Rhythm For Life 2010, this harmonious project offers an Afro-Indian musical melange, thus featuring Purbayan Chatterjee on the sitar and famous South African jazz guitarist Maxwell Hittler Vidima on the stringed gizmo. Now wait up with a bated breath for some more punches of foot-tapping cadence. Yes, the third angle is filled in by reputed jazz saxophonist Manuel Hermia from Belgium to complete the trio.
Well-known composer from Kolkata and currently a sought-after name in Tollywood — Indraadip Dasgupta and talented classical vocalist Koushiki Deshikan also pitch in their valuable contributions to this unanimous venture. Talks are also on to draft in a Far-East flavour to make this album a very much global endeavour. If this isn’t enough for you, then picture this: “We are also in the process of roping in the most versatile voice and supertalented singer Sonu Niigaam. But nothing has been finalised on paper as yet,” notes young sitar ace Purbayan Chatterjee.
For those not in the musical loop, every year, the renowned Consortium Group comes up with an annual music event property called Rhythm for Life. Last year, the banner had a rocking successful musical fusion with Goan pop idol Remo Fernandes and famous percussionist-composer Bickram Ghosh alongwith his Rhythmscape team.
Conceptually, the Afro-Indian music fusion comprises both African and Indian music which thrives on the premise of groove. “You see, people of both the countries are warm-blooded and passionate by nature and this camaraderie is reflected in the common ground that they share musically on their joint collaborations. In this particular album, the Indian melody and motifs are being overlaid on groovy South African percussion and guitar progressions. Trialogue is a uniquely classy experience for all of us out here. The work is still in progress with the recording portion of the popular Belgian artiste being partly done with. In fact, Manuel will be back in town come February to wrap up the remaining bit,” says Purbayan.
An international collaboration across three continents — Africa, Asia and Europe, Trialogue simply cuts across the music map with a concoction of three diverse ethnic groups. Evading the risk of suggesting any racial innuendoes, Chatterjee throws in a dose of different hues to this unique prolific evolution. “Well, from our different skin-tones, you may well imagine what music can do to bridge the gap. Here we are standing neck to neck together, sharing the same platform and creative space to shed our apparent differences with simply the magic of music,” he says.
Dwelling on the joint overture’s prospects and its content, the dynamic sitarist and the creator of his electronic device — “Dwo” highlights: “Look basically, the word fusion has become a loose term. Any mixture these days is being dubbed as fusion. Even world music has gained a homogenous definition in common parlance, wherein the classical genre is categorised as world music. The best thing about this album is that people from various parts of the world are coming together to forge a bond and communicate on this creative production. So many possibilities can be entrenched from this evolution, stage by stage.”
With seven tracks being scored and arranged by music director Indraadip, Koushiki’s flawless vocals will supposedly infuse a lease of life in the lilting raagas like desh and malhar. All set to release in the end of January 2011, the CD will be formally unveiled then. “It will hit the stands across all music stores. As of now, we have plans to host a series of trial shows and soft launches around the globe,” announces a spokesperson of the Consortium Group.
Hailing from Cape Town in South Africa, Maxwell concedes that music was certainly the common link to touch base with Purbayan. “It comes as a key inspiration in any given musical collaboration at a world-wide level. And of course, I had met Purbayan earlier when he visited our city,” he reveals.
Armed with a degree in musicology, Maxwell apprises that while learning the basic ropes of music at school, he had to surprisingly perfect his sense of counting the beats and metres of Indian bols and taalas on the tabla. “We have been widely exposed to the rich traditions of Indian classical heritage. Also, as far as the African guitar riffs are concerned, there are varied styles of guitaring in this vast continent. I had to grasp the art of playing different guitar licks ranging from the
Zimbabwean, Xylophonic tone, to the Maskandi style of guitaring. I have also been teaching the same to avid aspirants all over the globe,” he says.
Delving into the strong synergising connect that both India and Africa musically share to generate some wonderful bouts of instant chemistry on stage or at a recording studio, Purbayan asserts that “both Indians and Africans are passionate people by nature. They produce music more from the heart which is impregnated with a scent of their indigenous soil. On the contrary, the European strains are usually conjured up to spread more like an intellectual exercise. So, this is going to be a rare combo of aesthetics, spontaneity and a pre-meditated systematic structure, gathering momentum with emotion, enthusiasm, practice and the melodic bedrock in its distinctively divergent content,” he claims. With a hint of earthy folk and closer-to-soil baul rhythms being incorporated in Trialogue, Purbayan confirms that he lacks in a comprehensive knowledge of chord progression and harmonic patterns.
“For that, I need to seeksome other expert’s opinion. And Indraadip is a real exponent in that field. I can only bring to the table what I have as a musician, isn’t it?” he explains. Trying to cut through a relatively untapped genre which is the mainstream jazz in concurrence with Indian classical, Indraadip feels it’s a pretty doable challenge. “Music is like applied science. It is so rich and virtuous in itself. How you shape it up, that’s your proficiency,” says Indraadip. “Movies function like a marketing machinery. Therefore, we can’t produce music in a jiffy and make it a commercial proposition,” he says.