Martin Dahanukar

Martin Dahanukar-Musical worlds.Music evoking a night flight upon an asian Maximum City. Myriads of lights glowing in silence. Glowing with the exhaling breath of the nearby junglelands. Blood System is Martin Dahanukars electrified Quartet. Huge Rhythms and guitarstorms mixed up with asian twelve tone melodies give way to tender moments. Like black silk, a floating negative of the human soul.Martin Dahanukar was born in Germany (Munich) to parents of Indian and German origin and having great affection towards music, fine arts and literature. Grew up in the cities of Munich, Bombay, Zurich and Berne. Music soon caught his main interest, besides fine arts. During his formative years, jazz of the late sixties with its African and Asian elements (as mirrored by the styles of Miles Davis and John Coltrane) became his musical main and all language. Being a music of multiple sources it shapes Martin Dahanukar's diverse cultural identity at the closest.Martin first took up electric guitar at the age of 12, being strongly influenced by rock music. Playing this “talking drum instrument” quickly opened doors to many sound spheres of different cultures. At the age of 14 composing in western classical style (as autodidact) becomes important. The change to trumpet follows four years later. The music of Miles Davis definitely drew the focus towards the world of jazz. From 20 on Martin Dahanukar has started giving continuous performances throughout Switzerland (in any jazz style from standard to modern and electrified jazz) and abroad (India, Germany). Meanwhile he completed his studies at the Music College of Lucerne (holding a teachers degree for trumpet).Nowadays the modern jazz of Martin Dahanukar bears strong far Eastern influences such as Asian melodies, non-western modes and odd meters. This music is featured in his following two ensembles: the acoustic sextet ZODIAC SOUND MANUAL (recent CD: Martin Dahanukar, Apocalypse Now, UNIT Records, 2004) and the electrified Quartet BLOOD SYSTEM (recent CD: Martin Dahanukar, Nanda Devi, ZodiacSounds Records, 2006). At the same time the music of Martin Dahanukar keeps up strong connection to classic jazz sounds and its main elements such as blues, swinging grooves and dominant harmonics. The ensemble SEPIA RHYMES stresses clearly this point (recent CD: Martin Dahanukar/Jerome de Carli, The Good Life, TCB Records, 2007).Jazz-Trumpeters like Miles Davis and Woody Shaw are of eminent importance to Martin Dahanukar. Because they were full of fire, with own phrasing and melodical expression and risktaking performance styles. Plus they always kept up sensitivity for other organization forms of tones and rhythms.So Martin Dahanukar feels very inspired by Indian music as well. Especially singers like Ustad Ali Ghulam Khan and Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar are of influence to him. But so too are Sarangi player Ram Narayan as well as godfather Ravi Shankar. His musical love for pioneering modern classical composers such as György Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen give a nearby complete picture of Martin Dahanukars diverse tastes.Discography:Martin Dahanukar, Circle (1997). Martin Dahanukar, Sahar (2001). Martin Dahanukar, Apocalypse Now (2004). Martin Dahanukar, Nanda Devi (2006). Martin Dahanukar, The Good Life (Oct, 2007).