Robert Giannetti

Robert Giannetti (a.k.a. D. Wood) is an American-born guitarist and composer, who first came to India in 1984 to complete an independent study of Indian music as part of his Masters degree programme at the World Music Beacon College, Washington, D.C. Later he was awarded the Fulbright scholarship to study north Indian classical music under Pandit K.G. Ginde. Based in Mumbai since then, D. Wood has worked to “bring the sounds of India and the world together in a way that reflects contemporary trends in cultural interaction.”

Robert Giannetti (a.k.a. D. Wood) and Sanjay Swamy’s (a.k.a. Storms) common passion for Jazz, and interest in World Music, led them to found The Indica Project in the mid-1990s. Their first album Horn O. K. Please was released by Enja Records, Germany, and featured D. Wood on guitar and Storms on bass and percussion, and a host of other western and Indian musicians.

IFA’s grant will enable Wood and Storms to complete the third album of The Indica Project tentatively titled We have no branch. This one-hour long compact disc recording of original compositions will feature Indian classical, folk and street musicians, along with musicians from the USA, Africa and Latin America.

They plan to record with a wide range of instrumentalists including Panchavadyam drummers from Kerala, ‘Ganapati’ drummers and street musicians from Mumbai, percussionists from Sholapur, Maharashtra, Siddhi musicians from Bhuj, Kutch, and a Ravanatar player from Rajasthan. Recordings from the classical Indian tradition will include Carnatic violin, ghatam, mrindangam, kanjira, nadeswaram, tabla, duggi, tarang, bansuri and jal tarang. They will also record folk singing by children from Nagaswaram, Andhra Pradesh, songs by eunuchs from Chennai and a folk flutist from Bangalore.

They expect We have no branch to attract radio airplay time in USA, India and across Europe. The album will also be available on their website, and will be used extensively in the many music workshops they plan to conduct in India and abroad.

Collaborators: Sanjay Swamy, Bassist, singer, music composer, tabla player and producer Sanjay Swamy (a.k.a. Storms) graduated from the Berklee School of Music in 1983, having studied composition and bass. He has since also studied the indigenous musical styles of Africa, Latin America and USA.