Blending poetry and spoken word, JAWARI draws on Indian classical music, global sounds like jazz, hip-hop, and Latin American sounds in a delightful melodic album that transports me to places both familiar and unknown.

Listening to Jawari’s debut album ROAD RASA made me feel as if I were on a train in the London Underground. As it allowed me to witness a rich diversity of faces and voices, each evoking emotions and stories, a sense of comfort amidst the journey’s bustle. 

By Silvia Rothlisberger

Blending poetry and spoken word, JAWARI draws on Indian classical music, global sounds like jazz, hip-hop, and Latin American sounds in a delightful melodic album that transports me to places both familiar and unknown.

It’s a journey through sixteen tracks where the unique sound of the sitar, performed by Tommy Khosla, melted with the deep heartbeats of Gregorio Merchán’s Colombian tambora. Taylor Frost’s versatile guitar and Billie Sophoclides’ saxophone melodies join the voice of Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay, Nashville’s first Youth Poet Laureate. All this combines to create paths that span from India to the Middle East, Japan, Colombia, and even imaginary places.

The fusion of the Indian sitar and the Colombian tambora caught my attention. These musical traditions, seemingly distant from one another, come together to create a captivating and rich blend that invites us into immersive soundscapes. Gregorio Merchán, a Colombian musician known for his work with legendary bands like Aterciopelados and Morfonia, brings his diverse musical background to the project. 

His expertise in percussion and knowledge are evident throughout ROAD RASA with a delicate but powerful performance in tracks like ‘Moves’ where the afrobeat roots are present, jazz fusion sounds in tracks like ‘How to Write About the ROAD?’ and ‘RASA’ where the sitar melodies are nimbly accompanied by the percussion. In ‘Sakura’ I could hear his Colombian roots that infused the album, and he contributed compositions for the band through keyboards, where the synthesizer plays a key role in shaping melodies and harmonies with a distinct Latin American influence as I feel it in ‘Some Kind of Savia’, there is a Colombian gaita melody played with an intense synthesizer. 

I felt how Khosla’s sitar transforms these melodies into something entirely new.  As it can be heard in ‘Stella’, a track composed by Merchán with Tarantino-esque melody and a slow, spaced rhythm driven by the tambora. The track paints a vivid, cinematic atmosphere where Billie’s saxophone builds a dialog with the sitar taking the song to an eloquent sound space. ‘Discourse on’ is a frenetic, almost uncomfortable piece that brings to the table the current times that we are facing as humanity. A mesmerizing singing opens the door and then I can feel the pulse of a big animal running away.  

Poetry plays an essential role in this project, with words woven seamlessly into the music, acting as another instrument. Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay guides us through the album, opening new dimensions within each piece. In ‘Nuevas Rutas’, Gregorio Merchán shares his experiences of migration in London.  It highlights how transformative it has been as an artist to walk new paths -nuevas rutas contigo pedalear, nuestros caminos sincronizar-, discover different ways of thinking, and embrace them. His journey reflects the idea that there are countless perspectives and routes to understanding.

ROAD RASA is an album two years in the making, where diverse musical traditions and backgrounds converge to create a sonic journey that begins and ends in London—the city that made this cultural melting pot possible. It’s an oasis, a break, a breath to face the dizzying rate of the current times. I just covered some of the tracks of the album, you need to take the journey yourself.

ROAD RASA by JAWARI is available on vinyl, CD, and all digital platforms. 

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