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Fusion fires the stage

The 10th biennial East-West Encounter saw another invigorating interaction between jazz and Carnatic music

PHOTO: SAMPATH KUMAR G.P.

JAZZY JAMMING Hasan's laid-back style made his work on the ivories look effortless

After the confluence of jazz and Carnatic music at the opening concert of the 10th biennial East-West Encounter organised by the Bangalore School of Music (BSM) and the Alliance Française de Bangalore (AFB), Tuesday saw another invigorating interaction between these two genres of music as part of the Encounter.

On stage at the AFB this time were Sharik Hasan (piano), Alexandre Letellier (guitar) and Ashis Biswas (cello) with T.A.S. Mani (mridangam), R.A. Ramamani (vocal) and Prashanth (kanjira). The last three, from the Karnataka College of Percussion, represented the Carnatic stream while the first three provided the jazz element in what turned out to be a veritable feast of music.

Hasan, young and boyishly good-looking, is originally from Bangalore (and in fact a former teacher at BSM) but now based in the US. He has a laid-back style that made his work on the ivories look effortless, difficult and complex, not to say rich, as it was. Letellier was fluent and accomplished on both acoustic and electric guitars, producing a beautiful tone and lots of power in the acoustic version that perhaps has something to do with his pedigree in a family of French instrument-makers.

The bill of fare consisted entirely of his and Ramamani's compositions plus a traditional south Indian devotional song. Both Hasan and Letellier picked up the Carnatic melodies of Ramamani's compositions and interpreted them beautifully in jazz style, whether sticking to the melody line, just providing accompaniment, or taking off into solo improvisations. When they provided background to Ramamani's singing there was no hint of incongruity.

Culture of improvisation

Biswas, a teacher at the BSM, who must be more familiar with Western classical music, is perhaps less at home in this interaction of genres, each with a strong culture of improvisation. Effortless he couldn't look in the circumstances, but he rose to the challenge of jazz gamely, and was in great measure successful in adapting himself to the milieu. Performing on an instrument not common in jazz (though its deeper-toned cousin, the double bass is a staple of the genre), sometimes plucking the strings with his fingers as the double bass most often is, he evidently took the measure of the challenge he faced.

Ramamani's rich voice was in good form right through. Her use of improvisation was heard more often in the alapanas, at least one of which introduced a Letellier composition.

Her alapana on the devotional "Gopalaka" was particularly virtuosic.

Mani's mridangam was spectacular, especially but not only on the percussion interludes.

Prashanth was most in evidence on these, where he was the peer of the others. The last number performed, "Mr Mani" (by Ramamani), brought the house down with its extensive use of these percussion interludes, one of which had Mani, Ramamani and Prashanth doing a long round of konakkol (vocal percussion).

JAZZEBEL

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