Drumming It Up at the US

Both beat their own drums and beat them to utter bliss. The resonations of their beats have transcended the frontiers and are now reverberating at the distant sky. Originally from Bengal, the two percussionists, Tabla players to be precise, have gone a long way to promote Indian classical music in the US.

Today’s the melodious and wide range of sounds of the Tablas are being used to the fullest by many leading western musicians, music directors and popular bands in the west be it pop, jazz or fusion music. Very recently the famous banjo player Bel Afleck from Nashville, USA, did a world tour of fusion music where Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussein was his main rhythm support with Zakirji playing Tablas. Numerous similar examples can be found on the web. Tabla as a percussion instrument has been playing a major and dominant role in the world of music, in classical and other forms, for many decades now.

Aditya Narayan Banerjee was working at an Engineering farm and was pursuing tabla as a hobby, when in 1988 he got associated with Padmavibhusan Pandit Jasraj Ji the Living Legend of Indian vocal music. He turned Aditya into a professional percussionist. “In 1995 he encouraged me to leave my job and took me to Mumbai with him. Slowly I started spreading my music to all over India. And then it was time to spread my wings further across. In 1999 I performed with him at “Parliament of world religion”  Capetown, South Africa and then in 2002 at “ world music festival for the Royal Family of Great Britain” Harryford, UK. In 2004 Jan he took me to USA as a “Director of Percussion” for his music school at Tampa, Florida. That was the beginning of my present vocation as a promoter of Indian classical music in the US,” elucidated Banerjee.    Presently he works with his friend, Sri Anil Khare at a school named “Taalsadhana” at New Jersy. He is also associated with “Yaman Arts Foundation”, at Delaware; the institute has its main branch at Sreeampore, Hooghly of West Bengal, Banerjee’s home town. Aditya has attained the arer feat of performing at White House with Pandita Tripti Mukherjee on occasion of Diwali in 2007.

A complete percussionist now, Aditya began his training in the left hand and right hand drums at early age of five. “I started my training under guidance of Sri Shivshankar Karmakar, a prominent disciple of LateUstad Karamatullah Khan of Farukhabad Gharana. From 1990 I am under able guidance of the great tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Choudhuri, a great Exponent of Lucknow Gharana. While Pandit Madan Mohan Banerjee also a disciple of late Ustad Karamatullah Khan, taught me how to accompany with Vocal, Instrument & Dance,” recalled the passionate drummer.

His passion as a strummer has been lauded by veteran musicians of India and abroad and his assiduous training has produced a number of national and international talents. His students in the US are mainly spread among the regions of Tampa, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Delaware. Based in New Jersy, he is also associated with music schools at Philadelphia and Delaware. Though mostly Indians, there are also quite a few native Americans and West Indians who take lessons in tabla from this Indian player. “Americans are very serious in every aspect and same is true to music. They study and practice seriously till they execute. Their dedication to Indian classical music brings them to India during Nov to Feb to get the feel of our art and culture. They attend the live concerts and imbibes the spirit of India to enhance their understanding of the subject,” enthused Banerjee.

Doing a commendable job in propagating Indian classical in the form of Tabla is another young man from the City of Joy. Subhajyoti Guha, the young talent, has inherited music. “Genetically the sense of music and rhythm was already in my system as my father Dr Smriti Ranjan Guha was an amateur Tabla player and my mother Alpana Guha was an amateur Bharatnatyam dancer,” deliberates the music enthusiast. “My training in tabla started with my father. I also took lessons in vocal music at “Bani Chakra”, Kolkata. However my formal training at the Indian drums started in December 1983 when my father put me under the tutelage of my present Guru, the legendary table maestro Pandit Sankha Chatterjee who is the only table player in the world to have learned from three legends of table namely Ustad Masit Khan & Ustad Keramatullah Khan of Farukhabad Gharana and Ustad Allarakha Khan of Punjab Gharana. Guha has the fortune of having Ustad Keramatullah Khan, Ustad Allarakha, Pandit Shamta Prasad, Ustad Zakir Hussein and Pandit Kumar Bose as his mentors.

A Jadavpur University alumnus in Applied Maths, Guha dedicated himself to the service of propagating Indian classical music out of his sheer love for the same. After his initial years in India he decided to devote himself in spreading his passion and talent among the music lovers in the US. “My first trip to USA was in 1997 as a professional table player with the sole purpose of performing in Indian Classical Music concerts in different cities across USA. The response and interest among the Americans about Indian music overwhelmed me and I decided to do my best in spreading it among them. At present my main base outside India in Toronto, Canada. I have a good student base in Toronto with about 30 regular students and few floating ones. I also conduct workshops in other Canadian cities like Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary. In USA I have students in Nashville, New York, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Philadelphia who take lessons from me when I conduct workshops in those cities,” accounted the ardent musician. Having a sizable number of white Americans, with age group varying from 10-60, as his students, Guha feels that there is an increasing interest among the Americans about Indian classical music. “However, in Canada, mainly Toronto, a major section of my students is from the immigrant Sri Lankan community and the immigrant West Indian or Caribbean communities, the number of white Canadians being pretty less. An interesting fact is that I have a number of students with West Indian background as they all have Indian names and background as their forefathers were Indians and were working in the Caribbean Islands either as slaves or as businessmen during British regime. But they have always kept the India ness in them alive by learning and performing Indian Classical and semi Classical music. Their descendants are carrying on that tradition even after migrating to North America,” enunciated the young talent.

Though not the main stream music of USA, Indian music is being accepted and applauded by a considerable number of people in there. “Western Classical or Jazz musicians in USA have an interest for other new or different form of music and they consider Indian Classical music as a rich treasure trove. Then there is an upcoming group of people who are looking for inner or mental peace also resort to Indian Classical Music as a means of meditation and searching for inner peace or “NIRVANA”, “explained Subhojyoti. One main reason, feel Guha, for the interest in Indian music in US is the conventional yet free and experimental nature of our music as opposed to western classical music which is very rigid. “Since Americans are predominantly free spirited they have found our classical music to be very much their type and hence the positive response. As proof we can state the fact that since the time when Pandit Ravi Shankar first performed at the Woodstock Festival, the number of Indian Classical Music concerts happening in USA has increased every year,” added the young achiever.

Tabla has become the most popular Indian percussion instrument among Americans due to the strong and enjoyable rhythmic patterns and also due to the wide range of musical sounds that can be produced if played with sufficient skill and command. “There are no other pair of drums in the entire universe which can sound so romantic as well as bold at the same time and technically speaking has the most scientific and advanced methods of sound production. And it is this wide variety of sounds from the twin drums which is also compatible with American jazz, hip-hop and even rock n roll the acceptability of Tabla became even more widespread there in the past two decades. It is needless to say that there are numerous jazz, fusion and new age bands that are now using table as one of their main rhythmic instruments,” accounted Guha. “In today’s modern world of technology, by the use of heavy duty compressors and condenser microphones, the tabla can be made to sound as powerful as any other western or African drum. The icing on the cake is the sweetness and variety of sounds besides the power. Tabla, as an instrument, has the ability to attract any person from any corner of the globe,” added Subhojyoti.