There are many musicians/artists around that are labeled as cosmopolitans, and Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Ajay Mathur surely fits the bill.
Mathur was born and raised in India and currently resides in Switzerland, but his music, particularly exemplified on his latest album Blow My Cover, covers such a wide musical ground, as if he has lived or resided all over the world, particularly in the key musical centers around the globe.
Just listening to the first two tracks on this album you realize that Mathur can fit himself into almost any modern musical genre – “About Yesterday,” can fit in easily into any current roots/Americana playlist, while “Little Boat” is what you can call a true modern, fully arranged singer-songwriter ballad.
Actually, that diversity owes quite a bit to an interesting approach Mathur took when making this album. He contacted 25 musicians worldwide – some he knew, some he admired, but had never met – and asked them to feel free to interpret one or more of his previously released songs. No particular style, no particular timeline – as pure trust requires. If they liked the idea, he asked them to please send him what they had done.
The result was thirteen interpretations by roots, folk, jazz, classical, and rock musicians from Tokyo to LA and Chicago to Buenos Aires, which Mathur then recorded himself, nailing not just the title of the album, but the concept he started out with, giving his music a completely new light and touch.
