When two become one A unique live gig features two bands with almost the same members sharing the stage, playing each otheru2019s songs Shunashir Sen shunashir. sen@ mid- day. com The stars were twinkling. The moon was smiling. And the people on the ground were lost in 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 thatu2019s swamped with DJs playing generic beats. So, donu2019t say that live music is dying. Instead, head for a concert this evening where Many Roots will share the stage with Rashtriya Swing Sena ( RSS), 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. u201c Thatu2019s why we decided that weu2019d 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 weu2019ll play each otheru2019s tunes in succession,u201d says guitarist Subid Khan, one of the founding members of Many Roots.