“Hello, I am George Brooks,” he says with a firm handshake. Dressed formally in shirt, trousers and leather shoes, his silver grey hair neatly combed, he looks very much a Wall Street guy. But quite like his intensely layered music, what you see is not always what you perceive. Humming aloud as Brooks turns to carefully pick-up his saxophone from its leather case to pose for photographs, his two pencil-thin braids swings at the back of his neck and the quirky musician in him comes to the fore.
He joyfully walks up and down the floors at Hotel Westin in Velachery looking for interesting backdrops. Brooks was in the city recently to perform in Sankaram, a fusion ensemble featuring Kadri Gopalnath, Vikku Vinayakram, V. Selva Ganesh and Taufiq Qureshi.
It’s a warm sunny morning on the day of the concert. Holding the saxophone close to his chest, he says, “This is the first time I am sharing the stage with Kadriji. I am delighted with this collaboration and intrigued about how he has integrated this western instrument into the Carnatic format.”
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Brooks’ love affair with Indian music dates back to more than three decades. And through the years, he has forged many long-lasting relationships with artistes of the East, the most talked-about being with tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. “For fusion to happen at the tonal level, minds and hearts have to meet,” he says. “For me relationships are about commitment and honesty. I feel that has also kept my marriage going for 35 years. Quite unheard of in the U.S.,” he chuckles.
It was music, particularly Indian that brought Brooks and his wife closer. He followed her when she first visited India to learn Hindustani music. “I was spellbound. There was so much to discover and imbibe. I stayed on for almost a year, training under Pandit Pran Nath. It was like living a gurukula. The days spent at the medical school before I dropped out to take up music came in handy to deal with his health problems. I would cook for him, give a massage, clean the house and learnt the intricacies of classical music,” he smiles.
Brooks also travelled a lot around India because he wanted to know the country along with its arts. If the richness of its culture fascinated him, the poverty moved him so much that he decided to serve the underprivileged here. “I would go from one slum colony to another. It was hectic. And before I realised I fell seriously ill and had to go back to the U.S. only to return after two years. It’s a connect I cannot do without,” he says.
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Brooks was 10 when he drawn to the saxophone. As he grew up his family realised his passion for the instrument and sent him to the New England Conservatory of Music. It was there that he first found Indian music.
“Though some western artistes find the Indian classical repertoire restrictive, I found my creative niche in the East-West blend. The vigour and depth of Indian tunes spur my imagination and give me the confidence to think beyond grammar.” But that didn’t keep him away from teaming up with blues greats Etta James, Albert Collins and Roy Rogers or jazz innovators Henry Kaiser, Anthony Braxton and Jaki Byard. Brooks is the founding member of American minimalist pioneer Terry Riley’s Khayal ensemble.
He founded a number of Indo-jazz fusion ensembles including Summit (with Fareed Haque, Kai Eckhardt, Zakir Hussain, Steve Smith), Bombay Jazz (with Larry Coryell, Ronu Majumdar) and the Kirwani Quartet (with Dutch harpist Gwyneth Wentink and Hariprasad Chaurasia). “I am happiest when performing in India because the ragas and rhythm I play on my saxophone are well-received by the audience here. The cultural milieu allows them to perceive vivid and inventive musical set ups.”
An assertive soloist, Brooks’ individual tones are like free-floating molecules. In a team arrangement his improvisatory lines are probing and marked by lot of internal motion. In his efforts to find a meeting ground between antithetical genres, this musician-composer has lent new phrasings to the jazz vocabulary. And they come through clearly in his albums Lasting Impression , Summit , Night Spinner and Spirit and Spice .
Though his restless, full-throated blowing has found unique resonances across the globe, jazz purists have often scoffed at the dominant Eastern influences in his western harmonies. “My saxophone needs to inhale the air that fills it with good life. I want its sound to travel beyond geographical borders and explore new musical landscapes,” is his answer.