Santa Cruz’s celebrated Batish family to ring in the new year

It’s a name deeply familiar to anyone who has to navigate Mission Street in Santa Cruz every day. Batish’s terra cotta-colored gift shop on Mission is not shy when it comes to signage and, even if you’ve never visited, the name has likely imprinted on your restless commuter’s brain somewhere.

But for many music fans in Santa Cruz, that name has a much deeper resonance. Batish’s on Mission is the HQ for the sitar master Ashwin Batish and his accomplished family of musicians. Batish has been an admired star in the constellation of local musicians for generations, widely known for his “Sitar Power” ballcap, his jovial and serene personality, and his mesmerizing abilities playing the sitar.

If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard much from Batish recently, it’s because he’s been largely off the public performance circuit since the pandemic. The good news is that Batish is back in the arena, headlining a special New Year’s Eve celebration called “Gathering in Gratitude” at The 418 Project in Santa Cruz.

“It’s going to be a family thing,” said Batish, 73, at his Mission Street recording and rehearsal studio, under the gaze of a portrait of his late father, the celebrated singer and music director S.D. Batish. “You can call it a progressive take on [Indian] classical into fusion, and then get everybody up and dancing.”

When Ashwin says “family thing,” he means it. Also part of the show will be his accomplished son Keshav Batish, a multi-instrumentalist currently pursuing a doctorate in music at UC Santa Cruz. Ashwin’s sister Meena Batish is a distinguished vocalist in the Punjabi style. And Ashwin’s three daughters — Mohini, Neha and Uma — are all up-and-coming musicians and vocalists, and they too will be part of the performance. 

The UCSC connection is primary when it comes to the story of the Batishes in Santa Cruz. The elder Batish had moved from his native India to the U.K., where he met the Beatles’ George Harrison at a time when Harrison was learning Indian music. (S.D. Batish is said to have taught sitar lessons to Harrison’s girlfriend Pattie Boyd.) By 1970, however, S.D. Batish had moved his family to Santa Cruz to teach at UCSC, thanks largely on the recommendation of UCSC math professor and counterculture figure Ralph Abraham. (Fun fact: Long before arriving in California, the Batish family lived in a suburb of Mumbai called Santa Cruz.)

Abraham first met S.D. Batish while pursuing an interest in Indian music in 1969. “He was this tall, imposing, very handsome figure,” Abraham told me in a 2018 interview, “and I said, ‘I would like to learn the veena.’ He laughed and pointed to the corner and there was this large musical instrument covered with a cloth, which he pulled away and there was a vichitra veena, of which he was a master. Then he said, ‘First, you have to learn how to play the sitar. And to do that, you have to learn how to play the tabla and practice for a couple of years.’”

Abraham was so taken by S.D. Batish, he invited him to Santa Cruz, eventually helping the older man land a job teaching at UCSC. The Batishes went on to open a celebrated Indian restaurant in town. From a young age, Ashwin Batish was both steeped in Indian classical music and captivated by the melange of sounds emanating from the U.S., from blues to jazz to country to rock. Much like his father, Ashwin now teaches at UCSC, courses in Indian rhythms and raga-inspired jazz. Not only is Keshav a UCSC graduate student, but Ashwin’s daughter Mohini Batish is also a recent UCSC grad and is now producing an album of her own. 

Of the New Year’s Eve gig, Ashwin recalled an event of another era in Santa Cruz, during which he performed live with his father — who died in 2006. “Remember First Night?” he said in reference to a big downtown New Year’s Eve celebration that dominated Santa Cruz for about a decade before it went dark in 2002. “I did that with my dad for so many years. So, this is going to be like that, except reversed. I have my children now, and I’m the dad.” In fact, Batish and his father played the very same venue — back when it was the old Riverfront Twin movie theater.

Ashwin Batish is an embodiment of the East-West connection when it comes to music, having learned at his father’s knee Indian classical forms and theories, in both the North Indian and the Carnatic traditions. The California DIY artistic ethic appealed to Batish’s sense of adventure, and he began mixing various styles with abandon. In the 1980s, he eagerly began to shepherd a new form of music he called Sitar Power, inspired by both his father and the great Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar.

Batish is especially excited to be sharing the stage with his family, including son Keshav, who has been performing with his father since the age of 9. “You literally give him anything, he’ll play it,” he said of his son, sitting next to him playing the tablas. “He plays the flute. He plays the piano. This guy is, like, I don’t know, a one-man band. But now he’s picked up the sitar, and he’s doing just amazing.”

At The 418, the Batishes will also be playing alongside a band of prominent players including pianist Murray Low, bassist Myron Dove and percussionist Jim Greiner. 

While Ashwin Batish has been busy teaching and performing on campus, he hopes to be more in the public spotlight in 2025. He will, he said, travel to perform at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in Canada next summer, and he will participate in the Kuumbwa Jazz Center’s 50th anniversary celebrations next year. He’ll also have a new recording in the new year.

“I have this album that I’ve been meaning to release for a year now,” he said. “So [the New Year’s Eve gig] is a good incentive to get it out there.”

Ashwin Batish’s Sitar Power will perform live Dec. 31 at The 418 Project’s “Gathering in Gratitude” in a show that will also include MaMuse, the Aerialists Cloud Mirage Circus and Shekinah Tribal Belly Dance. 

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