On ‘Leftovers’, using voice as an Instrument – Aditi’s vocal style

Aditi Ramesh, Jazz/Blue carnatic vocalist, and songwriter based in Mumbai, released her latest EP Leftovers, a  compilation of the songs she had written in recent times but was not able to record right away. Having left these songs to grow and rearrange themselves as her sound evolved, they have now metamorphosed into something much richer than their initial versions. This EP is also symbolic of the coming together of her band as a family and is something she has tried to represent in the EP Artwork. The Leftovers EP also broke into the Top 100 All Genres Chart and is at #1 on the Jazz Charts on Apple Music. The massive promotion tour for the Leftovers EP took place at seven cities across India and Nepal with three shows in Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore with the UK/IND fusion Project Raaga Garage and, ten shows with her quartet at Nepal, Delhi, Shillong and Kolkata.

It’s interesting to use your voice as an instrument because it pushes you to experiment with its tone, texture and note choices. The voice comes from our person and it therefore has the power to carry emotion within it. So it creates something an instrument cannot exactly and that is a great sonic palette to play with.

-Aditi Ramesh

The 4 track EP, a cornucopia of fusion of genres now slowly becoming Aditi’s signature style, is a step forward in the Indian jazz movement. Marrying elements of pop with smooth jazzy transitions, the band lays down a foundation for Aditi’s imagination to run free. Creating carefully structured vocal solos in places, substituting the use of instruments like the saxophone, Aditi not only proves her vocal prowess but adds so much more zing to the songs. Places where you would imagine an instrument to be, Aditi’s voice slides in with a jazz solo which magically transforms into a beautiful convolution of Carnatic vocal solo at instances. “The dynamic of the solo is guided by my mood against the backdrop of the mood of the band locking in together. Many times the theme of the particular song drives the feel behind the vocal improvisation but at all times the improviser (whether it’s me or one of my bandmates) is listening to the rest of the band while expressing themselves.” says Aditi.

My signature style is still evolving, so I would say that the music I put out indicates the general direction and mood my style is taking, while the live shows show the real time development of my sound.

Hear the ‘Lefotovers’ EP here :