Bound by Beats of Two Eras

By clientadmin | September 1, 2011

he guru-shishya or master-pupil tradition in Indian classical music finds a resounding echo when the beats of percussion maestro Bickram Ghosh and his father-teacher, the eminent tabla exponent Shankar Ghosh, combine.

They share a fine chemistry on stage that merges two diverse eras in Indian percussion. Bickram, 44, is aggressive while father Shankar, 75, is more subtle,and yet the blend works and transcends time.

“The beats of the ‘tabla’ in my life have flowed from my father,” Bickram says. “He was my first teacher. We have a great time when we play together on stage though we are completely different as musicians.”

The duo will play ‘jugalbandi’ in the capital Saturday at the Legends of Music showcase after a decade. “We usually play classical tabla on stage,” Bickram said.

Classical might be their choice but it glosses over the fact that Shankar was an early pioneer of fusion. He taught at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Francisco for nearly two decades and gave India one of its best drum orchestras: the Calcutta Drum Orchestra – an ensemble of 25 Indian and western percussion instruments.

Recalling his father’s contribution to his career, Bickram said, “Like any master’s son, I was introduced as a child to tabla at home by my father. He would surrounded me with a cordon of tabla so that I did not crawl around. Instead of wriggling out of the ‘chakravyuh (trap)’ of instruments, I would bang on them, my mother (Hindustani vocalist Sanjukta Ghosh) says.”

That was the beginning for Bickram.

“At 23, after I post-graduated in English literature, my father wanted to know whether I wanted to teach or take up the family vocation,” Bickram said.

He chose the tabla.

“Over 10 years, I mastered my skill, toured with Ravi Shankar, learnt Carnatic ‘taala’ system from ‘mridangam’ maestro S. Sekhar, collaborated with musicians like George Harrison (in album Brainwashed) and honed my abilities as a new age Indian percussionist,” Bickram said.

“When I was 33, my father told me that I was ready to play with him,” he recounted.

The conversation resulted in a three-and-a-half-hour concert in Kolkata.

“Our relationship is based on mutual ‘guru-shishya’ friendship, flamboyance and respect for individual styles. I echo him but in a different way,” he said.

The percussionist, who has composed a special tribute, Vande Mataram, for the 65th Independence Day, will play in a UNESCO concert this year to commemorate poet Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary. He has recast several songs by Tagore in a new-age fusion sound-scape, “Tagore Lounge”.

Bickram’s Indian soul is his father’s gift, says Shankar, whose decision to return to India from the Ali Akbar College of Music was prompted by Bickram.

“I brought him back to Kolkata and admitted him to La Matiniere’s Boy School,” Shankar recalled. “Bickram learnt from me for 12-15 years. We may differ in our styles, but people say our tabla sings on stage… maybe, because we are from the same ‘gharana’.”

Shankar, among those early pioneers who brought tabla solo to the classical mainstream, said: “Four different schools of music – the Farrukhabad gharana, Punjab gharana, Lucknow gharana and Banaras gharana – come together in this genre of music.”

Shankar himself had four teachers – Gyan Prakash Ghosh, Feroz Khan, Sudarshan Adhikari and Anath Bose – representing four styles. I composed my own rhythms from ancient classical ragas and I also dabbled in fusion.

Bickram was influenced by the drums like the Doumbek (Egyptian) that I collected for my Calcutta Drum Orchestra,” Shankar Ghosh said.

The father and the son are unequivocal that “the instrument has come a long way”.

“Tabla is one of the most popular eastern percussion instruments worldwide. It holds its own in the changing world of music,” Shankar said.