DESCRIPTION:
East meets West as Swati Natekar presents Indian classical music flecked with soul, RnB and jazz. Perhaps best known by dance fans for her vocals on Jakatta's American Dream, she is very much a major star in South Asia.

This excerpt is from her Manchester debut concert with her full international band. The concert was part of her national tour supported by Arts Council England.

Swati Natekar was born into a traditionally Indian Classical music family in the central Indian town of Jabalpur. She began her music career at a very young age through regular performances on All India Radio, Bhopal, and later moved to Mumbai. The music scene there quickly caught up with her and soon she started performing at private concerts and also on All India Radio, Mumbai, and Doordarshan TV Channel, Mumbai.

Since moving to London in 1990, she has recorded and toured extensively, including performances at WOMAD, Glastonbury, Montreaux Jazz Festival, BBC Electric Proms, London Southbank Centre and at other venues in Europe, Asia , South Africa and the Caribbean Islands. Her recordings include the albums Dhanak (The Rainbow), Anjuman and Birha. Her vocals have featured on many World Music & Dance tracks such as Jakatta's American Dream, Nitin Sawhney's Nadia & Niraj Chag's Khwaab. She has also collaborated with leading international musicians such as Talvin Singh, Zakir Hussain, Craig Armstrong & Darren Tate.

The line-up for this 2009 tour was:

Swati Natekar (lead vocals/director)

Sanchita Farruque (vocals)

Kartik Raghunathan (vocals)

Sandeep Mishra (sarangi)

Sameer Kassam (keyboard)

Taalis (drums)

Alpesh Moharir (tabla)

Mike Leigh (acoustic guitar)

Scott Bloodworth (bass guitar)

Eric Appapoulay (guest vocals /acoustic guitar)

Filmed by The Band on the Wall AV Unit on 29th Sept 2009.