Inculcating a sense of Indian classical music

Considered to be among the top ranking tabla players from India, Abhijit Banerjee has performed with renowned musicians like Kenny Endo, Ry Cooder and Trilok Gurtu. The disciple of the late Jnan Prakash Ghosh has accompanied Ravi Shankar, the late Nikhil Banerjee, Begum Parweena Sultana, Pundit Jasraj, Pundit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Dr Balamurali Krishnan, to name a few. He speaks about his recent performance at the World Sacred Music Festival and more.

The experience of playing at World Sacred Music Festival... How was it different from your other performances?
World Sacred Music Festival in Los Angeles is one of the most important festivals in the USA. Hundreds of artistes from across the world participated this time. I was fortunate to be present with my group at the festival. The festival takes place in different venues across cities but there are some main venues. Our venue was one of the main ones ~ the Whittier College Shamon B Ruth Center. This venue is one where seldom Indian concerts take place. They chose this venue specifically to make it popular amongst the Indian community. This college is the alma mater of the American President Richard Nixon. Concerts held at the centre are mainly world or chamber music. So, our programme was important to them to promote their venue to the Indian community.
WFSM gave our concert a special importance and the Governor of California sent his greetings on the occasion. It was filmed thoroughly for the purpose of production and documentation.
All these things made it special for me to perform here. Besides, I took residency classes on music in the Whittier college. The series of lectures spread over four days was attended by professors and students.

What were the difficulties (in terms of creativity) in working with Kenny Endo, the legendary taiko drummer?
I came to know Kenny Endo during a performance in Chicago World Music Festival two years ago. There was a group of musicians from five South East Asian counties and I represented India. The others were from China, Japan, Indonesia and Burma. It was a unique collaboration. From there I chose Kenny as he was a sensitive musician and handled my pieces with tenderness. This is because Japanese taiko drumming is loud in comparison to the tabla. When I played, he controlled his loudness beautifully, cutting off disturbances. Taiko drumming is popular and it was a challenge for me to introduce Kenny to my group members who were well versed in Indian classical music. The result was essentially ethnic but it went well when I invited him to Kolkata last year to perform for our academy at Kala Mandir.

In the past you have collaborated with Ry Cooder and Trilok Gurtu, both have a different approach to music. How do you switch between musicians involved in different genres?
Music deals with sound and feelings. So, when I worked with Ry or Trilok , I worked not as a tabla player. With Ry I presented my traditional thought process. I thought of being a total musician. Whatever needed to satisfy that feeling, I did that.
With Ry Cooder the experience was something I will always remember. The recording took place in the midst of a dense forest in Santa Barbara and it took one month. We used to record in a church at night. Just next to the church was a creek and we spent hours there. It was a wonderful experience and this came through in our compositions. This was Ry’s idea and I have never gone through that experience ever again.
With Trilok, the concentration was more on playing the tabla. It was at the WOMAD festival that Rony and I performed with Trilok. Other than this I have worked with others musicians from different genres and what I noticed was total involvement without ego playing any part.

You have also studied the violin but why didn’t you pursue it seriously?
I did not want to play something which would not take me to a level of perfection. When I started playing the violin, I was already engaged with the tabla. I was not sure, for my family background, whether music could provide bread and butter. I was going through mixed and confused emotions. Violin was quite a serious instrument but I could not do justice to it. I understood that I would not be able to spend enough time improving myself. I had already associated myself with the doyens of Indian classical music ~ Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, Parween Sultana, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. I even took my violin on some tours abroad and practiced long hours before giving up. But learning the violin provided me a better knowledge of music.

What prompted you to form Tarang?
I was interested in cross-over music and was working with numerous musicians. I was engaged in a project with Larry Coryell and Pandit Ronu Majumdar and the Iranian zarb player Chemirani in Germany (for a German company). I was struggling with Larry to make him play one of my pieces as the rhythm structure was complex and he was not equipped to deal with it. And he was helping me with some jazz phrases. Meanwhile, the producer of the company saw the entire incident and liked my composition. Later he gave me an offer to record a CD containing my solo compositions. That was the beginning of Tarang. I recorded it in India and chose musicians whom I liked to work with. My prolonged studio sessions ultimately resulted in the group Tarang. My first album is self titled. Eventually it became like a family. Other than myself, Somnath Roy, Snehasish Mozumder, Goutam Shome and Rajashekar from Bangalore are the main pillars of this group. This is my second successful tour of the USA.

You are also a part of Raga Jazz Group. Is it difficult to change gears between Tarang and Raga Jazz.
Raga Jazz is a group of my friend ~ Paul, who tries to mix Indian ragas and jazz phrases. He plays both the guitar and the sitar. There I play as a group member but Tarang is my own effort and I play my compositions. In the West every musician is associated with different groups and each has his or her own group. When I am in Los Angeles, I am associated with Paul’s group and we have five members in that group. I am a guest artiste and play whenever I am available.

What’s the general profile of musicians studying at Dhwani Academy of Percussion? Who are the teachers there?
Dhwani Academy in India is running for five years and has students mainly from Kolkata and the eastern part of India. Serious students come to learn and most of them take up the tabla professionally. Dhwani Academy, USA, is different. My student Jyotiprakash keeps the classes running and mainly American, Mexican and NRIs (second generation) attend the classes. It is quite successful and is running there for the last four years. I spend time with them and choose the best artistes for special classes. Some musicians, especially from the world of percussion and jazz, visit this place. We try to create an atmosphere conducive to Indian classical music, with focus on the tabla. Quality students are our main strength.

-- Mathures Paul