BY DEVIKA C. MEHTA
LOS ANGELES, CA - Kids are best known for their creativity and Falu’s Bazaar, a vibrant and diverse album of Indian children’s music from Falu, is a way to harness and generate that energy into building a better tomorrow. Falu’s Bazaar that was out on February 16, explores how arts and roots can be both cherished and...
LOS ANGELES, CA - Kids are best known for their creativity and Falu’s Bazaar, a vibrant and diverse album of Indian children’s music from Falu, is a way to harness and generate that energy into building a better tomorrow. Falu’s Bazaar that was out on February 16, explores how arts and roots can be both cherished and...
preserved if introduced to children early on. The album is a playful yet educational collection that teaches South Asian culture through a spirited presentation to today’s youth in three languages- English, Hindi and Gujarati and takes you on an incredible musical journey celebrating the instruments, languages, sights, and humanity of a diverse world.
The singer, Falguni Shah aka Falu, who is blessed with a unique blending style, believes that by teaching young children about different cultures, they will grow up to respect the diverse world as a place for all to live peacefully. Talking to IJ, she presented some intriguing highlighting details about her life and career.
Originally from Bombay, Falu who is based out of New York, moved to the US in 2000 and worked in a series of brilliant and high profile collaborations with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Wyclef Jean, Philip Glass, Ricky Martin, Blues Traveler and A. R. Rahman amongst others. She was also appointed Carnegie Hall’s ambassador of Indian Music in 2006, and performed once for President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House.
Detailing about her singing career, which began at the age of 3, she informed, “Music was always in my family and my mom started training me very early on in music and I was extremely lucky to be trained under masters such as Ustad Sultan Khan, Kaumudi Munshi, Uday Mazumdar and Kishori Amonkar.”
“I came to America with all of that intense training that I received in Indian classical music and further learned songwriting and composition training in Western Music in Boston and NYC,” she further stated.
However, she first tasted success with band ‘Karyshma’ in 2004 where she gained experience in touring and performing in the US and then went on to develop a new genre called “Indie Hindi” with the release of her first self-titled album called “Falu” followed by her second album “Foras Road” and the third recently released “Falu’s Bazaar”. It is said that success comes with hardships and Falu’s journey is no different. “Sometimes my ideas worked and sometimes they did not. Sometimes I got criticism and sometimes I found myself surrounded by people who totally believed in me. I still struggle every day - how to push myself and think out of the box. Adjusting as an immigrant in the US and adopting its culture was difficult at first but now I’m able to switch gears easily. When I am with Americans, I wear my American hat and when I’m with Indians I become totally Indian. I’m comfortable in both of those traditions and cultures. I have faced many setbacks and I’m not afraid to face more setbacks as they come along. I find life to be boring without struggles and failures so I really have accepted life with both success and failures being a part of it.”
Meanwhile, she is content with the success of ‘Falu’s Bazaar’ and specifies, “This is my debut kids album. For the album, I drew inspiration from some very curious questions of my 5-year-old son, who also has a song in the album. I thought, if my son being a South Asian has so many questions, it is likely so many other kids may have the same curiosity as well. Why not make an educational and a fun album and try to teach them a sense of an identity that they can relate to being a South Asian in America. Falu’s Bazaar was created through the curiosity of my son and it was commissioned by and launched at Carnegie Hall in 2015.”
For Falu, history and legacy is very important, which she would like to pass on to her child and all the Indo-American kids who are “hungry and ready to follow traditions.” She also plans to bring kids and culture together through several traditional ways. “When I make a children’s record I still have my classical alaap and taal (rhythm cycles) in my songs. The way I write songs and incorporate a factor of call and response called “jugal bandi” exists in my songs in a playful manner that kids can learn easily and understand the fundamental concepts of Indian classical music in a playful manner.”Detailing about her ambitions and dreams, she concluded, “I’m still a newcomer to the family music scene and have yet to travel a lot before I even see the light at the end of a tunnel. My mission is to share my culture with people outside India and my ambition is to become a Grammy-winning crossover artist from India. My dreams are many but for now, it’s to make Falu’s Bazaar a household name.”
The singer, Falguni Shah aka Falu, who is blessed with a unique blending style, believes that by teaching young children about different cultures, they will grow up to respect the diverse world as a place for all to live peacefully. Talking to IJ, she presented some intriguing highlighting details about her life and career.
Originally from Bombay, Falu who is based out of New York, moved to the US in 2000 and worked in a series of brilliant and high profile collaborations with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Wyclef Jean, Philip Glass, Ricky Martin, Blues Traveler and A. R. Rahman amongst others. She was also appointed Carnegie Hall’s ambassador of Indian Music in 2006, and performed once for President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House.
Detailing about her singing career, which began at the age of 3, she informed, “Music was always in my family and my mom started training me very early on in music and I was extremely lucky to be trained under masters such as Ustad Sultan Khan, Kaumudi Munshi, Uday Mazumdar and Kishori Amonkar.”
“I came to America with all of that intense training that I received in Indian classical music and further learned songwriting and composition training in Western Music in Boston and NYC,” she further stated.
However, she first tasted success with band ‘Karyshma’ in 2004 where she gained experience in touring and performing in the US and then went on to develop a new genre called “Indie Hindi” with the release of her first self-titled album called “Falu” followed by her second album “Foras Road” and the third recently released “Falu’s Bazaar”. It is said that success comes with hardships and Falu’s journey is no different. “Sometimes my ideas worked and sometimes they did not. Sometimes I got criticism and sometimes I found myself surrounded by people who totally believed in me. I still struggle every day - how to push myself and think out of the box. Adjusting as an immigrant in the US and adopting its culture was difficult at first but now I’m able to switch gears easily. When I am with Americans, I wear my American hat and when I’m with Indians I become totally Indian. I’m comfortable in both of those traditions and cultures. I have faced many setbacks and I’m not afraid to face more setbacks as they come along. I find life to be boring without struggles and failures so I really have accepted life with both success and failures being a part of it.”
Meanwhile, she is content with the success of ‘Falu’s Bazaar’ and specifies, “This is my debut kids album. For the album, I drew inspiration from some very curious questions of my 5-year-old son, who also has a song in the album. I thought, if my son being a South Asian has so many questions, it is likely so many other kids may have the same curiosity as well. Why not make an educational and a fun album and try to teach them a sense of an identity that they can relate to being a South Asian in America. Falu’s Bazaar was created through the curiosity of my son and it was commissioned by and launched at Carnegie Hall in 2015.”
For Falu, history and legacy is very important, which she would like to pass on to her child and all the Indo-American kids who are “hungry and ready to follow traditions.” She also plans to bring kids and culture together through several traditional ways. “When I make a children’s record I still have my classical alaap and taal (rhythm cycles) in my songs. The way I write songs and incorporate a factor of call and response called “jugal bandi” exists in my songs in a playful manner that kids can learn easily and understand the fundamental concepts of Indian classical music in a playful manner.”Detailing about her ambitions and dreams, she concluded, “I’m still a newcomer to the family music scene and have yet to travel a lot before I even see the light at the end of a tunnel. My mission is to share my culture with people outside India and my ambition is to become a Grammy-winning crossover artist from India. My dreams are many but for now, it’s to make Falu’s Bazaar a household name.”
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