Shonai - Pianist / Keyboardist | India, India

Show Description

There are two different shows.
1. "Life of a Pianist"- A solo Piano act. Performance includes soft, smooth, mellow Jazz Standards and populer tunes with an acoustic Grand Piano.
2. "The Shonai Collective"- A traditional jazz trio. Performance includes jazz standards and popular tunes rearranged.
3. " Piano voice duo"- Shonai accompanies his vocalist Shreya on Piano. They cover standards and popular songs. they arrange a few very popular songs in completely different way which makes their set more interesting to the audience as they can hear all their familier tunes with a new sound.

Set-List

1. " Life of a Pianist "
All the things you are.
Autumn leaves
Blue moon
Besame Mucho
Ornithology
Four
Fly me to the moon
Girl from Ipanima
Give ma a kiss to build a dream on
Goody goody
On green dolphin street
Blue monk
I can't give you anything but love
You don't know what love is
Love for sale
Lullaby of Birdland
Mack the knife
Misty
In your own sweet way
My funny valentine -
New york New York
Polka dots and moonbeams
Route 66
So what
Stolen moments
Stomping at the Savoy
Summertime
Sway
Tenderly
Sandu
Well you needn't
What a wonderful world
Dahood
...
Satin doll
Take the A train
Watch what happens
Epistrophy
Segment
Body and soul
Round midnight
Billie's bounce
Full house
Jingles
Four on six
Darn that dream
In a sentimental mood
How insensitive
Take five
Road song
Jingles
Blue in green
One note samba
The shadow of your smile
Jordu
Georgia on my mind
Someday my prince will come
A night in Tunisia
Softly as in morning sunrise
Born to be blue
Monks mood
Love story
If
Careless whispers
Stand by me
Isn't she lovely
I just called to say
Feelings
Words
Yesterday
Have I told you etc.
-------------------------------
2. "The Shonai Collective"
1. Ain’t No Sunshine
2. I cant Help It
3. Round Midnight
4. BUtterfly
5. Summer time
6. Street Life
7. Night and Day
8. Apple tree
9. Thriller
10. Just the Two of US
11. Isnt She Lovely
12. Love for Sale
13. Rock with You
14. Softly as in Morning sunlight
15. The World is mine
16. You don Know What Love Is
and many others.
_--------------------------
" Piano Voice Duo "
1. Misty
2. Sunny Side of the Street
3. Bewitched, bothered, bewildered
4. Everything I Got Belongs to You
5. Lush Life
6. I wish I could shimmy like my
7. Social Call
8. They can’t take that away from me
9. Summertime
10. All the things you are
11. class
12. My mans an undertaker
13. Inside this heart of mine
14. All the Cats Join In
15. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
16. Don’t Stop Me Now
17. Desperado
18. All that Jazz
19 All about the Bass
20. Sweet Child O Mine
21. You’re a Mean One Mr Grinch
22. Somewhere Over the Rainbow
23. Careless Whisper
24. I Will Survive
25. Let It Be
26. Come Together
27. Love Me Do
28. Yesterday
29. Torn
30. Defying Gravity
And more.. Read More

Biography

SHONAI
- contemporary jazz pianist, educator.
https://www.shonaimusic.in/
Shonai being predominantly a contemporary jazz pianist enjoys his musical career as a performer, educator, composer and arranger. Being a graded artist in All India Radio countless jazz recitals has been broadcast.
Being a versatile musician Shonai had been a part of several bands with different genres of music like pop, Latin, Bebop Quartet, Funk-Jazz, Blues, Traditional Jazz with Big Band, Bawl Jazz fusion, AvantGuard, Experimental jazz rock fusion etc. He has been travelling extensively across India, south eas ... t Asia and Europe performing at several venues and festivals.
Currently he is a part of two set-ups, The Bodhisatya Trio, which is an experimental jazz rock fusion trio and The Shonai Collective. There are two different set-ups working under the name The Shonai Collective. One is a RnB funk jazz quartet and the other one is an acoustic set-up as a traditional jazz trio with piano, upright bass and drums.
He has also played extensively
throughout India in festivals like GIANTS OF JAZZ ( Delhi, Gurgaon ), JAZZMATAZZ (Mumbai , Pune), JAZZMANDU ( Nepal ), Jam Steady BIG SUNDAY ( Kolkata ), Kolkata Jazz Fest ( Kolkata ), Lent Festival ( Svenia ), Dev9t Festival ( Serbia ), Fest Jazza ( Croatia ) and prestigious venues like The Oberoi Grand, The Park, ITC Sonar, The Park Plaza etc. in Kolkata. Opus ( Bangalore ), The Humming Tree ( Bangalore ), Blue Frog, The Piano Man ( Delhi ), Trident ( Rajasthan ), NCPA Tata Theatre ( Mumbai ), Anti Social (Mumbai ), B Flat ( Berlin ), White Cube ( Hamburg ), BlueNote Jazz Club ( Poland ), Celica ( Slovenia ), Apart from these he has
also played several other places in Northeast India and beyond, like Manipur, Assam, Shillong, Taj Tashi ( Bhutan ) and Dhaka Club ( Bangladesh) , Gdansk ( Poland ), Kran ( Slovenia ), which helped him to hone his skills and experiences. Read More

Reviews     (1 Review)

Experience

Shonai
Born in kolkata ever-evolving Shonai enjoys his musical career as a performer, educator, composer and arranger. In his 16 years of professional life he has worked in every possible situation starting from solo recitals to duo acts, and from playing in trio,quartets,quintets to Big Bands. Shonai being predominantly a contemporary jazz pianist has worked with several jazz stalwarts like Mr.Carlton Kitto who was the one and only authentic Bebop guitar player in India. Mr.Andrew Gracias, Mr.Lewis Hilt, Mr.Marcus Dengate who was the bass player of the great Dizzy Gillespie, Mr.Cliv ... e Hugh, Mr.Gianni Denitto, Mr.Rainer Pusch to name a few. Being a graded artist in All India Radio countless jazz recitals has been broadcast.
He has completed Grade 6 in Classical Music in Piano from Associated Board of Royal School of Music and Grade 8 in Jazz Piano from London College of Music. He studied Jazz till the advanced level.
He started his professional career playing and building his repertoires up in prestigious venues like The Oberoi Grand, The Park, ITC Sonar, The Park Plaza, Taj Bengal etc. in Kolkata. He has also played extensively throughout India in festivals like GIANTS OF JAZZ ( Delhi, Gurgaon ), JAZZMATAZZ ( Mumbai , Pune), JAZZMANDU ( Nepal ), Jam Steady BIG SUNDAY ( Kolkata ), Darjeeling Carnival and venues like Opus ( Bangalore ), The Humming Tree ( Bangalore ), Blue Frog ( Bangalore ), The Piano Man ( Delhi ), Trident ( Rajasthan ), NCPA Tata Theatre ( Mumbai ), Finch ( Mumbai ), Anti Social ( Mumbai ). Apart from these he has also performed at several places in Northeast India and beyond, like Manipur, Assam, Shillong, Taj Tashi ( Bhutan ) and Dhaka Club ( Bangladesh ), which helped him to hone his skills and experiences.
Being a versatile musician Shonai had been a part of several bands with different genres of music like Blue Mist ( pop ), Orient Express ( Latin ), Carlton Kitto Jazz Ensemble ( Jazz ), Fast Forward ( Funk-Jazz ), Big Family ( Blues ), Bramhakhyapa ( Bawl Jazz fusion ), ABHIND ( AvantGuard ) etc. Apart from these bands he used to work with many other bands and artistes as a session musician. Currently he is a part of two set-ups, The Shonai Collective ( Funk and Jazz ), ( contemporary jazz ) and Bodhisatya Trio ( experimental jazz rock fusion ).
Shonai started teaching music in 2009 and has worked in Shaw Public School Kolkata, St. Xavier's Collegiate School Kolkata, Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory Nepal , Calcutta School of Music Kolkata. Currently he is on the teaching faculty at One World College of Music.
The idea of working with his own set-up, The Shonai Collective, was to perform the kind of music he wants to perform including his own compositions. The idea germinated during his short stint in Nepal as a guest piano teacher in prestigious Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory in 2015, where he performed a series of gigs with a lot of jazz musicians and visiting teachers from all over the world. During his sojourn there, he had composed, arranged and recorded a few compositions. Then he decided to continue this journey back in Kolkata. In 2016, it took shape as a trio with two other musician friends ( Premjit and Aakash ) on drums and bass. Apart from his own compositions they used to cover a few Jazz standards, bebop tunes and other popular tunes rearranged in their unique way. Two of their compositions got released in a compilation album in 2016 followed by a pan-India tour. The idea of his collective is to collaborate with various artistes and perform. In 2017, he collaborated with two other amazing musicians ( Rie Ona and Fabio Carlucci ) on Sax and Trumpet. They made a tour to Delhi and took part in a Jazz festival called Giant of Jazz. Recently Shonai has moved his base to Delhi Where apart from working as a piano teacher he's performing regularly with his Collective featuring various artistes.
There are two different set-ups working under the name The Shonai Collective. One is a funk jazz quartet ( sometimes quintet ) with Jigmee Sherpa on Bass, Dan Thomas on Drums and Divakar Nambiath on vocal and the other one is an acoustic set-up as a contemporary and traditional jazz trio with Ekaterina Aristova on upright bass,Aditya Dutta on drums and Shonai himself on piano.
EPK -
Amuze Records-
" Shonai nailed it at The Piano Man last night. Shonai with his trio had made people swing to their tune last night...The show was pretty good.. Shonai was a hit last night."
The Hindu-
" We’re introduced to Kolkata trio Shonai a bit late in the album, but their groovy piano-led tunes add a funky touch to Foxtrot Project V2 with ‘Walking on Air’ and a tribute to... legend Carlton Kitto with the sombre but gratitude-filled ‘An Ode to Mr. Kitto’. " Read More

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