Four different filaments from different corners of the world with a myriad flavours and elements of music meet to forge a quadrangle that stands out in the rigmarole of fusion-filigrees. Pianist Sharik Hasan from Bengaluru, India, electric bassist Raviv Markovitz from Boston’s suburbs, drummer Philippe Lemm from Amsterdam, Netherlands and saxophonist Adam Larson from the USA bumped into one another on the vibrant campus of the famous Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in New York and sensed a like-minded synergy seething amongst them.
To galvanise the serendipity, the awesome foursome thought of taking a chance to hit off a high note and jam along together on stage. Spearheaded by the Bengalurean instrumentalist, the band came to be known as Sharik Hasan and the Quartet. “We did share the dais earlier on at several live-gigs in college-fests and elsewhere, wherein it helped us to get a hang of one another’s strengths and pluses,” volunteers Sharik, with a coy smile, who graduated from MSM only last year, pursuing an MA course in jazz performance. Coalescing all the common ingredients, dissimilarities, and much more to add onto a neat, compact outfit, the musicmen at once decided to shape up a band for their benefit. “That’s how the quartet was formed. As if our trooping under a single canopy was inevitable,” chips in the ace pianist. While Sharik and Adam are classmates from the same batch, Philippe is a senior from the prestigious precinct. And not to leave out Raviv, who’s passed out from the Columbia University.
Counting their previous performances, the band talks about its recently belted-out show at NCPA, Mumbai in mid-June. It goes without saying that the scintillating spectacle received an overwhelming response from all quarters. Incidentally, Sharik Hasan and his New York Quartet will be an integral part of The True School of Music’s (TSM) international faculty, to be inaugurated this September in Mumbai’s Lower Parel. Claiming to be India’s first comprehensive academy of contemporary music with the state-of-the-art amenities, TSM has already entered into a partnership with the MSM and avows to follow the reputed Trinity College of Music’s 8-grade syllabus.
A rising new star in the throbbing New York jazz scene and a fellow graduate from the MSM, horn-player Adam Larson, sitting beside Sharik confirms that he loves to discover the music scene in India. Only 12 days into the country and the boy from across the Atlantic is already imbibing the Bollywood vibes into his ears. “Recently, I met the enormously talented singer Shilpa Rao who has a great velvety voice and I’d love to collaborate with her someday,” enthuses the American lad in a breath.
Dabbling mainly in contemporary western music, Sharik reveals to juggle with a variety of styles ranging from jazz, rock, blues, Latin, pop to other diverse genres. He notes that he is aware of the Bollyrobics dance and tunes going global in the most contagious way. “I know that side of the story. Musically, Bollywood is experimenting a lot these days and am absolutely clued in about it. I visit the Mumbai metropolis quite often and occasionally come in contact with some leading music stalwarts from the showbiz industry itself. So I am happily game to collaborate with a Bollywood venture, which has a huge market even in the western world. So yes, film-scoring or contributing to the sound-tracks in the long run is certainly a big priority on my future-agenda. For I do keep tabs of what an Amit Trivedi, Papon or a Sneha Khanwalkar are doing in the mainstream movies with their magical scores,” elaborates Sharik.
Commenting about the current-day English music-scenario in India, Sharik confirms that “the stone which was once laid down as a fundamental base has now broadened with the passage of time. The scene is just yet again picking up on a larger scale. There have been several schools and institutions teaching the western classical symphonies, preludes and interludes, but none could have probably thought about choosing music as a career only a decade ago. Over the years, even doctors and engineers have given up their cushy white-collar jobs to follow their musical dreams. A new talent-pool has suddenly emerged to explode on the music-portals of this e-age. They are fervently eager to chase their goals and trace out the illustrious paths paved by the all-time great iconic gods of rock, jazz or classical music.” A vehement exposure via the Internet has also loosened up the rigidity of looking at one’s career-route, infers Sharik. “For instance, fresh graduates would never ever have the guts before to imagine being a professional chef, writer or a DJ or a musician for that matter. So the mental block has been eradicated a bit,” feels Sharik, who is influenced by renowned pianists Keith Jarrett and Oscar Peterson. Of course, music-virtuosos like John Coltrane and Stevie Wonder will always inspire generations cutting across several ages, insists the musician who is keen to promote Indo-jazz internationally.
While music going viral with lakhs of hits per minute on the Youtube, the trend of releasing albums online is mushrooming by the day. Agrees Adam, “Music-space is visibly changing every moment. And the virtual world is proven of this. I’m in fact putting in my second CD on the Net so that buyers can instantly place their orders or tune in to the numbers at their own sheer convenience. The reach is more pervasive and just a click away.” The advantage of releasing one’s album in the cyberspace is that it includes more artistes, both accomplished as well as newbies on a single playlist. “In other words, the room widens to increase the strength of accommodation for all,” states Raviv. “On the flip side, the demerit is that a download card can never match the tangibility of a hard-copy which has a physical presence. It automatically brings in a lacuna of disconnect. The bulk of proceeds from a sale of CDs cannot be discounted either. It is a pleasure to watch the evolution and transience of music from one format into another but the gradual digital facelift of all music stores in the imminent morrow will naturally wipe out the touchy-feely aspect of it. The urge to take home a music-piece or just carry it in your bag as a collector’s item or to gift and show it to others will soon be a thing of the past,” he rues. “It’s true that on one hand, the present-day bands are promoting their music utilising the virual space, while on the other, undue piracy is inducing a lot of malpractices like musical theft and plagiarism through the Net,” grouses Raviv.
Doubling up as both a drummer and a guitarist, Philippe will be a full-time lecturer in the TSM territory. “I’ll be involved with a three-month’s curriculum offering stiff modules via a matrix of jazz, rock, R&B, Brazilian, Latino styles besides of course, the fundamentals and the technical nuances. In the process, the musical essence will surface to the fore. I expect to derive a good bonhomie and a lively ambience within the four walls of my classroom,” he says, sounding optimistic.