The stars were twinkling. The moon was smiling. And the people on the ground were lost in the music when The Many Roots Ensemble played a gig at a festival last weekend. The music that the massive outfit of seven members was creating on stage was so intricate and unusual that it came as a breath of fresh air in a market that's swamped with DJs playing generic beats. So, don't say that live music is dying. Instead, head for a concert this evening where Many Roots will share the stage with Rashtriya Swing Sena (SS), a contemporary jazz band, to understand what we mean.

The unusual aspect of this gig is that both outfits have the same members, barring one person. "That's why we decided that we'd play a back-to-back set, in the sense that all of us will be on stage throughout instead of one act opening for the other, and we'll play each other's tunes in succession," says guitarist Subid Khan, one of the founding members of Many Roots.