A music band exploring Indian ragas with a pinch of rock ‘n’ roll and psychedelia from Kolkata regaled the audience at the Alliance Française recently.
The band, Kolkata Jam Masala, brought its unusual brand of lively music as part of a tour organised by the Alliance Française of India.
The band comprised musicians Paul Brook (guitar), Surpiyo Dutta (vocal), Mainak ‘Brumpy’ Nag Chowdhury (bass guitar), Gaurab Chaterjee (drum) and Zoe Brook (Screening). According to their collective credo based on free improvisation, the only indication given to the musicians is the choice of a particular mode (raaga) on which they improvise. The spiritual spirit of the traditional music (trance) is very much present but the form is revisited.
As in jazz musician Miles Davis’s album Bitches Brew — which broke all the rules and conventions of traditional jazz in adopting a new style based on modal improvisations influenced by funk music and rock — the musicians of Kolkata Jam Masala embark on an audio-visual journey that explore Indian psychedelia and fuses Indian classical music, jazz and rock music.
