Musical triumphs remembered

Sounding right

Considered one of the most innovative percussionists on the planet, Trilok Gurtu is also known as a wizard of unknown rhythms and unique sounds.

Deeply rooted in the Indian tradition, he has, over the years, branched out as a giant oak on the global music scene. 

Although he was trained to play the tabla, Trilok got acquainted with the western drum kit in his early teens. Soon he realised that his intricate sense of rhythm and sound could not be expressed with conventional equipment and styles and had to design his own equipment and create his own style of playing.

Apart from using Indian and western percussion instruments, Trilok uses objects like shells, bells, chains, conch, plates, ghungroo, whistles, swords and even a bucket of water to bring sounds only found in nature to the stage and studio.

His extended body of work, featuring his own intricate compositions, have graced several of his own albums and several collaborative albums. Trilok is also among the most awarded percussionists on the global stage with Down Beat’s Critics Poll for best percussionist for over seven years, best overall percussionist by the DRUM! magazine and several others, which include a Grammy that he does not care for much.

Trilok was born into a musical family in Bombay. His grandfather was a noted sitar player, and his mother Shobha Gurtu, a classical singing star and constant influence on the young Trilok. He began to play at the young age of four. Talking about his early learning, Trilok says, “My whole family was into music, right from my grandmother and grandfather.

My grandfather always had a lot of musicians visiting the house and a lot of auditions also took place there. He started learning tabla at the age of 11 from Manikrao Popatkar and then went on to train under Abdul Karim, a famous dholak and tabla player from Bollywood.

Recounting the story on how he came to be Karim’s disciple, Trilok recalls, “He had actually come to teach my brother who was not around at that time. I was practising then. He watched for a while and then asked my mother who I was, and on finding out, he said he would teach me.”

Teenage and the lure of the western kit hit him early and he wanted to play and learn, but did not have a kit and also, there was no one to teach drums and very few playing it. “It was a monopoly of a few and nobody wanted to share their knowledge. There were also rock bands coming from Bengaluru and other places including Sri Lanka, but nobody wanted to share knowledge.”

Trilok’s big chance came when the college drummer fell sick and the band approached him. Trilok just improvised and went on to be the drummer for the college band. He then went on to play with a group called Waterfront, and was in Bollywood soon enough playing with R D Burman.

On a tour to the US, Trilok decided that he wanted to study at the Berklee College of Music and collected the money for it, but he was refused admission. That angered him. “I told them that I would come back with my own music and my own way of playing, and that is what actually happened  — now they are calling me to teach there. That was the best thing that happened. I got inspired to follow my own path and got into the spiritual aspect of music, and our own musical culture, which is really great.”

He then went into Carnatic music and was following Phalghat Raghu. He then developed his own style of playing with his own unique set of western and Indian percussion instruments. Experimenting with a wide variety of Indian, African and world music sounds, Trilok evolved over time to be the most unique percussionists around.

Talking about his most memorable works, Trilok fondly recalls the first album with his mother called ‘Usfret’ , which was the beginning of a new sound. “It was the British Asians who first noticed it and brought it to the fore,” he mentions. Incidentally, John McLaughlin also noticed it, and the rest is history.

Speaknig about some of his collaborations, Trilok says, “I had several bad ones. Right from wrong musicians, agents, record companies, event managers and so on. The good ones, you have to do them and forget about them, otherwise you will get stuck.”

He concedes that his collaborations with McLaughlin and Joe Zawinul were good. He was also to play with Miles Davis “who wanted that crazy Indian guy who plays his own stuff” and Frank Zappa. Unfortunately, both died before they could collaborate.

Trilok is almost dismissive of the many awards he has won, but does mention the Downbeat Critic’s poll which he won for several years in a row. Just before moving on, he mentions, “I almost forgot I also won a Grammy.”

The experience of the award ceremony where the world music section is tucked away into the wee hours of the night was almost traumatic. He adds that his biggest award is recognition from  the people who listen to him.

On the issue of memorable performances, he recalls a concert with Zawinul in Italy, a concert with his mother in Germany, and with Mclaughlin at the Royal Festival Hall with a live recording as his favourites for the moment.

His latest album, ‘Spellbound’, which is doing well, has a lot of influences all the way from when he started in the early 1970s to now. It has a lot of trumpet work with players and influences from Africa, India, Bulgaria and other countries.

Talking about fusion attempts that are currently on, Trilok says they just mix and match some music and it ends up “sounding phony. One must understand the musical culture of the place.” He also bemoans the lack of good fusion bands in India.

On his own future, he says, “Because of my spiritual guru, Ranjit Maharaj, I have forgotten about all this past, future and so on, and concentrate on the now. I now play when there is a spiritual need to play or express myself. The place where music comes from is also where God comes from. That is the future, and it’s pretty tough.”

He gives a little glimpse of what is to come in the form of an album with western classicals like Bach and others with Indian touches, adding, “I will do something shocking.”

His global fan base would really be thrilled to hear of the developments and will look forward to more music from the man who is nothing short of legendary in the global music scene today.