Samasa

A wonderful blend of oriental music, funk and jazz with Indian vocal scat, sarod licks on electric guitar, piano chords in a raga.

SAMASA was born from the collaboration between composer / singer / pianist Sinta Wullur and guitarist / sarod player / composer Martijn Baaijens. Both have studied Western and Indian classical music and their desire to let the two traditions meet in improvised music with jazz musicians is realized. With double bass player Daniel van Huffelen and drummer Kim Weemhoff, they create a new ‘Kind of Blues’ with titles like 'Bhairav ​​Blues’ and ‘Lady sings Charukeshi’.

Both composed the repertoire of Samasa which can be original themes in specific raga as well arrangements of traditional songs from Indian Classical music, included some Tagore songs.

 ‘Indian mood’ refers not only to the musical atmosphere of India, it mainly refers to the Indian scales the musicians use in their improvisations.

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CV's

Sinta Wullur started as a classical pianist and composer in contemporary music, having graduated from the conservatoires in Amsterdam and The Hague. Early on, she became interested in the cross-fertilization between Western contemporary music and gamelan and Indian music. This resulted in compositions for classical and gamelan ensembles, culminating in her theatrical music installation 'Temple of Time'  for The Holland Festival 2017. She founded various groups and was artistic director of the modern gamelan group ‘Ensemble Mulifoon’ and the world music ensemble ‘Chameleon’, Wullur’s interest in singing arose by getting to know Indian vocals while she was studying composing. Through the study of Indian singing, she decided to approach the core of the Indian raga, an important source of inspiration for her compositions and a new musical expertise. She took lessons from Indian vocal teachers in the Netherlands and India, in both Dhrupad and Khayal styles. www.sintawullur.com

Martijn Baaijens graduated in classical guitar from The Hague Royal Conservatory. While he was studying guitar, he came into contact with the Indian sarod. Fascinated by the instrument and by Indian classical music, he underwent a second conservatoire study in sarod at Codarts Rotterdam (Rotterdam Conservatoire) with Koustuv Ray, and obtained a degree from there as well. In India he further polished his sarod playing through taking lessons from Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta at the Sangeet Research Academy in Calcutta.

Daniel van Huffelen  graduated in double bass jazz at The Hague Royal Conservatory and continues a 'Master in composition', for which he receives his diploma. He gets a scholarship to New York and take lessons in double bass and composition. Daniels interest in Indian music results in taking lessons in sarangi in Mumbai, India and in Holland. As double bass player he joined several groups which toured in foreign countries.www.danielvanhuffelen.com

Kim Weemhoff trained as a rock and jazz drummer. He has been in demand by renowned musicians such as Candy Dulfer and Mathilde Santing. He has his own jazz bands Odd & Scene and Sinister Project. As well as the regular drum set, he plays percussion instruments such as udu, frame drums and tabla. He learned to play tabla from Ted de Jong, who taught tabla at Codarts

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Samasa is supported by Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds for the development of their project "Indian Mood"

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