U. Shrinivas is quickly finding a sizable audience attuned to his enticing explorations of Indian music's new possibilities. A mandolin maestro since taking up the instrument at age 6--his father, Sri Satyanarayana, also played the stringed instrument--he is single-handedly responsible for reviving the mandolin's role in Indian music. More commonly found amidst bluegrass and various folk music forms, the mandolin was introduced to Indian Carnatic classical music in the 1940s and also used sparingly in Bollywood and bhangra recordings. But U. Shrinivas is credited with redefining the relationship between the mandolin and Indian music, particularly by making his instrument of choice the electric mandolin, which brings a harder, more urbanized edge into any musical setting than the more traditional acoustic version.

Shrinivas has won many awards for his consummate musicianship, has toured the world--even performing at the 1992 Olympics--and his discography boasts not only guest appearances with many other diverse players but a number of recordings under his own name. He is also highly regarded for his work with the aforementioned John McLaughlin, who included Shrinivas in his popular jazz-Indian fusion group Remember Shakti. Most recently, Shrinivas was featured on the critically acclaimed album Miles from India, which combined American alumni of Miles Davis' various jazz-based bands with today's top Indian musicians to create new interpretations of Miles' music that bridge the gaps between those two seemingly diverse entities. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.