JOIN USBlend of rhythms
Rhythm and Raaga recently pulled in a packed house at Chillout where they collaborated with a French musician, Guy Muffait, on the Chapman Stick. This Indo French fusion sent everyone assembled in a trance of blended beats and vocals. The evening began with Flowers of November, a composition by Guy Muffait, which provided a chance for each one of the instrumentalists to introduce themselves along with the ‘raag’ which was beautifully rendered by Sangeetha Srikishen. This was then followed by an instrumental number based on the raag ‘jog’.
While the arrangement was dominated by Indian instruments, a special mention should be made of violinist Rajan Kumar Beura and Sandeep Vasishta on the bansuri who impressed with their performances. This was then followed by another instrumental piece called Crazy Crazy, where the musicians spoke as they played the instruments. Gopi, on the percussion, brought out some interesting sounds which fitted perfectly in the composition.
The band even brought in a flavour of Mysore by jazzing up an old composition of the Mysore Maharajah. “Not many people know that the Maharajah had a great inclination towards classical music so this is our tribute to him,” said Sangeetha, who has aptly termed the composition as Maharajah Jazz.
Turbulence, the meaning of which Gopi didn’t know, was the word that his friends had suggested when he first played this original composition to them.
“We can’t really put this under any one ‘raag’ because it is not a regular rhythm due to it 11 beats which is cyclic in nature,” says Gopi. Not forgetting their French counter part, the band, concluded the concert by introducing him to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, through the rendition of Vaishnavo Janatho.