Album Notes

Oliver Rajamani, is a renowned world music artist who is credited for keeping alive the ancient vanishing folk music of South India. Music critics have distinguished Rajamani as an "artist who has redefined Gypsy Music by taking it back to India (homeland of the Roma Gypsy) to its original roots" and "literally destroying borders."

Rajamani's music is a sound that is at once foreign and familiar. Drawing upon ancient Eastern traditions, his music resonates in a deep place within its listeners, while remaining accessible and satisfying to the Western ear. Rajamani's live shows are spiritually uniting and meoldically soothing, rhythmically energizing, technically breathtaking and historically educating. Rajamani's music crosses many cultural, religious, and musical boundaries. Its spiritual essence allows people from different ethnic backgrounds and belief systems to connect to their own true spiritual identity.

Rajamani brings to America the vanishing ancient folk music, the Gypsy music and culture, and the Tamil language of Southern India: a musical style, culture and language not widely known to the world. A culture of India untouched by invasions of foreigners; invasions which changed the rest of India.

Rajamani's unique musical sound is the synthesis of ancient traditional elements of the "Romani trail." This synthesis was brought on by birth and family, education and travel experiences and raw natural talent. Rajamani takes his audience on a musical journey from India through the Middle East into Europe portraying the historical journey taken by the Roma (Gypsies) from their homeland of India dating back to 1000 A.D.

Rajamani has created his own music by arranging traditional folk songs chronicling their historic path and by adding new compositions not found anywhere else on the globe.


Rajamani is certainly a rare breed. When most artists spend their lifetime mastering one style of music or instrument, Rajamani is comfortable with many. Indian, Middle Eastern, and Gypsy music from percussion instruments to strings to voice and composition have come to him with much ease.

Hailing from India, Rajamani has the magic and spirit of the Indian music and the fire and passion of the Gypsy music in his blood and it flows naturally out of him as one can see at his live shows.

Born in India, Oliver Rajamani grew up in a family that loved music and dance. He began performing informally at the age of four, and was encouraged early on to develop his natural gifts in music. Over the years, Rajamani studied classical and contemporary music, often in unique settings. At the age of nine, he became a student of Mirdangam, a drum from the Southern region of India. He later had the good fortune to study classical tabla the ancient way, by living with and working for a great tabla master in India. His most recent tabla guru was the internationally renowned Pandit Aloke Dutta.

Rajamani also learned flamenco guitar from spending time around flamenco masters and Roma Gypsy flamencos for years. He learned by first playing cajon and mastering the rhythmic base of flamenco and later playing the guitar and learning the raw melodic base to flamenco. Rajamani's vocal skills came naturally also by growing up in India around beautiful songs and singers in the family and also being around Middle Eastern and gypsy singers. He has studied classical Indian voice from Snidha Mishra.

Rajamani has done extensive traveling in Greece and Israel studying the Roma Gypsy communities and their music as well as Greek and Arabic music. He has also worked in the Romani Congress (U.N. Representation for the Roma Gypsy's).

Rajamani performs on these instruments: sarod (Indian lute); oud; dumbek; deff; and cajon; in addition to his extraordinary vocals. Rajamani has performed and recorded with internationally acclaimed artists such as the Gypsy Kings, Glen Velez (Grammy Award winner), Aloke Dutta (internationally recognized tabla player), Lara and Reyes (Latin Grammy nominees); and many other prominent Indian, Middle-Eastern, and Flamenco artists.

Rajamani's unique sound reflects his personal and musical journeys.