Hannes Coetzee, Pops Mohamed to perform with slide guitarist Bhatt

A special feature of his South African tour are two collaborations with musicians Hannes Coetzee and Pops Mohamed, giving a convergence of African and Indian musical traditions. Hannes Coetzee will perform with Bhatt in the Cape Town concert and Pops Mohamed will perform with him in Joburg.

Hannes Coetzee, from Herbertsdale, met David Kramer in 2001 during the making of a programme on guitarists for local television. Since that meeting Coetzee, together with other musicians, joined Kramer in his award-winning production Karoo Kitaar Blues, in which marginalised and forgotten musicians were showcased, playing authentic ou liedjies. His right-hand finger-picking style is called optel en knyp (pick up and pinch) and, combined with his unique teaspoon slide technique, he ranks as one of the most unusual slide guitarists in the world. Coetzee's composition Mahalla became a rage on YouTube and has since been included on an album by US folk group Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Specialises in indigenous instruments

Pops Mohamed is a well-travelled multi-instrumentalist, who has taken it upon himself to keep traditional sounds - from mbqanga to kwela and marabi - alive. He specialises in indigenous instruments: the Kora (a harp from West Africa), the Mbira (a thumb piano from Zimbabwe), the Didgeridoo (native to the Aboriginal people of Australia), the Birimbau and the African Mouth Bow - developed by the South American Indians and the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, respectively.

His "Kalamazoo" and "Sophiatown" albums, released in 1991 and 1992 were both nominated for Best Jazz Album in South Africa's OKTV Awards. Mohamed is also a record producer who has travelled widely recording ancient music and producing what is now being labelled as world music. Mohamed produced Moses Molelekwa's double-award-winning album "Finding One's Self", which won both the Best Contemporary Jazz Album and Best Traditional Jazz Album in the 1996 FNB music awards. Mohamed toured Switzerland with Andreas Vollenweider's band featuring Max Lasser and Busi Mhlongo. As a result of his travels, he is constantly developing new approaches to music and strives to preserve ancient musical instruments as well as ancient performance techniques.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt learnt Indian classical music from the legendary sitar virtuoso Pandit Ravi Shankar. He traces his origin back to Miyan Tansen, a court musician of the 16th-century Mughal Emperor Akbar, and Tansen's guru, the mystic, Swami Haridas.

True Indian classical instrument

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt has taken his version of the slide guitar, also called the Mohan Veena, to audiences across the globe. He has attracted international acclaim and attention for his successful Indianisation of the Hawaiian guitar with his perfect assimilation of sitar, sarod and veena (traditional Indian instruments) techniques, by giving it an evolutionary design and shape. He added 14 more strings to increase its potential and then was born the Mohan Veena, which is now recognised as a true Indian classical instrument. With blinding speed and faultless legato, Bhatt is undoubtedly one of the most expressive and versatile slide guitar players in the world.

Like his guru Pandit Ravi Shankar, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is also a composer and innovator. He won the Grammy Award in 1994 in the category Best World Music Album for his album "A Meeting By The River" with Ry Cooder. He has also collaborated with artistes like Taj Mahal, Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas, and performed in the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival, organised by Eric Clapton.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is accompanied on the tour by the Manganiyars, a group of folk musicians from the desert in Rajasthan, who perhaps have the richest legacy of folk music behind them. With a characteristic vocal technique, full-throated singing and an eclectic blend of rare folk instruments, their music is magical.

Ragas of the Desert is a meeting of the masters inspired by the vast expanses of the Thar desert of Rajasthan, India. The spiralling sounds of the mohan veena intertwine with the vocal harmonies of the Manganiyars, the melodies of the kamancheh, and the ecstatic rhythms of the tabla, dholak, and khadtal, like a long-distance message passing through the vast desert.

Concert dates:

• Saturday, 8 June: 7.30pm at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town (featuring Hannes Coetzee)
  
• Sunday, 9 June: 4pm at The Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City, Joburg (featuring Pops Mohamed)

Tickets are available from Computicket.