Guru Rewben Mashangva - King of Naga folk blues jamming with Purple Fusion at the NagaFest, Delhi 2012...
Guru Rewben Mashangva is a folk musician and singer hailing from a small village called Choithar in the Ukhrul district of Manipur, India known for reviving musical tradition of the Tangkhul Naga community of Manipur. Rewben is also a composer, instrument maker, researcher & guide for the preservation and development of his tribal folk music. It's been more than 15 years that he has been doing this. He is known by different names like, Bob Dylan of the Nagas and King of Naga folk blues, Father of Naga folk blues. Influenced by musicians like Bob Dylan and Bob Marley, Rewben Mashangva has created many Naga tribal folk songs based on blues and ballad rhythms. He is a recipient of the National Tribal Award 2011-12, for his contribution to the development of tribal music from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. Mashangva was featured in the first season of The Dewarists along with The Raghu Dixit Project.
Being from the Tankhul tribe, the music Rewben plays is called HAO music and the main instruments used when performing are the 'Tingtelia', a traditional violin type instrument which took him 7 years to modify to suit what he was doing musically and the 'Yankahui', a long traditional bamboo flute which he has now modified to be more consistent tonally. The acoustic guitar and harmonica are the other two instruments Rewben uses a lot. Thus far Rewben has released two albums 'Naga Folk Blues' and 'Creation'. These days whenever possible his son Saka joins him onstage playing a traditional cowbell and singing. They both have the Tangkhul hairstyle called 'Haokuirat' and its quite interesting seeing people's reactions when they see the two of them. Rewben Mashangva is managed exclusively by Keith Wallang for Springboard Surprises.
Purple Fusion is an experimentive band fusing genre such as Folk Rock, Blues, Funk , Reggae and Bollywood (classic or vice versa). Purple Fusion incorporates different aspects of Naga traditional music, like rhythm, chants, and vocal melodies with western instruments and with genre which may necessarily not have the just one influence, with a little diversion from the main stream techno, R&B and pop. The band was founded by Mhathung Odyuo and Lamtsala Sangtam on the 1st of July 2012. Purple Fusion has been busy performing locally and also with international acts. They also got the chance to perform in June 2012 alongside John Schlitt from the famed band Petra who is a four time Grammy winning artist and just recently performed with Mr. Rahul Ram of Indian Ocean and guru of folk Rewben Mashangva.
NagaFest 2012 is a one of its kind celebration with Music concerts, food, prizes, awesome speakers and showcasing the talent of the Indigenous Naga tribes of North East India. It is a platform for all Nagas to come together in Delhi. It was held on 19th September 2012 at Talkatora Stadium funded by an NGO called the Indigenous Foundation (IF). The main purpose of Nagafest is to fight poverty in Naga inhabited areas and to bring all Nagas together, to share the awareness of issues and concerns as a group. It is not a political group but action oriented and plans to take up all cultural, spiritual and economic issues to solve them with immediate and long term needs for the group.
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