Sharat Chandra Srivastava

Indian violinist, composer and recording artist Sharat Chandra Srivastava teamed up with American jazz musician, composer and producer Dennis Dreith to create a unique blend of jazz and World Music in an East Meets West tour de force featuring an International cast of stellar musicians.

No Passport Control is a very special album that talks about the journey of a performing musician. In my career performing for almost 35 years and touring the world over, I learnt that music is such a beautiful language and a powerful tool that brings people close to each other. I have met so many beautiful people from whom I have learnt so much, not just music but also their lifestyle, their culture. Making music with all these international musicians gave me the freedom to collaborate with them.

It all started when I first met Dennis Dreith, the great musician / composer/ producer in Los Angeles in 2016.

From our first meeting we had a strong bond and I really loved his music. In early 2018, Dennis helped me get an album record deal with Perseverance Records in LA. From then on the work started and we came up with this song and album title called "No Passport Control" where we are talking about a world without any borders. 

This album features 10 songs and all of them have been inspired by so many people, friends and my family. All the songs are very special and very close to my heart, and it features my brothers and sisters from India, USA, Slovenia, Scotland , Brazil and Holland, including my son Raghav. All this is because of my Guru, my Grandfather Pt. Joi Srivastava who gave me a rare understanding of Indian Classical Music from my childhood.

I really hope you will enjoy this album and get a feel of this beautiful world that we live in and also hope that these tough times are over soon and there will be a bright tomorrow!

Amrita - This a song dedicated to my beautiful wife Amrita. It's a gentle song with lot of emotion and romance. 

Inspired- This song is based in Raag Kafi and has elements of electronic and orchestral arrangements. I got inspired to create the melody after hearing the beautiful arrangement of Sidhant Mathur in one of our recording sessions. Then came Ishaan Chhabra to put beautiful orchestral arrangement.

No Passport Control- That's the title song of the album. This song talks about a world without any borders. It brings in a huge collaboration of musicians from India , USA, Slovenia, Holland, Scotland. The idea of this song came when my big brother Dennis Dreith very senior producer/ composer from Los Angeles sent the basic arrangement where I had to compose a melody on it. It's beautifully sung by the Slovenian singer Katja Koren . The music video of the song was released in May 2021. Sangam - This song is dedicated to my grandfather, my Guru Pt. Joi Srivastava who gave me a rare understanding of Indian Classical music. The title Sangam became the roots of this song that lies in Allahabad where my Guru was born. 

Barulhino - Its a song written by my dear friend from Sao Paulo, Brazil Andra Abujamra great composer , singer, song writer. In 2017, he asked me to play violin in his song. 4 years later I made a violin version which came out beautifully. Here is the meaning of Barulhino. “Barulhinho” in Portuguese is “a low sound”. Barulhinho is me, a sound inside my mind. Everything is sound to me, everything is Barulhinho 

Ek-Sai Theme- I composed Ek-Sai theme for a musical in 2017, directed by Nilambari Chintamani. It was an instrumental track with violin, sitar, flute and tabla. It was only last year while working on the album I got an idea to get a singer. We wrote simple lyrics. Then we got Ustad Sardar Khan from Jodhpur to sing it. The song has a simple melody with a touch of jazz. 

Remembering Nigel- This song is very close to my heart. My dear friend Nigel Richard wrote the melody and we as India Alba performed this as a band. We lost Nigel in January this year but I'm happy that he is there in the album. 

Garden Lounge- This song was recorded in Holland in 2013, by me, Igor Bezget on the guitar, Tadej Kampl on the bass and Heiko Dijker on tabla. I brought all the files to India and added drums played by Joshua Grant and piano by Sachin Kapoor. 

Body Float- This is a duet song co-composed by Shishani Vranckx and me. We met in the studio one evening a few years ago in Delhi for a jam. Shishani came up with a melody and wrote lyrics. There you go- I added my violin parts and the song was ready. 

Mum's Lullaby - This song is dedicated to all the mothers. I recorded this piece in Los Angeles as a trio with Katja Koren on jazz vocals and Tadej Kampl on the bass. This song also features my son Raghav Chandra on the violin.