Bennet and the Band is a

backing band A backup band or backing band is a musical ensemble that typically accompanies a single artist who is the featured performer. The situation may be a live performance or in a recording session, and the group may or may not have its own name, such ...

founded in 1998 by Bennet Roland, Guitarist/Music Director, from Kerala. Band specializes in genre based re-orchestration of popular melodies, Indian film tunes and traditional folk melodies for which the band uses

session musicians Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

lined up according to the type of music they need to play for the singer with whom they are jamming. Its performances with the singers often involve

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

. The band is not confined to a specific genre and it is easily understood from the various artists whom they have conducted jam sessions with, starting from

Anuradha Sriram Anuradha Sriram (born 9 July 1970) is an Indian carnatic and playback singer and child actress who hails from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. She has sung more than 700 songs in Tamil, Telugu, Sinhala, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Hindi f ...

and

Srinivas Srinivasa (Sanskrit ) is a Hindus, Hindu name. The term Srinivasa is Vaishnavism, Vaishnava in origin, the combination of two Sanskrit words, ''Shri'' (श्री) and ''nivasa'' (निवास). It is a name for males in India as well as a fa ...

, to the young singers on block like Karthik,

Vijay Yesudas Vijay Yesudas (born 23 March 1979) is an Indian playback singer and actor. He has sung over 1000 film songs. Vijay works predominantly in the South Indian film industry, mostly in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi. He is the son of ...

Vijay Prakash Vijay Prakash (born 21 February 1976) is an Indian Playback singer and also a Music Composer from Karnataka. He has given his voice for predominantly Kannada and Telugu language films. In addition, he has also sung in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam ...

, Naresh Iyer,

Swetha Mohan Shweta Mohan (born 19 November 1985) is an Indian playback singer. She has received four Filmfare Awards South for Best Female Playback Singer, one Kerala State Film Award and one Tamil Nadu State Film Award. She has recorded more than 700 so ...

, Krish and

Haricharan Haricharan Seshadri, known mononymously as Haricharan (born 20 March 1987), is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, playback singer, and musician who predominantly works in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu music and cinema. He sung 2000 songs in films, albu ...

Early days

Bennet’s performance with Karthik in Wesley Grounds, Chennai was a remarkable one down the lane. The band along with the frontline singers Karthik, Gopal Rao,

Kalyani Nair Kalyani Nair is a singer from Chennai, India (born in thirupur, Kerala). She is active in the Tamil cinema industry, Kollywood. As a schoolgirl, Kalyani first appeared on Television in an episode of ''Symphony'' on Kairali TV. One of her popular s ...

, Mohammed Aslam performed in Pancham- "The magic of RD Burman, A tribute to

RD Burman Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian music director who is considered one of the most influential composers of India. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman composed musical scores for 331 films. Burman did major work ...

", playing hits from the 1970s. In the Rosebowl channel aired in 2006, they jammed with singers from South India like Karthik, Jyotsana,

Gayatri Gayatri (Sanskrit: गायत्री, IAST:Gāyatrī) is the personified form of the Gayatri Mantra, a popular hymn from Vedic texts. She is also known as Savitri, and bears the epithet of ''Vedamata'' (mother of the Vedas). Gayatri is ofte ...

, Franco, etc. and currently their show is being aired under the title “Music mojo” in

Kappa TV Kappa TV is a Malayalam music channel from the Mathrubhumi group, the publisher of the widely circulated Mathrubhumi daily. The channel was named after Tapioca, a type of starch extracted from the root of Cassava plant, which is called "kappa" ...

, launched by

Mathrubhumi ''Mathrubhumi'' is a Malayalam newspaper that is published from Kerala, India. It was founded by K. P. Kesava Menon, an active volunteer in the Indian independence movement, Indian freedom struggle against the British Raj, British. The word "M ...

, with singers Manjari and Haricharan. Bennet Roland began composing music for films, beginning with the movie ‘

Out of syllabus ''Out of Syllabus'' is a 2006 Indian Malayalam-language film directed by Viswanathan. It was released on 17 February 2006. Story The film tells the story of Gopikrishnan, a village lad who goes to a city college, and becomes the butt of all jo ...

’ in the year 2006, for which he had composed four songs along with musician Veetrag. From there, the duo went on to compose songs for ‘Sooryakireedam’, Dr.patient, Gaddhama and August Club. As a guitarist, he has performed with the frontline singers KS Chithra,

Udit Narayan Udit is an Indian masculine given name that may refer to: * Udit Narayan, Bollywood playback singer * Udit Narayan (politician) (born 1960), Fijian politician of Indian descent * Udit Narayan Singh (1770–1835), Indian monarch * Udit Patel (born ...

, Shaan, Hariharan, Sujatha,

Malgudi Shubha Malgudi Subha (born 17 October 1965; also spelled as Malgadi Shuba) is an Indian playback singer. She has recorded songs in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. In a career spanning two decades, she sang more than 3000 songs. She beg ...

Usha Uthup Usha Uthup Iyer (born 7 November 1947) is an Indian pop, filmi, jazz, and playback singer who sang songs in the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. "Darling", which she recorded with Rekha Bhardwaj for the film ''7 Khoon Maaf'', won the Filmfare ...

, etc.

Live performances

Ragam A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradition, and as ...

08, the annual cultural fest of the National Institute of Technology Calicut, on 28 March 2008 * Festember 08, the annual cultural fest of National Institute of Technology, Trichy. *

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

Twenty 20 cricket events held in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. * 9th foundation week celebration of

UST Global UST, formerly known as UST GLOBAL, is a provider of digital technology and transformation, information technology and services, headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, United States. Stephen Ross founded UST in 1998 in Laguna Hills. The compa ...

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

on 22 August 2008. * Instincts'08, the annual cultural fest of Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering (SSN), Chennai. * 11th foundation week celebrations of UST Global, Trivandrum * Cultural festival of JB Institute of Engineering and Technology (Autonomous) Hyderabad, in March 2008. * Pulse 2010, culture fest of Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology (GRIET), Hyderabad on 20 March 2010. * Annual cultural festival of College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG), Chennai * Mitafest'09, the cultural fest of Madras Institute of Technology (MIT),

. * Cultural fest of BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus on 27 March 2010. * International Carnival graVITas 2010 in VIT University Vellore on 17 September 2010. * Annual Function (JASHN'10) of Multi National Company

Capgemini Capgemini SE is a multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and data processing company. The comp ...

Hyderabad in December 2010. * RHYTHM, the annual cultural festival of Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Engineering, Kasaragod in February, 2010. * Conjura 10', the annual Technical fest of TKM College of Engineering, Kollam in February 2010. * The Times Hyderabad festival, held in 2011 *

Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Current ...

super singer - Tamil reality TV show, June 2011 * JASHN'12, annual cultural fest of Multi National Company Capgemini Bangalore, on 4 February 2012. * Dyuthi'13, proshow in Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur, on 11 September 2013. * AAGNEYA'14, the annual techno-cultural extravaganza of Govt. Engineering College BartonHill, Trivandrum on 1 March 2014 * GAMAYA'14, pro-show in NSS College of Engineering, Palakkad, on 21 September 2014 * ATHMA'15, pro-show at the annual techno-cultural extravaganza in AWH engineering college, calicut, Kerala on 19 February 2015. * YAGNA DHRUVA'15,Pro-show at the annual techno-cultural fest of

L B S Institute of Technology for Women Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Technology for Women (LBSITW), Thiruvananthapuram, is the first engineering college for women in the state of Kerala on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India. This is the second engineering college managed by t ...

, Trivandrum, Kerala on 8 March 2015

References

{{reflist

External links

Medley for the masses
* http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/malayalam/music/Shweta-Mohan-to-perform-with-Bennet-and-the-band/articleshow/46213866.cms * http://www.seychellesnewsagency.com/articles/3831/Crowds+flock+to+Seychelles+capital+to+see+stars+perform+in+Indian+musical+spectacular Indian musical groups Musical groups established in 1998 1998 establishments in Kerala Music bands from Kerala