BANGALORE: The curtain raiser for the Kingfisher–Explocity Festival of Jazz & Blues will he held on 6 December 2008 at Bangalore with performances by blues singer Dana Gillespie, accompanied by Joachim Palden on the electric piano and Enrico Morena on the drums. The curtain raiser will be held at the Hotel Royal Orchid Lawns.

Dana Gillespie is a multi-award winning Blues diva. She has been touring the world as an ambassador of the risqu?© blues. With over 50 albums to her credit, a self-styled Music Festival in Mustique, support to Bob Dylan, hit shows in London's West End, at the Edinburgh Festival, and many other Festivals throughout Europe, the Middle East, India, and beyond, Dana is considered truly an International Blues legend by many.

Hotel Royal Orchid is the hospitality partner for the curtain-raiser of the Kingfisher-Explocity Jazz & Blues Festival which will be held on 12 and 13 December at Bangalore. Tickets for curtain-raiser, priced at Rs 750, are available at Explocity, Hotel Royal Orchid and Opus.

The groups performing during the Kingfisher-Explocity Jazz & Blues Festival include Moon Arra; Gerard Machado and Megha-Carnatic Jazz Fusion; Amit Heri group; Inetrplay; Rajeev Raja Combine; Pink Rose and Louis Bnaks Quartet featuring Radha Thomas.

The sponsors for the festival are: Kingfisher- Title Sponsor; Chancery Pavilion- Hospitality Sponsor; Radio One- Radio partner; Myopusradio.com-online radio partner; Epson- AV Partner; Bookmyshow.com- ticketing partner; CItyInfo, 080Magazine and MyTime are the media sponsors.

Radio One has chalked up plans both on-air and on-ground, informs its station head Shyju Varkey.

"We are the only Bollywood station in Bangalore and we want to make a Bollywood connect with this event. We'll run capsules on air of the Jazz version of Bollywood songs and ask the listeners to identify that song. The winners will be awarded with passes for the Kingfisher–Explocity Festival of Jazz & Blues," revealed Varkey about the festival promos.

About the on-ground promotions, he says, "We plan to replicate our 'Party Responsibly' initiative that we had at the Bangalore Ad Club's Big Bang Awards where we were the radio partners this year. Since the main sponsors for the Jazz & Blues festival are Kingfisher, drinks will be available at the event venue. People who drink can register with us and we'll pick four lucky winners to be driven home in our Radio One branded cars."

Details of bands performing for The Kingfisher-Explocity Jazz & Blues Festival in Bangalore

December 1, 2008

BANGALORE: The Kingfisher-Explocity Jazz & Blues Festival will be held on December 12 and 13, 2008 at the Karnataka Lawn Tennis Association in Cubbon Park, Bangalore.

Performances and performers for December 12, 2008

(1) Moon Arra- Jagadeesh, Madhuri, Dwight Pattison, Karthik Mani, and Prakash Sontakke

(2) Gerard Machado & 'Megha'- Carnatic Jazz Fusion ensemble. Led by Dr' Suma Sudhindra & Gerard Machado.Percussion ensemble: A.S.N.Swamy—Mridhangam; M.A.Krishnamurthy—Tabla; B.K Chandramauli--Khanjira & Konekol; S.N Narayanmurthy --Ghatam.; TILLU' –Drums; K.N Prakash –Bass; Fred Melville.—Keyboards

(3) Amit Heri Group- Amit Heri; Ranjit Barot; Karl Peters; Maarten Visser

(4) Interplay-Sonia Saigal; Harmeet Manseta; Adrian D'Souza; Holger Jetter; Mishko M'Ba

Performances and Performers on December 13, 2008

(1) Rajeev Raja Combine comprising of Rajeev Raja; Sanjeev Chimalgi; Aditya Kalyanpur; Hitesh Dhutia;Nikhil Koparde

(2) Pinknoise- Amyt Datta; Jayashree Singh; Gyan Singh; Jivraj Singh

(3) Louiz Banks Quartet featuring Radha Thomas- Louiz Banks; Radha Thomas; Gino Banks; Sheldon Jesse Sheehan.

The above schedule is tentative. Watch this space for more details.