Creative pursuits occur in the most unlikely of places. A summer encounter last year in London's Portobello Road between Boston based Manisha Shahane and London based Tanuja Desai Hidier brought forth a program called ‘Across-the-pond collaboration project I that took shape on April 5th at the Zeitgeist Gallery.

Introduced through a mutual friend, the two corresponded and worked on an unusual and unique production that combines singing with a book reading. Manisha Shahane is a singer-songwriter who plays the piano and guitar and who performs with several of the area bands and her own band Manishamusic. Tanuja Desai Hidier hails originally from Boston and sings in London with a rock band San transisto. Her first book ‘Born Confused” has been very well received.

Accompanying the two singers in the evening was Blake Newman, on upright bass and Matt Taylor on drum set. Manisha selected three pieces titled ‘Willows, Clumsy and Something in your Voice’ from her previous selections. ‘Peace in Progress’ was a fresh piece and her debut song of the evening called ‘where the ocean meets the sky’ introduced a song in Marathi by noted singer Suman Kalyanpur. It is obvious that she has a special affection for her language Marathi which she added to this particular piece. Manisha admitted that she is greatly influenced by her mother in these variations of the eclectic songs. Her voice was lovely and full throated and she used it well for an energetic and splendid performance.

Tanuja started her book reading with a humorous expanded version of the term ABCD which she explained went up all the way to Z. She then read three excerpts from her new book ‘Born Confused’, which dealt with the identity crisis of a 17 year old Dimple Lala, an Indian American teenage girl growing up in America. Tanuja brought out a wonderful sense of lyricism to her readings which was brought to full force later in her singing. Her voice was warm and melting and she gives care and subtlety to her interpretations. The pieces she chose to read were full of humor and descriptions and feelings and definitely made an impact on the audience. The most striking aspect of Tanuja readings were her meticulous attention to textual detail. When Tanuja read the excerpt of the New York City's explosive bhangra/Asian Underground club scene, accompanist Blake Newman and Matt Taylor struck the right note with their background music.

Both singers then collaborated to perform Hidier's song "Visionary”. This piece was a song from the original soundtrack based on her book composed by her band San Transisto in London. The song reflected the tone of Dimple emotions in the book voiced through her trusty camera Chica Tikka-the same camera according to Tanuja, which was hiding behind Dimple proves to be the aperture and opening that brings her into the center of her own story and life. The Opening lines went like this
Chica Tikka let me know
Where I got to go from here
What I'm gonna find
The image isn't very clear
You're giving me a dream to ride on
It's chemical and we collide...

These beguiling programs offered quite a variety: The songs were short pieces strung together with the readings and the effect was an easy flow of the singers' rhythm and a sense of melody. "Collaborative efforts such as these, really give musicians a chance to share ideas and offer scope for innovations", said Parul Vakani, another singer of a local band 'Red Velvet Slide' who greatly enjoyed the evening's performance.

For more information on the two artists log on to

http://www.manishamusic.com
http://www.ThisIsTanuja.com

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