How A Trip to Sri Lanka Led Mumbai Pianist Anurag Naidu to Work on the New Collaborative Neo-Soul-Jazz Album 'Odyssey

The musician teamed up with Spanish vocalist Alba Santos, Cuban bassist Aniel Someillan and Brazilian drummer Isais Alves on the eight-track record

- DAVID BRITTO

In January 2020, Mumbai pianist Anurag Naidu received a text from Spanish singer Alba Santos inviting him to Colombo in Sri Lanka to work on a music project alongside Cuban bassist Aniel Someillan and Brazilian drummer Isais Alves. That project has just been released in the shape of the eighttrack album Odyssey.

The trio had a residency at a restaurant in a hotel in Colombo and were keen on putting together material for an album that they could tour with and tapped Naidu for his skills on the keys. Despite being excited to be part of the project, Naidu does admit that he was filled with curiosity and anxiety. He says, “I was almost ready to assume that this was a well-thought-out prank. I was crashing with the musicians in the hotel. People I’ve never met, and having only seen their socials as proof of [them being] real humans and not bots. No Zoom, no Skype.”