The 7th Edition Of Jodhpur RIFF Announced

The 'Jodhpur RIFF', now recognised as one of the world's best international music festivals, is back, this year from 17-21 October at the Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur. Now in its 7th year, the 5-day festival continues to bring together interlinked musical strands to create a full programme around the exceptional variety of Rajasthani traditional and global roots music.

From devotional concerts and collaborations between Rajasthani, Nordic, British, West Asian and Australian artists, right through to documentary screenings, the schedule offers a variety of performances to pick and choose from - all running from dawn to dusk.

Announcing the 2013 edition of the Jodhpur RIFF, HH Maharaja Gaj Singh II of Jodhpur-Marwar said; “Jodhpur RIFF is emerging as a fine example of an excellent confluence of music, cultures and heritage. This amalgamation reveals the richness of our musical traditions on a global platform. The beauty of Jodhpur RIFF lies in the fact that while it is musically extravagant, it maintains its rustic simplicity and commitment to its vision and ethos.”

If you're looking for something a bit different this year, Jodhpur RIFF comes highly recommended. Some of this year's highlights are:

Daud Khan Sadozai: Master and living legend of the Robab, an Afghani lute-like instrument.

Gypsy Allstars: The ‘Gypsy Allstars” led by Cedric Leonardi, Mario Reyes and Antonio Carmona present a special performance at RIFF following work on a project called “Return to Rajasthan”. Their repertoire will include collaborations with Rajasthani artists as well as new arrangements of some of their iconic songs.

The Manganiyar Of Marwar: Jodhpur RIFF presents glimpses of the varied skills of this prolific musician based community throughout the festival.

Maru Tarang – A collaboration between jazz singer Jeff Lang, guitarist Asin Langa (on Sindhi Sarangi), Bobby Singh on tabla and Bhungar Manganiyar on Khartal.

Film Screenings: “Jahaji Music” and “Bidesia in Bambai” - two documentary films by Surabhi Sharma exploring the movement of Bhojpuri music. To further highlight this, there will be a special performance on the Legacy of Bhikari Thakur by Kalpana Patowary.

For more information on the festival you can head over to the Jodhpur RIFF website here