lead female singer before coming to Australia.

These two vocal sensations of Jazba are the future thats here already today.

Whenever she hits the stage, Shivi makes sparks fly and emotions run wild.