Curtis King landed in China in 1992 with the sole motive to listen – to sounds, to music, to musicians and to himself. Little did he expect to make it a place from where he would not want to return. On his tour across Asia, King began jamming and meeting artists from various musical genres – jazz, blues, classical, rock-n-roll, the works. “But the first time I heard the zither,” he jumps excitedly, with the glass of whiskey tilting a little, “I wanted to play it, jam with someone who could – I just had to have something to do with it.” What evolved was a style distinctly beyond what traditional fusion-musicians do. Curtis discovered that unlike western musicians who could never get to the depths of Asian traditional music, the Asians were adept at playing anything after just a little bit of listening.
Three bassists, a zither player, someone who played the oriental version of the harp- dun bao, a Chinese drummer girl and guest vocalists and bamboo-flute players came together for this jolly good fellow, to produce eastern sounds for western music. The skeleton of the Curtis King Band is made up of King on the lead vocals, bassist and singer Erick ‘the Hammer’, Titanic Thao on the drums and Zhang Nan on the zither. Among those he has jammed with, some famous names he boasts of are Leroy James, legendary Singaporean guitarist John Chee, Deep Purple, and more.
Ajit Saldanha, the celebrated columnist and author couldn’t help mouthing, “I have to have ‘em” when he first heard the band at the Jakarta International Jazz Festival in 2007. “I hunted down Curtis King and his magnificent musicians in the wild jungles of Jakarta,” said Saldanha when asked where he discovered his treasure trove. Saldanha is saddened by the superficial American influences that the Indian youth reflects and wants to cultivate a finer sense of truly global culture among the young and discerning. “They all want to pee-aw-dee (party – yes, he produced it in the yank), but can’t even stay sober enough to remember it the next day.
Saldanha, as King puts it, “was willing to take a risk on the band, and he was interested in something new.” He invited them over for a four-city tour and the band was ready to go. After a smashing performance in Mumbai, the band’s next destination was Hyderabad at Hotel Ista last week. Titled ‘The Jazz Incident’, the event was sponsored by Black Dog, and Radio City. A good mix of jazz, blues, swing and rock-n-roll, the group presented a musical evolution of the different yet interconnected genres. Among the guest performers were blues diva Kirsten Rasmussen, and god-of-rock Leroy James.
But it hasn’t been easy for the band. “I travel too much for my own good,” says Curtis King, when asked how he selects the band’s next destination. “There is a need for a more accepting, a more open audience. Unlike perhaps, the Vietnamese, whose music is percussion-less, Indians are a lot more conscious. They have it in their tradition, and look for balance in music,” he added. He is a lot more adventurous when it comes to experimenting with guest artists as compared to the other band-members. He quips, “oh, they’re much more conservative. But you never know when you'll find someone talented and flexible enough to add to your music, like this Indian flautist at Mumbai I found for our last performance. I was in Kolkata four weeks ago when we jammed with Rabindra sangeet musicians.” King’s sole purpose of using just sounds instead of styles is to explore the malleability of Asian instruments.
Instead of trying to reach a midpoint, he sticks to doing that for which he represents his home, Cleveland: rock-n-roll jazz. “Any musician has a feel for the music he’s listened to all his life. He’s going to internalise the sounds like the back of his palm. It’s just what years of training does to you. I’m never going to be able to turn out even a fifth of what a five year old sitar player can do here in India. But the Indian kind's sure to pick up and start playing jazz!”
The Curtis King Band is a travelling rock ‘n’ roll band with an East-meets-West sound. Apart from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, India is the band's latest destination.
Curtis and his cast of world-class musicians and entertainers have been featured on MTV, the BBC, China Central Television, XoneFM Radio (Vietnam), HTV (Vietnam), have performed at LIVE EARTH 2007 and Jakarta International Jazz Festival.
The band has recorded two studio albums and two live albums, and has recently experimented with an East-meets-West blues style using traditional Asian instruments.
The band’s motto claims, “Real music. No computers. No lip-syncing. Good times.” Bangalore and Delhi are going to be next on the band’s list.
