Other States - Puducherry   

Buffs drenched in rain of music

— Photo : T. Singaravelou

In harmony: Sharik Hasan Trio entertaining the audience at Alliance Francaise in Puducherry on Saturday night.

PUDUCHERRY: Connoisseurs of music at Puducherry were spoilt for choice on Saturday, as the town played host to two huge music events at the same time. Even as the weather played spoilsport, fans remained undeterred and attended both – the Sharik Hasan Trio concert, the first event on schedule as part of the Bonjour India festival in Puducherry, and the December edition of the town’s very own regular affair, Live Music – SecSat Pondy.

The change of venue from open-air Maison Colombani to the Alliance Francaise auditorium due to the rains proved favourable for the Sharik Hasan Trio, as the closed space lent the predominantly jazz performance an intimacy and an instant connect with the audience. It was sheer poetry on stage, as the performers – Sharik Hasan on the piano, Gael Petrina on the bass and Thibault Perriard on the drums – played many of their own compositions, effortlessly improvising as they went along. Typically, the pieces started slow, and picked up volume as they went along. The differing tempos and solo improvisations in between were greeted with hoots from the audience, and the classical and rock influences in the music was evident.

It was fusion music at its best, as Muthukumar joined the trio on stage to include the tabla in the performance, resulting in a brilliant confluence of styles.

Not too far away, at the Seagulls restaurant, international artistes David Price from London on the guitar, bassist Valerioti Roger from Nice, France and drummer Frank Fourdrignez entertained the crowds with mood music. Clarifying that they had only practised together for two days together, they went on to play a whole range of numbers, from classics to covers of popular songs, including even a Latin American folk song, as the enthusiastic audience clapped and sang along.

Yoga Raga Melody from Bangalore, played different kinds of crowd-pleasers – popular Hindi and Tamil film numbers, and threw in a few bhajans as well. SecSat regulars Uzwal Suspex, as always, didn’t fail to thrill, with their blues-based covers and original compositions.

The evening had something to offer for fans of all kinds of music.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Lack of infrastructure mars markets
Training programme on processing of fruits, vegetables
Road-laying works inaugurated
Awareness walk
Hospital Day
Buffs drenched in rain of music

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu