He did not strum a guitar to be a showman. “I took to the stage recently. I have been more into composing,” said Clinton Cerejo, one of the most sought-after music arrangers in the country, at his November Fest gig in the city. Till he emerged on the scene, not many within and outside the music industry realised the importance of an arranger. So how could you have expected even a single chord to sound out of sync? The guitar riffs (Clinton on acoustic guitar, Sonu Sangameshwar on bass guitar and Niranjan ‘Pozy’ Dhar on electric guitar), in-tempo keyboard harmonies (Beven Fonseca) and pounding drum beats (Manoj Thapliyal) made up the sound track of the many Coke Studio compositions and Bollywood ditties. The verses and words got drowned in the thump, thud and firepower plucks. After all, such performances are more about high energy and a delightful synergy with listeners.
Clinton swaggered confidently across the stage, tossing his silky mane, sometimes rendering singles, but most often joined by co-vocalists Sudeep Jaipurwale and Bianca Gomes. ‘Shake a leg, sing along, clap, don’t sit quiet, it’s not a classical concert'…the band never lost a moment to bond with the audience.
Sudeep brought out the earthiness in the Manganiyar-inspired ‘Saathi Salaam’ and ‘Aisi Bani’, while in ‘Banjara’ he delivered hard-edged classical notes with felicity in his rousing voice. ‘Mauje Naina’, ‘Ey Kalapi’ and ‘Dil Toh Bachcha Hai’ had technical precision but not much heart. The music and the voice did not veer from the formulaic pattern.
Clinton almost sprang a surprise with two Tamil songs — ‘Chillena oru mazhaithuli’ and ‘Endrendrum Punnagai’, his way of paying tribute to A. R. Rahman, “one of the best music composers I have worked with”.
He also spoke about Vishal Bhardwaj’s keen musical sense and his composing buddy Hitesh Sonik. The musical trail continued with ‘Musafir Hai’ (from a yet-to-be-released film) and ‘Manhattan’ ( English Vinglish) .
When the band wound up after a non-stop 90-minute show, the hall echoed with requests for an encore and the musicians re-entered the stage, winning the audience over one more time.
