Description

Celebrating the diverse diasporic cultures and music within India and of the Indian diaspora abroad, the Remembered Rhythms festival brought three groups of performers to the cities of Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The underlying theme was diaspora – of other cultures in India and the Indian diaspora itself.

The Sidi Goma represented the African Sidi community of Gujarat in India, D’Bhuyaa Saaj of the East Indian community from Trinidad and Rivers of Babylon, a London based group of Indian Jews participated in this event.

The sounds of Africa and India are uniquely blended in the ecstatic Sufi ritual and devotional music of Sidi Goma. The ancestors of today’s African Sidi community first settled in Gujarat centuries ago. Yet, today’s Sidis still remember some of the songs, instruments and rhythms brought long ago from Africa. Combining their African roots with the multiple musics they encountered in India, the music of the Sidis is full of surprises at times familiar at times altogether new.

This CD is accompanied by notes on the communities, their culture and music by eminent scholars, and detailed track notes, along with discographies, bibliographies and photographs.