It’s a Gypsy Sound Revolution of love. Their refreshing new twist to music brings an almost meditative and joyful feel with its enchanting beats and soulful alaps that reach up to the divine. Their music bears an uncanny relationship to the gypsy sound and soul of the South of France which has been a powerful addition to their sound evolution.
Ced Leonardi who was in Bengaluru over the weekend, describes the music of Gypsy Sound Revolution as, “The sound has the spices of Rajasthan and the South of France and it’s made in LA. We call it Indo-gypsy fusion but it’s more about calling in the joy and the divine. You can be a gypsy by birth or by nature. We like to believe that the music calls to the nomadic heart in all of us. It takes its own direction very naturally. The sound is still evolving, like making the perfect cake. We have producers in LA and Mumbai contributing to its evolution.”
Ced Leonardi reveals that he’s been up and down India on a motorcycle a few times over the years and as a drummer, fell in love with it and learned to play the tabla. “It’s exotic, mystical and wild. Returning the gypsy rumba to Rajasthan was the perfect jumping off point for us. Some of the memorable moments have been when the Indian audiences recognised our inclusion of Damadam Mast Qalander in our song Soymo Gitano or enthusiasts at a jazz club in Seattle jump onto the tables and start dancing ecstatically. We all jumped off various planes from LA, NYC, Marseilles and Jodhpur to continue our longstanding relationship with VR in Bengaluru. We love the vibrant music scene and plan to dig more into the music here during our stay in the city,” Mario Reyes, a band member adds, “As gypsies, we have long known that our origins were in India but sometimes the story seemed as much of a myth as reality. So when the Maharajah of Jodhpur invited us to the Rajasthan International Folk Festival, it was exciting to find out more about where we come from. Our festival’s artistic director Divya Bhatia assembled 100 musicians in a large meeting area and we listened, watched and played with each other. It was intense and difficult to make decisions about who to collaborate with as we wanted to collaborate with everyone. In the end it felt like there was a natural selection based on an intangible gravitation to certain musicians, sounds and styles.”
