Biography

Bennet and the Band is a LIVE act based out of Kochi, Kerala. It is the brainchild of Bennet Roland. Bennet Roland, who hails from a family of Western classical musicians, is a virtuoso guitarist, music director, and a seasoned performer with an abundant experience of more than 15 years. In this span of time, he travelled through different genres of music and collaborations like the successful rock band, Dreadlocks, music direction for Malayalam movie productions and the fusion project, Bennet and the band, which has enriched his creative skills and musical quotient with Hindustani and Carnatic elements.  An excellent LIVE performer with a multi-dimensional approach to his music and improvisation skills to match, Bennet delivers it in a unique yet palatable way, as witnessed by numerous venues all over India, Europe, Middle-East and Far-East countries. Bennet and the Band is a unique blend of various music cultures, which believes in broadening their horizons and experimenting rather than confining their music to a genre. The band comprises highly talented session artists and musicians with roots in eclectic styles that revolve around Bennet. The band and its concept was conceived in 1998 by Bennet as a forum for musicians to be able to collaborate and build around themes of popular film songs while retaining the room for improvising and demonstrating individual artists’ ability on their instruments.   The brand of fusion music the band produces is not merely a rendering of Indian music on western instruments but combines elements of Western and Indian music without tampering with the feel or hurting the soul of either. The band uses the jazz palette for improvisation based on multiple scales resulting from harmonic changes and combines it with the complex rhythm structures and subtle quarter tones from Indian classical music to an exciting effect.   In the words of the band, their music is perhaps a balanced hybrid of otherwise opposing forces like the emotional expression and calculated composition, Indian classical and jazz with overtones of progressive rock. The band considers it vital to experiment and create music by always finding new ways to fuse distinct and unanticipated musical influences.   The gear used by the group includes a wide range of electric and acoustic guitars, flutes, recorder, tabla, saxophone, gangira, mridangam, synthesisers, keyboards, drums, piano, and darbuka combined with African drum djembe and classical European instruments like clarinet, violin, etc. together with the bass.   Band Members: Bennet – Guitars Manoj George – Violin Sumod – Eastern Percussions Thanuj – Western Percussions Josy – Bass Daya – Drums William – Keyboards