Album & gig review/ Bickram Ghosh

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR 

Over the past couple of weeks, this blogger experienced two aspects of Kolkata-based tabla maestro Bickram Ghosh's musical personality. One was his new age studio album Glorious India: The New Sound Of Tradition, featuring some of the best contemporary Indian instrumentalists. The other was his March 22 show at Mumbai's NMACC Studio theatre, appropriately titled the Bickram Ghosh Rhythm Experience.

One has, of course, followed Bickram since he played with sitar maestro Pt Ravi Shankar at the Shanmukhananda Hall, Mumbai, some 22 years ago, along with Anoushka Shankar and the other talented tabla player Tanmoy Bose. Albums like Rhythmscape, Transformation, Ishq: Songs Of Love (with singer Hariharan) and Paperboats (with violinist Kala Ramnath) have been regular on airplay. The son of tabla maestro Pt Shankar Ghosh, Bickram has been trained in both Hindustani and Carnatic percussion idioms.

Here are brief notes on both projects;

Album: Glorious India: The New Sound Of Tradition

Artistes: Bickram Ghosh with various artistes

Genre: New age

Label: Eternal Sounds

Rating: ****

The broad idea of this six-track album is to take traditional compositions and give them a contemporary flavour, using multiple instrumentalists to lend a band-like effect. At times, electric instruments are used.

Thus it begins with Rakesh Chaurasia's bansuri on 'Gokul', after which Rajhesh Vaidhya's electric veena takes over. The piece, based on raag Shivranjani, also features violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan, keyboardist Kunal Das, mridangam exponent S. Shekhar and percussionist Dhiman Bhattacharya. Besides tabla, Ghosh plays the kanjira and handsonic.

Raag Jog is used on 'Veer', where guitarist John Paul and drummer Arun Kumar join Rakesh, Kumaresh and Bickram. Some fabulous interplay and neat solos mark this track. Both these numbers also have live performance videos directed by Souvanik Kundu for Recycle Bin Media.

Of the other tunes, 'Samay' has Rajhesh and Kumaresh. Sarod player Prattyush Banerjee joins on the melodic 'A New India', where Kumaresh dazzles and Kunal Das comes up with intricate keyboard flourishes.

Sitar exponent Purbayan Chatterjee appears on the last two compositions. 'Gulal' is a Holi tune featuring sweet-voiced singer Somchanda Bhattacharya. 'Spirit Of Love' has a folk touch with vocalist Nirmalya Roy singing "Saansein meri hai, dhadkan ho tum; rab se maanga inaayat ho tum". These songs have lyrics by Sutapa Basu.

Despite the use of modern arrangements and drums, the pieces retain their traditional flavour. The musicians combine naturally, shining in their individual parts too. The result is a set of varied and melodic tunes that reflect the spirit of modern India.

Concert: The Bickram Ghosh Rhythm Experience 

Genre: Percussion-based fusion

Details: NMACC Studio, March 22

Rating: *** 1/2

For this show, Bickram was joined by two other drummers - Suresh on ghatam and Pranav Dath on drums. Giving them company were sitar player Abhishek Mullick and keyboardist Anay Gadgil, in his first show with the tabla exponent.

The show featured different segments from Bickram's career, beginning with 'Dance Of Shiva' from his album Transformation. Loosely based on raag Jog, it had a neat stretch of electric sitar.  'Little Krishna', from the album RhythmScape, had a lovely hook and intricate percussion.

The fusion set made way for a classical rendition of Charukeshi set to the nine-beat matta taal. A fabulous percussion interaction followed, with ghatam and tabla in dialogue. Bickram's body and mouth percussion, and depiction of a heavily beating heart, got a round of applause.

A dedication to Pt Ravi Shankar came through 'Guru Vandana'. The 'Bangla Dhun' written by the legend and played by Abhishek evoked nostalgia. The solos by both Bickram and Suresh were filled with energy and improvisation. One hoped a couple of more tunes were played but NMACC is strict about its closing time. One hopes they stretch to two hours from their current 90-100 minute slot... selfie time excluded.