AVATAAR incorporates hard bop, jazz, Indian classical music, Brazilian lyricism, electronica, Javanese gamelan and contemporary improvisation, revealing a more meditative and philosophical side of Viswanathan's work. An adventurous departure after 20 years of performing and composing Indo-jazz, Viswanathan's new sound combines ancient and modern musical sounds, cleverly layered and cinematic in scope, with an underlying and driving jazz sensibility.

"My explorations of spiritual philosophies including Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, mystic Christianity, Kabbalah and even New Age thinking also greatly influenced the path of the band,"states Viswanthan. "Petal reveals a side of me that hasn't been mined in previous projects and is my first foray into including lyrics on my compositions. The musicians in the band have also been a big influence in the direction of the music, and contribute greatly to the 'new' sound that will be evident at the CD release."

Viswanathan will be joined by Felicity Williams on vocals, Michael Occhipinti on guitar, Justin Gray on bass, Ravi Naimpally on tabla, Max Senitt on drums and guest artists pianist Robi Botos and Indian classical singer Samidha Joglekar.

The TD Discovery Series is a series of music and educational performances created by Toronto Downtown Jazz, producers of the Toronto Jazz Festival, and supported by TD Bank Group. Designed to encourage the creation, development and presentation of unique new programming, the TD Discovery Series showcases some of Toronto's finest local jazz talent.