World Music Legends Collaborate With India’s Top Folk Musicians At Jodhpur RIFF

Celebrated roots musicians from France, Norway, South Korea, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Azerbaijan, Canada and Estonia, will perform with legends and masters from across India under a full moon at the magnificent Mehrangarh Fort, in Jodhpur.

Under the brightest full moon of this year, Jodhpur RIFF will bring together more than 280 spectacular roots music performers from across the world, India and the state of Rajasthan, in Jodhpur’s Mehrangarh Fort, to inspire, entertain and dazzle audiences from the 16th to the 20th of October.

Mehrangarh, a majestic 15th century fort built out of burnished red sandstone, standing on a perpendicular cliff overlooking the skyline of the blue city of Jodhpur, has been called “the work of giants” by Rudyard Kipling. Aldous Huxley wrote that, from its ramparts, “One hears as the gods must hear from Olympus”. It is in such a venue that audiences will witness the splendour of roots music masters, stars and legends.

The festival’s lineup in its 17th year includes French electronica artist Éric Mouquet, who co-founded the Grammy-winning music project Deep Forest, the masterly Manganiyar of Marwar, Kutiyattam maestro Kapila Venu from Kerala, GABBA from Norway, who won the Spellemannprisen, singer, composer and lyricist Sona Mohapatra, emerging Rajasthani roots music group SAZ, Estonian folk stars Puuluup, Anuja Zokarkar (rendering a tribute to Pandit Chintaman Raghunath Vyas, a giant of the Hindustani classical genre), Meherdeen Khan Langa, legendary exponent of both the Sindhi sarangi and the algoza, Hindustani vocalist Barnali Chattopadhyay, Sumitra Das Goswami, called ‘the Cuckoo of Rajasthan’, the Warsi Brothers from Hyderabad, and Kaluram Bamaniya and his Kabir gayan, to name some.

HH Maharaja Gaj Singh II of Marwar-Jodhpur, Chief Patron of Jodhpur RIFF says, “Rajasthani folk artists are equal to the best roots musicians in the world. Not just in terms of their musical heritage but also how some of them are reinterpreting and contemporising their legacy for the current generation. Jodhpur RIFF is proof of this. The festival exists to provide an enabling environment and superb platform for folk artists. But it also serves to introduce remarkable international performers to our audiences and gives these artists a fantastic opportunity to interact and collaborate with the infinite living treasure that is Rajasthani folk.”

Festival Director Divya Bhatia says, “Jodhpur RIFF has been at the forefront of the Indian roots music scene for 17 years now. Our commitment to roots music also means that we think beyond silos such as music, dance, theatre or classical, jazz, folk and ‘Sufi’ and truly explore the wonder that is our collective, living, musical heritage. This year’s Jodhpur RIFF aims to do just that.”

Jodhpur RIFF is known primarily for the phenomenal space it creates every year around Sharad Purnima, when legends of world and roots music discover an extraordinary setting in which they perform, with audiences at Mehrangarh experiencing magic they will not find anywhere else.

Jodhpur RIFF has, for over a decade and a half, dedicated itself to inspiring, building, reviving, contemporising and defining the roots music and performance scene in Rajasthan, India and the world. It has supported and provided a platform for Rajasthan’s folk performers and communities. It has created opportunities for younger Rajasthani musicians and performers to nurture their craft.

This year’s festival weaves together dance, music and theatre, breaking down silos between how these performing arts are viewed through collaborations such as that between SAZ — a stunning group of Rajasthani folk musicians born out of this festival, who have rearranged traditional lyrics to dynamic compositions and written original songs in the genre which speak to today’s generation — and kathak exponent Tarini Tripathi.

Musical ideas of ‘folk’ and ‘classical’ might even disappear on stage, in the presence of the recipient of the Aga Khan Music Award (AKMA 2020-22) Asin Khan Langa on the Sindhi sarangi, and recipient of an AKMA Special Mention artist Dilshad Khan (on the classical sarangi), who will come together for a 40 minute collaboration produced by festival director Divya Bhatia.

Last year’s festival had a special focus on Rajasthani percussion instruments— the dholak, bhapang and khartal. Jodhpur RIFF 2024 spreads its arms wider, and the music on this night, they say, is heard far above and beyond the ramparts of Mehrangarh fort