BIO

Laying down the groove with his 5 strings, Abhishek Mangla is an electric bass player from New Delhi, India. A versatile and contemporary musician, Abhishek has over the years harnessed his musical abilities through analytical understanding of different genres, rigorously playing with a variety of musicians and in depth study of music. Always ready to experiment with and learn new styles, Abhishek’s own personal sound is largely expressive of modern Jazz, Funk and Fusion.

After completing high school, Abhishek at the age of 18, began to focus primarily on strengthening his foundation as a bass player and his theoretical knowledge of music. Over the years he has been fortunate to study with some of the finest bass players in India and abroad like Brennon Denfer (India), Inderneel Hariharan (India), Chris Tarry (Canada/New York),  Charly Angenois (Netherlands), Jan Hollestelle (Netherlands) and Tomas Merlo Pascual (Spain), Bruno Raberg (Sweden/Boston), Theo De Jong(Netherlands), Ritesh Khokhar (India) and Aditya Balani (India).  In between taking lessons across town from established players to struggling with musical notes and notions alone, he joined Delhi based rock band ‘Frequency’. In the next two years, the band travelled across the country to different pubs and festivals and was also the 2nd runner up in Channel V Launch Pad, 2007. In pursuit of extending his vision and abilities, Abhishek quit the band in 2008 and started working as a freelance bass player.

Perseverance to achieve the best, continuous efforts to learn and meticulous attention to detail helped Abhishek constantly grow and collaborate with an array of artists from different genres. He has played, collaborated and recorded with artists/bands like "Advaita”, “Vedanta”, “Mrigya”, "Kaya Jazz Quintet", "Ashutosh Phatak", "Mike Del Ferro Trio". "The BrianCitro Trio", "Tanjavur R. Kesavan", "Manickam Yogeswaran", "Noah Howard”, “Rainer Pusch”, “Adil and Vasundhara”, "Kamal Sabri Khan", "Syncopation", "Frequency”, “Them Clones”, "Parikrama", "Bandish", "Nasya", "Punkh", "The Grammy winning effort", “Emperor Minge”,  “Sajid Akbar and the lost boys”, “Blue Breakfast”, “Bardo Navigators”, “Tiesta”, “Drift”, Gospel Choir “Artistes Unlimited”, “Jazz Connection”, "The Yellow Brick Project", "Sushmit Sen" from "Indian Ocean", "Jazmine", "Combo#3", "String Duality", "Groove Wallah", "The Big Band Blues", "The Power House Blues Band", " Level9" and "Tarun Balani Collective".
In 2011,  He Played and recorded an album with two times Grammy Award winning producer from South Africa, Robin Hogarth featuring some of the finest Indian classical musicians including Shrimati Sumitra Guha, Rajat Prasanna, Gulam Ali, Reuben Narian and a choir from South Africa.

Such an incredible range of exposure to different styles of music and artists helped Abhishek recognize his keen interest in Jazz. Looking to explore this genre intensively, Abhishek spent 6 months in 2010 at the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam studying the foundation of Jazz. This enriching experience allowed him to cross paths with some excellent musicians who left a vital impression on his sound, style and vision. It also led to his evolution from a bass player to a more holistic musician.

Armed with his bass guitar along with an incessant need to expand his knowledge of music and his skills as a musician, Abhishek apart from playing bass is also an active arranger; writing music for fellow artists as well as composing for his own ensembles.