Strumming it like a guitar
BHUMIKA K.
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Krishna Raghavendra studied the veena in Bangalore and went on to set up his own school and world music group RARE in Boston. He ensures the grand old instrument a new place in global music
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INNOVATION Krishna Raghavendra, a biophysicist turned full-time musician, believes today's experiments become part of tomorrow's tradition PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.
He calls his music "avvial music". Isn't avvial for the discerning epicure? He hates to brand what he makes as fusion music because fusion is a loose word. Boston-based Krishna Raghavendra quite plucks on his veena as if it were his guitar and youngsters all over the US want to know how he gets it to "twang". They're also fascinated when he dismantles his veena and packs it all up in a trunk.
If all that sounds intriguing, what makes this man with roots in Bangalore more fascinating is that he's a scientist. "In my other life I was a biophysicist," is how he describes the anomaly of his life. It's been 15 years since he completely switched over to recording studios from the labs at the University of Connecticut. A fellow professor thought his taking to music was an expression of the biophysicist's midlife crisis!
Full-time musician
Ragha, as he is known, was in Bangalore last week to release two new albums of his — The Great Train Journey and Shades of Love. He's a full-time musician today and travels to Bangalore three months in a year to perform, record and promote his music.
Having learnt veena from his guru H.S. Krishnamurthy and Carnatic classical vocal later from guru R.A. Ramamani, Ragha, who has eight albums in his kitty, recalls that he gave his first performance when he was barely seven at the Town Hall here. But his ears were panned out to the tunes of Hindustani, film music, and ghazals too. Once he moved to the US, he started tuning in to Western classical and Jazz, all by the ear.
The CD, The Idiot's Guide to Western Classical Music, became his bible. "I used to ceremoniously listen to it because no one could really tell me how to go about learning Western Classical," says a bemused Ragha.
He then started an open music group called RARE — Raga And Rhythm Ensemble, where any soul interested in music could come and jam. While the sitar and tabla made an entry first onto the world music scene, Ragha has made sure that the sounds of this South Indian instrument also meld in with world milieu. "I do original compositions based on Indian ragas. If you want to classify them they would either be traditional, folk, devotional or contemporary." The legendary saxophonist Charlie Mariano has performed with their group and also features on The Great Train Journey. Percussionists Jerry Leake and Rick Morin, Grammy award-nominees Glen Velez and Jamey Haddad also play with the group often. Glen and Jamey have recorded with him on his earlier albums like Rare Pulse.
"We were all puritans in our younger days. We always thought our music was superior. Unless you were trained well, you were advised not to listen to others for the fear that you might imitate them and lose your originality. But today's young musicians are versatile. They can play anything," says Ragha admiringly. While Ragha himself is open to experimentation, he acknowledges that his late veena guru wouldn't have liked what he is doing now; on the other hand he also insists he's not a complete rebel. He vows that one day he will release a traditional classical album just to prove to himself that he can still do pure classical. "You've got to be very open these days. If you have your fundas right, you can do anything. This is a globally connected flexible world. You can play a track and mail it or put it on your site, and another musician in another country can add on his layer."
Ever ready to experiment he even got a completely detachable veena made of red cedar wood (as against the traditional one predominantly made of wood from the jackfruit tree) in Bangalore, by the late Narasinga Rao. It was further modified in Boston by Steve Morrill who worked on the fingerboard, bridge and sound amplification.
He started the Ragha School of Music and holds workshops and lecdems at schools and Universities in the US. "We play in schools and ask them to dance along to get them interested." Ragha talks of how Western classical musicians are also touring Universities and schools hoping to get youngsters interested in traditional music — a problem similar to what Indian musicians are facing. Indian music has caught on in a big way and sounds of the sitar and tabla are commonly found on the synthesiser. Western ads also use a lot of Indian sounds.
An alumnus of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (where he did his Ph.D. programme), Ragha concedes he lost out on at least a million dollars by not staying back in research. "But music gives me the satisfaction that I can't get from money. Nothing can beat the feeling when someone comes up and tells you they liked what you just played." Ragha is really all praise for his wife, who egged him on to do music and puts the bread and butter on the table for the family. Ragha recalls how at one worried point in his life, when he even gave thought to the idea of working at a McDonald's or any outlet that paid by the hour. His wife Uma Shama, a mathematics professor, said a strict `no' and even offered him the money his job would bring, in exchange for an assurance that Ragha would concentrate on his music, his true passion.
Ever with an open mind, Ragha envisages a very optimistic view, that acceptance for the new is always around the corner. "Experiments that find a resistance today will become a part of tradition tomorrow."
Krishna Raghavendra can be contact on email: ragha@raghasmusic.com or look up his website: www.raghasmusic.com.
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