This is Kumara singing at the Canadian Music Competion at Eglise St.Laurent in Montreal. The piece is '' Apres un reve "
by Gabriel Faure.
Kumara was born on Los Angeles in 1990 ,her father Ranjit ,is Half East Indian and half English , her mother Linda is French
Canadian. she comes from a long line of singer/musicians. Kumara started singing before she started talking. By the age of
7 she was already performing in various places. She started to take vocal lessons at 9 , and her teacher Audrey Bouliane realised
that she had a talent for classical singing. She was accepted in to the voice program at the Conservatoire De Musique de Quebec
at 15.It is a very prestigious school and only has places for 16 singers so the competition to get in is fierce. Kumara partcipates
in many classical competitions as well as singing Jazz/pop material ,usuually accompanied by her father, in the Quebec City
and Montreal areas.
This is a poem by Sri Jayanta Mahapatra, a giant of Indian poetry. He also happened to go to school with my uncle Rajib. I
met him in India in 1978 and he gave me a book of his poems.I have yet to stop reading it.
Ranjit (Ron) Ray is a singer/songwriter/keyboard player/drummer /percussionist . Ron currently lives in Quebec City, Canada
with his son and daughter. Ron was born in India, grew up in England and has lived in the U.S. and Canada since the late 60's.
Ron started playing Blues in Coventry, England (where he grew up) and was fortunate enough to fill in for Long John Baldrys
drummer when he was taken ill while doing a tour of the Midlands. Ron moved to Canada in the late 60's and became part of
the burgeoning Toronto R&B and Rock scene; playing with C.J.Feeny, Edward Bear,one of the incarnations of The Poor Souls(
a Scottish group moved to Canada), Motherlode, The Mission, Babylon, Mike MacDonald Blues Band. During the 70's Ron toured
with Bo Diddley , John Lee Hooker and a very popular bar band called Blue Train. He also worked for a time at Capitol Records
in both the retail and A& R divisions where he began to understand how the record industry worked.
In the early 80's Ron played in the very sucessful reggae/soka/ska band "Tracking with Close-ups" constantly
touring the N.E. U.S and Canada. In 86 Ron decided to try L.A. Ron worked as a sound and lighting technician at Carlos and
Charlies on Sunset Blvd and also as a second engineer to John Falzarano at the mobile recording studio "Studio on Wheels".Ron
also continued to work on his songwriting skills and had a song he co wrote with Steven James included in the film 1969. He
also worked on material for Keith Gravenhorst an independant record producer/engineer and partner of Waddy Wachtel. The highlights
of Rons L.A stay are gigs he did with Phil Upchurch and a recording session with Tremayne and Edwin Hawkins which featured
Carlos Santana and Jimmy McGriff.
Ron currently runs ADG Productions , a musicbook publishing company with his business partner and owner of ADG Productions
,Andrew Gordon . Ron has worked in Quebec with the Only Blues Band and Mike DeWay and various recording projects specifically
with the Rap/Hip Hop artist Ace Beats , as well as accompanying his daughter Kumara on her various live and recording performances
as a Jazz/pop singer.
