Asian Network has announced its summer schedule of Live Music Events 2007, taking the station and artists to platforms and stages across the country. At its zenith the station will be taking over the Roots Stage on Friday night at Glastonbury with Asian Dub Foundation headlining.

The launchpad begins bank holiday weekend 26/27th May at Paradise Gardens, in Victoria Park, London. It will present live music from: Riz MC; Paris Amore; Sona Family; Nasha Collective; Sunit & Raxstar; Sukh Knight; DJ Vix; Shiva Sound System; Nathan Flutebox Lee; and Asian Network/ Radio 1 DJ Bobby Friction.

You can see the full, 2 day line up and as well the full summer schedule of where Asian Network will be out and about by logging on to bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/events

Surrey based producer Groove Guru, aka Trevor Pinto, is one among other acclaimed musicians to feature on the chillout series New Sound Theory, Vol. 4 - Tiger Lounge. Published by BasicLux Records USA, the album contains a blend of smooth house, bossa nova, downtempo, lush electronica and chillout music.

As a DJ Groove Guru has performed in famous nightspots all over the world. As an A & R manager he has worked with Stereo Nation, Pentagram, Raju Singh, Hema Sardesai, Sonu Nigam, Shankar Mahadevan and among others. He released his first single, Palolem Karma, in February ‘06 followed by his 2nd single, Travel Shanti, in March 06 through Spice Global Records.
www.grooveguru.co.uk

The acclaimed group State of Bengal have released their fourth album, Skip-iJ, through Betelnut Records. It is the creation of Sam Zaman, the man behind State of Bengal, who produced and recorded the album over a period of 3 years in his living room in East London.

The album contains collaborations and contributions from traditional and contemporary musicians and singers from across the globe. The band say the unusual title “refers to music that is not defined by a particular period and has the ability to skip through the ages”.

Since forming in 1987, State of Bengal have regularly toured internationally. Sam Zaman has worked with Bjork, Massive Attack, Ananda Shankar, Jolly Mukherjee and Paban Das Baul among others. Their track Flight IC408 was recently featured on the new Mira Nair film Namesake.
The album is available through stateofbengal.com and betelnut-records.com and myspace.com/stateofbengal. The band plan to tour the USA and Turkey this year to promote the album.

Media contact Nina Naran on nina@mediabitch.com.

Composer, producer and tabla player Kuljit Bhamra has collaborated with composer and musician Alwynne Pritchard for an album, titled Subterfuge Invitro, to be released on May 21st. Alwynne is also BBC Radio 3’s ‘Hear & Now’ presenter and teacher of composition at Trinity College of Music London.

Alwynne’s music has been performed by numerous European players and ensembles including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Arditti String Quartet and The London Sinfonietta.

Kuljit Bhamra, known for producing soundtracks for films including Bhaji on the Beach and ‘Bend It Like Beckham, and theatre productions such as The Far Pavilions and Deranged Marriage, recently released his album Himalaya Dawn.

More recently Bhamra and Andy Sheppard performed their music for the Queen and Prince Philip at Westminster Abbey as part of Observance for Commonwealth Day 2007.
www.kuljitbhamra.com / www.alwynnepritchard.co.uk
Media contact: Pat Tynan 01895 636935 / pattynan@btinternet.com

Soul singer Karen David’s debut EP, Alive, has been released through download outlets such as iTunes and Napster. The actress and singer is better known for her parts in Batman Begins, Bollywood Queen and more recently Provoked. She also had part in the West-end hit Mamma Mia and was the lead in Tamasha Theatre’s Strictly Dandiya on its second tour.

She has been focusing more on her music of late. The EP features her often performed song ‘Carry Me Home’ and features AR Rahman, Bombay Dub Orchestra and others. The EP also includes the song ‘Alive’, featured on Provoked.

Karen is working to finish her debut album for an Autumn release this year.
myspace.com/karendavid

The talented pianist Zoe Rahman has unveiled a series of performance dates around the country. Firmly establishing herself as one of the brightest stars on contemporary jazz scene, her most recent album, ‘Melting Pot’, was short-listed for the Mercury Prize and was voted ‘Jazz Album of the Year’ at the 2006 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

Born in Chichester, UK, Zoe studied music at Oxford University. She has since built up an interesting CV, playing punky worldbeat with Terry Hall and Mushtaq (Fun Da Mental), trancey Arabic folk with singer Reem Kelani, and superior hard bop with drummer Clark Tracey, as well as writing for the theatre.

13th and 14th April; Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street, London.
Saturday 28th April; The Drum, Birmingham

More dates on her website

The film festival Tongues on Fire will close its annual month-long event and celebrate the achievements of the legendary Bollywood dancer, Helen, who sizzled her way through many cabaret numbers from the 1950s - 1970s with a dance competition this weekend.

Helen, who is of English and Burmese parentage entered Hindi cinema as a chorus girl, but her first major hit was dancing to the number, Mera Nam Chin Chin Chu for the film, Howrah Bridge, 1958, by O.P. Nayyar. Other memorable songs include Mehbooba from Sholay, Yeh Mera Dil from Don and the classic, Piya Tu Ab To Aa Jaa from Caravan. According to author Jerry Pinto, Helen is reputed to have performed in over 500 films, and was nick-named “H-Bomb” at the height of her career.

Tongues on Fire & Sare-gama, plc, will launch a souvenir CD of songs from the hit films of Helen, who will be the special guest at the Closing Gala. There will also be a dance competition at the event.
Saturday 31 March, 7pm, New Players Theatre
www.tonguesonfire.com

City University has teamed up with acclaimed music venue the Roundhouse so students on a two-year Foundation Degree in Creative industries can use their fantastic facilities to train and prepare for careers or self-employment in the media and music biz. People who are already working in the industry can study part time over four years to get the qualification and improve their prospects.

The course will be taught by industry professionals and they are holding an open day on Wednesday 28th March 2007 where you could meet some of them. The next open day is scheduled for April 24th and the course starts in September 2007
More details: www.city.ac.uk/ell/foundation

Shiva Soundsystem has launched it second series of podcasts to entertain its fans in new ways. The theme for this series is ‘Influences’, DJ Nerm tells us. Guest presenters for the show will include Anita Rani, Asian Dub Foundation, Audio Dakoos, Aziz, D-Code, Fundamental, Rock ID, State Of Bengal and Swami.

You can listen to the first episode mp3 by clicking here. You can also subscribe through iTunes or directly use the xml file.

To celebrate 35 Years of Bangladeshi Independence, Human Rights Organisation Drishtipat are hosting an evening of festivities including a reading by acclaimed new author Tahmima Anam from her book A Golden Age and musical performance by the exciting folk and blues band Parapar next week.

A Golden Age, a novel by Tahmima Anam, tells the story of Rehana Haque, who awakes one March morning, preparing to throw a party, but none of the guests at Rehana’s party can foresee what will happen in the days and months that follow in East Pakistan in 1971, a country on the brink of war.

Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1975 and grew up in Paris, Bangkok, and New York City and comes from a family of writers. Her grandfather was a famous political satirist whose books are part of the national school curriculum in Bangladesh; her father, Mahfuz Anam, edits Bangladesh’s largest English-language daily newspaper.

Parapar is a band with members in Kolkata and London. Their music is built around the voice of singer-songwriter Moushumi Bhowmik and draws its repertoire both from Moushumi’s own compositions and the rich folk heritage of Bengal.
23rd of March at 5.45pm at the Brady Centre, Hanbury Street, London, E1.

Slam is the word on the street and for the sixth year the Poetry Society and Mayor of London are calling on all young performance poets, rappers and emcees across the boroughs of London to take part in the ‘Rise’ London-wide Youth Slam Championship 2007.

If you’ve got the words, the verse and the nerve to flaunt your skills over four exhilarating quarter finals at top London venues - as well as two live and kicking semi finals at City Hall - you could earn a chance to perform at the Rise: London United festival. It will take place this year take place in Clapham Common, South London, on Sunday 15 July.

To find out more see this page.

Going by the slogan “If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything”, the Campaign for Music with Meaning sets to make a stand against meaningless, manufactured, artificial music and fight on behalf of intelligent music that holds lyrical messages with the power to move hearts and minds.

Created by Livity and LIVE Futures, two socially-driven companies with experience in engaging young people in community-focused, media orientated projects, the campaign has recruited the popular band Outlandish to reach other like-minded musicians, fans and media, open the discussion further and bring intelligent music back to the forefront.

Outlandish says: “The World’s bigger than our egos and we’re all pieces in a greater puzzle. That’s why themes like love, trust, hate, friendship, family and God are far more important to us.”
www.musicwithmeaning.co.uk

Compiled by Radio 1 DJs Bobby Friction and Nihal, the newly released soundtrack for the film Mischief Night features the likes of: Nitin Sawhney, Raghav, Swami, Ges-e, Uk Apachi, Swami and Mentor Kolektiv.

This is combined with the urban beats of Jungle Brothers, Lethal Bizzle and Aphrodite as well as the catchy Asian version of the Gloria Gaynor classic ‘I will survive’ by Usha Uthup.

More on the film here.