A month-long concert series featuring musicians from across the country will kick off with a spotlight on a talented Kohima-born musician who also trains young minds in music
Jonathan Angami in performance. PICS COURTESY/JONATHAN ANGAMI
That is how you found my number?” Jonathan Angami breaks into a bout of laughter over a phone call from Nagaland. We had come across a photo online of a retro, no-nonsense handpainted signboard outside a school in Chumoukedima that read: Jonathan Angami, Singing Classes for All Ages. A trained Western musician from the Nagaland Conservatory of Music and a passionate teacher to young students at the S Apostolic Mission Residential School, Angami is now headed to Mumbai this week for a change of scenery.
Angami trains students at the S Apostolic Mission Residential School in Chumoukedima in Nagaland
Not Dead Yet, a month-long showcase of pop, hip-hop, soul and R&B musicians will see Angami in the company of Delhi-based rock band Green Park, Mumbai-based Sidd Coutto, Pune-based Shreyas Sagwekar and Vedant Deshpande, and Bengaluru-based Joel Sakkari aka Sakré among other multi-genre acts.
“I grew up with hymns echoing around me at home. Music was always a part of life. I still play in the church band when I can,” Angami reveals. At a Lower Parel venue amidst towering business parks and concrete chaos, the artiste will debut two soft acoustic originals titled Easy to Pretend and Like a Child. The latter, the 29-year-old reveals, is an ode to the small joys of childhood.
Turns out, we’re not the only ones who serendipitously stumbled upon Angami’s work. Nearly five years ago, Maestro AR Rahman met the Kohima-born artiste as part of a collaborative project. “It was unlike anything else. I was invited to make music between his studios in Mumbai and Chennai. I also got the chance to meet his children, and talk all about music,” he reveals.
Jonathan Angami with AR Rahman
Most recently, Angami performed at the Hornbill Festival, the famed annual celebration of Naga culture fondly dubbed ‘the festival of festivals’. “My songs are rooted in my experiences with the people around me here in Nagaland. While I’m intrigued by the buzzing independent music scene Mumbai, I think my music might see a shift if I move base. The air here, the people, the old houses and architecture, all seep into my music when I sit down to write,” he shares.
Given a chance, Angami says he would love to see a collaboration between his Blues-y English-language originals and Hindustani classical music. The dream isn’t too far-fetched as long as he remembers Rahman’s words of advice to him. “Amidst all my admiration, I asked Rahman sir only one question: How do you start writing a song? His answer became a turning point in my musical journey,” Angami recalls. We’d let you in on it, but as they say about great magicians, they never reveal their secrets.
ON July 31 to August 21; 8 pm
AT antiSOCIAL, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Lower Parel.
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