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Shonai
Contemporary jazz pianist, composer, educator.
About Me
The ever-evolving Shonai enjoys his
musical life as a performer, educator,
composer and arranger. Born in a
musicians' family in Kolkata Shonai had
got introduced to various genre of music
in his childhood time. He started his
training with learning Tabla and then
moved to Piano in 1996. He has done
Grade 6 in Classical Music in Piano from
Associated Board of Royal School of
Music and Grade 8 in Jazz Piano from
London College of Music. Shonai studied
Jazz till the advanced level under the
guidance of two world class Jazz
musicians Mr. Andrew Gracias and Mr.
Carlton Kitto.
In his 20 years of performance life he
has worked in every possible situations
from solo to duet and from bands like
trio, quartet and Quintet to Big Bands.
Shonai being predominantly a
contemporary and jazz Pianist has
worked with Jazz stalwarts like
Mr.Carlton Kitto, Mr.Andrew Gracias,
Mr.Lewis Hilt, Mr.Marcus Dengate ( who
has performed with the great Dizzy
Gillespie, Scott Hamilton and many more
), Mr. Clive Hughes, Gianni Denitto, Mr.
Monojit Dutta, Nicholas Teberias,
Michael Kuttner to name a few.
His performance life started with
joining All India Radio as a junior artist
in 1997. Where later he became a graded
artist and has been continuing recording
with many jazz artists along with his
solo piano recitals. In 2005 he joined
Oberoi Grand Hotel as a solo Pianist. His
performance career continued as solo,
duets and with bands in many
prestigious venues like The Oberoi
Grand, The Park, ITC Sonar, The Park
Plaza etc. in Kolkata. He has also played
extensively throughout India in festivals
like GIANTS OF JAZZ ( Delhi, Gurgaon ),
JAZZMATAZZ ( Mumbai , Pune),
JAZZMANDU ( Nepal ), Jam Steady BIG
SUNDAY ( Kolkata ), Kolkata Jazz Fest (
Kolkata ), Darjeeling Carnival, Lent
Festival ( Maribor ), Festjazza ( Croatia )
and venues like Opus ( Bangalore ), The
Humming Tree ( Bangalore ), Blue Frog,
The Piano Man ( Delhi ), Trident (
Rajasthan ), NCPA Tata Theatre ( Mumbai
), Anti Social ( Mumbai ). Apart from
these he has also played several places
in Northeast India and beyond, like
Manipur, Assam, Shillong, Taj Tashi (
Bhutan ) and Dhaka Club ( Bangladesh ),
No Black Tie ( Malaysia ), Blue Note (
Poland ), B Flat ( Berlin ), which helped
him to hone his skills and experiences.
Being a versatile musician Shonai had
been a part of several bands with
different genre of music like Blue Mist (
pop ), Orient Express ( Latin ), Carlton
Kitto Jazz Ensemble ( Jazz ), Fast Forward
( Funk-Jazz ), Big Family ( Blues ),
Bramhakhyapa ( Bawl Jazz fusion ),
ABHIND ( avant guard ) etc. Apart from
these bands he works with many other
bands and artists as a session musician.
Currently Shonai is a part of two bands,
Bodhisatya Trio ( Experimental jazz rock
fusion ) and his own set up called The
Shonai Collective ( funk and jazz ). Where
he collaborates with artists from
different places and tour the country.
With this Collective he mostly does his
own compositions and apart from the
originals he covers a few popular tunes
rearranged in his unique way.
As a music educator he has worked in
several academic and music schools in
Kolkata, Delhi and in prestigious
Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory in Nepal.
Currently he is a Piano faculty of One
World College of Music, Delhi.
My Jazz Story
I love jazz because...it has got freedom to express your stories anyway. I was first exposed to jazz...in the year of 2000 I met [musician name]...Carlton Kitto, Jon Faddis, Steve Turre, Clieve Huges, Chick Corea, Gianni Denitto, Reiner Pusch, Marcus Dengate. The first jazz record I bought was...Kind of Blue My advice to new listeners... Practice to listen all the instruments individually.
My House Concert Story
Jazz House concert is always fun as only jazz lovers come to listen there. It's always very cozy. Don't have to put the master volume up. Mostly acoustically audible.