I recently happened to be present at the San Jose Jazz festival 2008, the Sawai equivalent of the Bay area, I presume. Due to some constraints, I could only attend the George Brooks’ Summit performance. Summit includes Geoarge Brooks (Saxophone), Steve Smith (Drummer, with deep knowledge of Carnatic music too), Kai Eckhardt (bass), Fareed Haque (guitar) and of course, in George Brooks’ words, the inimitable Ustad Zakir Hussain.
The best part was undoubtedly a piece set in 15 beats (split as 8+7, nothing novel there), with some brilliant blending of instruments which should have ideally made its way into the Oxford dictionary as the definition of ‘fusion music’, unlike the current definition where any ‘harkat‘ with drums in the background qualifies as fusion. Of course, there was the expected jugalbandi of the drums and tabla, with a lengthy kayda to end it (for the interested, the same kayda also appears in the song Tum Tana from Iqbal at around 2.30, please let me know if you know something about that kayda). While the crowds enjoyed the fast tabla playing and innovative sounds from it, I felt a little sorry for them who couldn’t see the magic that was going on in front of their eyes since both percussionists were masters in Indian classical music, north and south respectively. Eventually, I was among the very few people exhibiting some sort of a physical activity at the sam.
Oh and I was also asked the question by a friend of mine about Ustad Zakir Hussain whether he “is really so talented”. While every person worth his salt in classical music must have made some remark about Ustad Zakir Hussain at some point or the other, I honestly cannnot think of someone better than Ustad Zakir Hussain to be an ambassador of Indian classical music to the world (even though I have had my share of walk outs from concerts) and who is so perfect at knowing his audience. Since this was the annual jazz festival, it was sure to be a serious audience; the perfect place for the Ustad to give them a glimpse of Indian classical music.
The most memorable moment was when Steve Smith was into his solo piece, and the Ustad was predicting and showing to the audience by a wave of hand, the exact beats and their weight, that Steve would be playing ! All I could say was Wah Ustad !
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January 3, 2009 at 4:59 pm
docmitasha
Nice! I like how you actually know the breakdown of the rhythms and can identify the kaydas! I once wanted to learn the tabla because my brother played…’course I didn’t get anywhere with that
! Agree with you that he is really the best ambassador for classical music we can have! He is astounding! And yes, I loved his concert also because of that last bit he does, where he shows the beats with his hands…and also when he talks in ‘beats,’ ie., the language of music substituting daily language. Quite amusing too.
January 3, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Deepak Iyer
That amusing part is incidentally the one that gets him into trouble with purists
At the risk of sounding egoistic, a friend and I once walked out of a concert where it he was just demonstrating fast tabla playing, which was not exactly what we went for.
Thankfully the above concert was different.
For someone who learnt classical music, I think you should be better with rhythms and their breakdown!!
January 4, 2009 at 6:15 am
docmitasha
i can see the fast tabla playing getting old really fast. what i loved about the concert i went to was the combination of all the artists…esp dilshad khan and the musician from rajasthan. together it was heavenly.
yes, i should be ashamed *redfaced* I was very young when I learned, but I guess that shouldn’t be an excuse. At least my dance background should come in use, but I prob dont make an effort, just listen and absorb.
February 22, 2010 at 1:29 am
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[...] Hussain is one who understands fusion. Shakti is a fine example of fusion of instruments, and his performance at the San Jose Jazz music festival was a fusion of music. Remember Shakti is a good example of not-so-good [...]