Today’s guest is Ravi Naimpally, and we talked about the tabla, Indian music, mythology and artistic inspiration.

https://www.ravinaimpally.com/about

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7erYc52BoxlqnPYSJNyFSY

Ravi studied the art of tabla playing in India under eminent master such as his uncle Pandit Nikhil Ghosh and Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. Although most of his training is in the Farrukabad gharana, he has also trained in the Qasur style with Pandit Sushil Kumar Jain. He has accompanied many accomplished artists such as Aarti Anklikar, Buddadev Das Gupta, Dhruba Ghosh, Lakshmi Shankar and Shantanu Bhattacharya. Ravi has been an active member of the Canadian world music scene for nearly 20 years. As a vital part of Toronto’s large South Asian community, Ravi continues to perform traditional music from India, while participating in many cross-cultural exchanges. He has toured extensively in Europe, India, United States, Mexico, Argentina and Japan. Ravi is a frequent collaborator with such groups as Niyaz, Constantinople, Avataar, and Monsoon. Currently, he is involved in three new collectives; 1) So Long Seven (folk-roots world music), Near East (India, Mid-East) and Sansar (Hindustani, Carnatic).

In 2011 Toronto's South Asian community acknowledged Ravi's contributions to music by bestowing on him the Grant’s Desi Achievers Award. Ravi has had several Juno nominations and is featured on Kiran Alhuwalia’s Juno winning recording Beyond Boundaries. For 11 years Ravi led his own Indo-jazz ensemble Tasa, which in turn influenced many world music artists in Canada. Tasa toured internationally and recorded 4 CDs of Ravi’s original music. Tasa was awarded an Urban Music Award for Best World Music album. 

Ravi is frequently hired as a guest lecturer by the music department at York University and Humber College. In 2017 he founded the Rhythm House music school, dedicated to providing high quality instruction on tabla, sitar and other Hindustani and Western instruments. The school provides private as well as group classes and master classes with Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. Rhythm House employs highly accomplished teacher on each instrument.