Bye-bye business, hello harmony
INDIA NEW ENGLAND - Arts & Entertainment
Issue: 01/01/04
By Mark Pickering

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - For the most part, budding performer Manisha Shahane's work and academic interests have led her to economics and international affairs - and a master's degree from a prestigious business school.

She has worked for top-notch financial-services companies such as Massachusetts-based Wellington Management Co.

Now, however, she is dancing to the sound of a different drummer. Her just-released CD is emblematic of Shahane's drive to make music the main theme of her life.

Rather than being totally absorbed by work at some high-flying company, she is working part time as a consultant while focusing on her music.

Singer-songwriter Shahane unveiled her first-ever CD, "Peace in Progress", with a concert in the informal atmosphere of the Zeitgeist Gallery. The event pulled in other performers, including a poet, comedian - and even her parents.

The event "was just amazing," said Shahane. "I've wanted to do this for so long," she added, commenting on the CD. She first unveiled her compositions in 1999 at the Cezanne Cafi and Bakery in Cambridge.

Shahane's chief instrument is piano, although she also brought out a guitar for December's show. She sees herself as "primarily" a vocalist and songwriter.

On "Peace in Progress," Shahane tackles such themes as growing up, in "Willows"; the trials of dating, in "What I Want To Know"; and romantic longings, in "Something in Your Voice."

Her music reflects jazz and folk-rock styles, but also has an Eastern flavor. One obvious example of this from her CD is "Shyam Rao-chi Mulgee," or "Daughter of Shyam Rao," which Shahane sings in both English and Marathi.

In addition, "Nachre Mora," or "Dance Peacock," features her father, Shyam Shahane, on tablas. This Marathi children's song is about a peacock dancing in a mango grove in the rain.

Shahane writes: "When I was 13, I taught a group of third-grade American girls, including my younger sister, a Kathak-based [Indian classical] dance to 'Nachre Mora.' "

Years later, she came across the poem "Paavsaa, Paavsaa," or "Rain, Rain," and a related illustration. The poem - which has a girl dancing with a peacock feather in her hair - reminded Shahane of the children's song. In "Collage #1," Shahane weds the
song's refrain with the poem's words.

Both Shahane's CD and December concert featured Jerry Leake, a tabla player and percussionist, and Blake Newman, who plays stand-up bass. At one point, the three were known as the Manishamusic Beat.

"I especially like what she does with her Indian influences," said Newman. Her material is a mixture of the typical singer-songwriter repertoire and Indian-style vocals, he said.

The two originally met about three years ago at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. There, Newman plays in the Jeff Robinson Trio, which accompanies poets reciting their work.

Shahane said she contacted Leake after her father pointed out a newspaper item on the percussionist's band, Natraj, which mixes jazz and Indian classical music.

Since then, Shahane, Leake and Newman have performed locally, including at the Zeitgeist Gallery and the 2002 Republic Day event organized by the India Association of Greater Boston.

During the CD party, her father played tabla accompaniment as her mother, Shirish, sang an Indian film song.

"I'm very blessed to have the support of my family," said Shahane.

Both her father, an engineer, and mother, a doctor, performed when she was a child, although they were not professional musicians. Born in Virginia, Shahane performed in Indian community events there while growing up, often accompanied by her father on tablas.

She also learned Western musical styles and sang in the Virginia All-State Chorus.

In college, Shahane maintained a keen interest in music, but it was not her focus. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics and foreign affairs. While there, she toured with and wrote songs for the Virginia Belles, a female a cappella group.

She received a master's degree in international diplomacy from Tufts University's Fletcher School in Medford, Mass. She also got a master's degree in business administration from Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business in New Hampshire.

While in New Hampshire, she sang with two a cappella groups, the Executones and the Ambassachords, and the rock cover-band, No Equity.

Shahane has worked for such financial-services companies as Wellington and J.P. Morgan.

In the Boston area, Shahane has also performed on piano with Jack Lee & DiverCity, a reggae band, and as a singer with Black Sea Salsa Band, a 15-piece group.

In 1999, she debuted her original work in Cambridge and at the Piano Factory in Boston's South End. She took lessons with jazz pianist Frank Wilkins.

She went on to perform jazz standards at the French restaurant and jazz club Les Zygomates in downtown Boston.

She hooked up with Leake and Newman, who are both graduates of Boston's Berklee College of Music. There, Leake became interested in what is now called world music. He went on to study the Northern Indian classical style in Pune, India.

In March 2002, Shahane was laid off from a full-time job at Cambridge Energy Research Associates as a project was canceled.
The next month, she started recording for what would become her CD and hosted a series of concerts at the Zeitgeist Gallery. In her life, music moved to the forefront.

At her recent Zeitgeist CD party, Regie Gibson read poetry and flutist Dominique Gagne and "Peace" producer Daniel Cantor joined Shahane on stage for particular songs. Wilkins played piano for the finale, the jazz standard "Since I Fell for You."

In an interview, Shahane commented on the performer's perennial question of "making it," and what that might mean. Shahane said she has found a certain peace in the progress that she has made over the last couple years.

"We're never really done - we're always working toward something else," she said.

Thus article also appeared in the IndUS BUSINESS JOURNAL: Shahane leaves corporate track behind for music