The Alaya Project

The Oakland-based band exploring the intersection of Carnatic Indian classical music with jazz and funk return to the Joe Henderson Lab with new music and material from their 2022 self-titled debut album. 

Made up of percussionist Rohan Krishnamurthy, saxophonist Prasant Radhakrishnan, and keyboardist Colin Hogan, the trio was formed in 2017 to perform at an UnderCover Presents concert in Berkeley honoring the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles’ immortal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and was the perfect outlet for longtime friends Krisnamurthy and Radhakrishnan to meld their love of jazz with their extensive South Indian classical training.  

A Kalamazoo, Michigan native, Krishnamurthy is one of the leading lights of Carnatic music in the U.S. and a master of the mridangam — a double-headed drum that is the primary rhythm accompaniment in Carnatic music and is played by Krishnamurthy in this project in conjunction with the Western drum set. 

Phoenix-born Radhakrishnan is known to SFJAZZ audiences through his dynamic Indo-Jazz trio VidyA and has been a major force in Bay Area jazz since 2005.  

Hogan is a San Francisco native who came through the prestigious Berkeley High jazz program and works with Tommy Igoe, Jazz Mafia, and his brothers in the Hogan Brothers band.