Tarun Balani
Delhi Jazz
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Tarun Balani is a drummer, composer, percussionist and music educator living in New Delhi, India. In 2012, at age 27, Tarun released his debut record “Sacred World”, which has been said to “point to the future of jazz in India.” (Time Out, India).

Playing music through high school and after, Tarun was a member of Indian bands including Incognito, Advaita and Artistes Unlimited. When he was 18 years old, Tarun attended Drummers Collective in New York City, an experience that drew him forever to jazz. The raw instinct of the music united him with the form, and inspired him to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston a few years later. At Berklee, Tarun focused on performance and composition. His teachers Ralph Peterson Jr. and Jamey Haddad had great influence on Tarun’s drumming. He was also the first Indian student at Berklee selected to be part of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute where he was mentored by Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Joe lovano and George Garzone.

In 2011, Tarun and his brother Aditya Balani, also a musician (guitar player and composer), founded Global Music Institute in New Delhi. The first of its kind in India, the Institute aims to promote musical diversity in India, with an emphasis on national and international collaboration in faculty for teaching and performance.

 
Videos

Arjuna excerpt

The Other Side (excerpt)

Arjuna reprise

Pictures
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Press Quotes

"Lately, Tarun Balani Collective has been inching towards the limelight and their music is slowly gathering momentum. Most of the songs in the band’s debut album have been written by Tarun Balani who is a product of the prestigious Berklee College of Music." -Platform Magazine

 
“Sacred World”, points to the future of jazz in India.” Time Out, India
 
“Sacred World is both modern and old-world, and displays a compositional maturity and quietness that belies Tarun’s age—he is 27.” - 
Live Mint, TheWall Street Journal
 
“With feet (and ears and hearts) anchored firmly in both India and jazz, [Balani’s] music articulates a confident disregard for the confines of labels and categories… [he has] a lot to say, and a unique way of saying it. – Naresh Fernandes, author and journalist 
 
“Sacred World transcends genres and smashes cultural barriers into a breathtaking presentation that is perhaps best describes as a mosaic of melodic wonder. Criticaljazz.com, USA

 

"Their model is perhaps a pointer to the future — young, passionate jazz men who blend several influences and make jazz accessible to this generation." -Asian Age

 

"An astonishingly good blend of world music and contemporary jazz." -Hindustan TImes

 

"Watch out for these super-talented guys, they are the new generation, changing the face of the music scene in India as we speak. Having studied with the greatest at the Berklee College of Music, and now working as the creative director at Global Music Institute in Delhi, Tarun Balani is getting together a bunch of great musicians, showing us jazz in a definitively young, fresh, energetic way." -Blue Frog Mumbai

 

"His music captivates with it's immediacy, yet is deep enough to create a spell that will linger in the mind" -AllAboutJazz

 

"The sprightly drumming of Tarun can just as easily turn into just a wash of cymbals behind the soloists”- TimeOut

Press Links

NextBop, USA | “Tarun Balani Collective’s Sacred World”

New York Public Radio, USA | Global Jazz “New Sounds”

Critical Jazz, USA | “Tarun Balani Collective – Sacred World 2013”

Midwest Record, USA | Review

TimeOut Delhi, India | “Tarun Balani Collective”

TimeOut Delhi, India | “Balani Sandwich”

The Telegraph, India | “All this Jazz”

The Telegraph, India | “Music”

NH7, India | “Tarun Balani Collective to Release Debut Album”

Indian Drummer, India | “Tarun Balani – Sacred World”

Platform Magazine, India |“Tarun Balani Collective”

 

Past Gigs

Tarun Balani has performed for bands like Advaita, Artistes unlimited and has been the first call drummer for artistes like Faridkot, Ujwal Nagar, Suhail Khan, Sharik Hasan, NoJazz (France), Brian Citro (USA).