An Intimate Evening with Devdutt Joshi and his Fantastic Musicians

HARROW ARTS CENTRE: AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH DEVDUTT JOSHI AND HIS FANTASTIC MUSICIANS The concert marked the 2000th show given by a brilliant British singer and multi-instrumentalist Devdutt Joshi who performed some of the most famous Qawalli songs as well as his own compositions. The audience participated and applauded to the mesmerizing performance by Devdutt and his five-man party (band), consisting of: Mitel Purohit (tabla & dholak), Dr. Trusit Dave (tabla), Robin Christian (Bamboo flute/Bansuri), Pammi Saib (guitar) and Dev Dutt Joshi (vocals, harmonium, percussion).

Each and every of them is an outstanding musician, they have been giving concerts performing together in the UK and worldwide for nearly 27 years, which contributed to the highest quality of their performance.

The concept of the second half of the concert was based on ‘Farmaish’ which in Urdu and Hindu means ‘requests’. According to this tradition, the audience can ask for any of more than two and a half thousand songs available to be performed. The programme was well-built with very little breaks and a remarkable constant flow between the compositions. It presented a musical and spiritual journey across the genres of film songs, Ghazal, Geet, devotional Qawalli, Bhajan, Sufi and Fusion/ World music.

The programme started with a famous Qawalli song “It’s a blessing”. The highlight of the first half was a performance of “O re Piya”, with easy transition between vocal registers, showcasing the widest possible vocal, emotional and dynamical range, outstanding rhythmic improvisation and polymetric, involving more than one rhythm at the same time. The sound they created was rich and powerful and an impression of a rich sonority of an orchestra performing was vivid throughout the concert.

The leader of the band, Devdutt Joshi is a British born artist well established in the UK as well as in the USA, Canada, Europe and India. Dev’s grandfather Chandra-Durgesh Joshi sang for HMV in 1945 and Dev has inherited his grandfather’s singing talent two generations later. Music is his life. Every week he performs to the new audience and ‘they become his family at the end of the night’, as Dev remarks himself.

He has recently returned from his concert tour in India, where he released a video of his latest song ‘Mushkil Dosti’ (A difficult relationship). In January this year Dev also has released a meditation chant ‘Mahamantra’ and its westernised version based on contemporary music. In 2018 he is planning to produce 18 songs and to have further concert tours worldwide. Information regarding further events is available from the website: www.devduttjoshi.co.uk