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The natural timing

PRASHANTH G.N.

Bali, the Rhythm King of Karnataka, feels the beauty of percussion lies in drawing out the inherent sounds of instruments

PASSION FOR PERCUSSION Bali: `I had a sense of the instruments' Photo: K. Murali Kumar

S. Balasubramanyam, popularly known as Bali, one of the finest percussionists in the State says: "If you can't play in time, you can't be a musician. The note should be expressed at the time it is meant to. Every note and phrase should last the particular duration. That sense of rhythm is basic to any exercise of music. Innovation can come later."Does this arithmetical view of life, the sense of time, precision come more to percussionists? Bali is a percussionist and inspired by none other than Palghat Mani Iyer - the great minimalist of the mridanga. Bali also likes Sivaraman, Vellore Ramabhadran, Karaikudi Mani, P.G. Lakshminarayan — all of them who believed time was of essence. Bali's percussion career began at the age of seven when he started playing the mridanga at a bhajan mandir in Kumara Park. "I took to the mridangam naturally. Ravindranath Varier who used to come to the mandir saw me playing and thought I had some talent. He was happy and offered to train me further." A neighbour who used to play the khanjira, his own siblings playing the violin, and the atmosphere of the bhajan mandir lent impetus to his music career. While training with Ravindranath, and later, Bali tried other instruments like dholak, dholki, khol, khanjira, tabla, bongos, congos. "I felt I had an inclination for such instruments and I found I played on them naturally. I had a sense of the instruments."

Bali in his early days picked up two sensibilities straightaway — Carnatic music and light music — sugama sangeeta and film songs. "I liked Carnatic music and I was exposed to it given my family background. But I also had the culture of listening to the radio a lot — Kannada, Tamil and Hindi songs. I can perform in both styles and I can bring in the Carnatic sensibility when required. But I should not say that I am a master of the Carnatic system."

Bali's forays saw him accompany doyens like Balappa Hukkeri, Kalinga Rao, Mysore Anantswamy, C. Ashwath, Shimoga Subbanna, S.P. Balasubramaniam and many more. In fact, he was one of the main instrumentalists in the recording of the very first sugam sangeeta cassette in Kannada - Nityotsava, a collection of Prof. K.S. Nisar Ahmed's poems with music composed by Mysore Anantaswamy. In his 35 years as a rhythm composer, Bali worked as music assistant to Vijayabhaskar, G.K. Venkatesh, M. Ranga Rao, L. Vaidyanathan, Gunasingh and other leading composers."It was great to work with all of them. Some of the artistes did not just have a great voice, but a great sense of music. Mysore Anantswamy I think was the best and is still the best."

It was an exciting time, says Bali, to work in the studios with the Kannada greats. "Whatever else we did, in the end the composition mattered. Because, if you were not good enough, you couldn't be in the studio." A lot of the artistes, recalls Bali, would always think of him in recording songs. "I am not saying I was the only one, but they would always call for me. To me it was a matter of pride."

Bali played an important role in kick-starting Kannada film activity in Bangalore. In the mid-eighties, Bali teamed up with the late Shankar Nag and his brother Anant Nag to launch the first recordings from their new studio in Malleswaram. "Shankar did not know me first. He was in fact rude to me because there were more than hundred applications to work in his studio. But when later someone told him it was Bali who had come there, he became very warm. I got a chance to record and train others in recording."

"We would constantly work on the need to balance rhythm and melody. We would spend hours together to get the composition right."

"One has to feel the timbre of the instrument. It has its own sound. You are constantly engaged in culling out that sound. You need to draw out what each instrument gives you, what it has in it, because that is its beauty. That is being true to the instrument. But I realise you also have to understand the kind of music you require on hand."

Bali, who plays on a range of Western, Latin and Indian percussion instruments, does not regret that he is not a full-fledged Carnatic artiste.

"You have to dedicate yourself completely for that. It is not easy. But the question is also what you are good at and what you want. I am sure there is someone better than me, but I thought I was good at percussion."

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