One of Durban’s finest drummers Riley Giandhari will be performing with The Riley G Collective Part 2 on Wednesday 31 July at University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Centre for Jazz and Popular Music on Wednesday 31 July.  Giandhari who is popularly known as Riley G has performed with various bands playing different styles of music such as Jazz, Pop, Latin Jazz, House and Soul.

He is currently the drum teacher at Kearsney College and also teaches music privately.  Riley has performed with many artists such as Jan Lundgren, Hugh Masekela, Raphael Clarkson and Lloyd Cele to name a few. Legendary saxophonist and flautist McCoy Mrubata recently told Jazz It Out how excited he was play to with Riley at his recent Durban tour. “Riley has a bright future as a musician”, Mrubata said.

Riley is influenced by music greats such as Chick Corea, Dave Weckl, Elvin Jones, Antonia Sanchez, John Patitucci and Steve Gadd.  As part of his Master’s degree, this is the second band that Riley G has put together.  This band consists not only of brilliant musicians, but they are also great composers and arrangers in their own right.  The Riley G Collective Part 2 will perform Riley’s compositions as well as some of jazz standards.

Completing the band’s line up with me Sebastian Goldwain and Dane Francis on guitar, Dalisu Ndlazi on bass, and Burton Naidoo on piano. Centre for Jazz and Popular Music is located at Level 2, Shepstone Building, Howard College Campus.  Cover charge is R80 for general public, R50 for pensioners and R25 for students.  Doors will open at 17h30 and the show starts at 18h00.