Indian music, with Western twists
The music of India is an enigma to many Western listeners. To some, it recalls the Beatles and Ravi Shankar; to others it is pleasant, atmospheric, but ultimately incomprehensible; and to still others it is nothing more than exotic snake-charming music.
Shankar, however, has had a great deal to do with changing some of those perceptions, using his charismatic presence to affirm both the complexity and the importance of Indian music as a great classical discipline and a fascinating musical experience. And he has often done so with the accompaniment of the superb tabla player, the late Ustad Alla Rakha.
The Shankar/Rakha heritage of virtuoso musicianship combined with genre-crossing, communicative warmth has been passed on to a new generation of Indian artists led by Rakha’s son, the percussion master Zakir Hussain. A highly successful, Grammy-winning crossover tabla player (via appearances with everyone from John McLaughlin to Jerry Garcia), Hussain has remained a superb Indian classical artist as well.
On Saturday night at Disney Hall -- in the company of his two younger brothers, Fazal Qureshi and Taufiq Qureshi, and others -- Hussain presented “Masters of Percussion,” a splendid combination of music embracing classical ragas from North and South India, rhythmic fusion sounds from Taufiq Qureshi and a brief display of Manipuri dance styles by the troupe Manipuri Jagoi Marup.
The program was further enhanced by the presence of sarangi player Ustad Sultan Khan, the remarkable T.H. “Vikku” Vinayakram, somehow squeezing stunning rhythmic sounds out of a clay pot, and the two-violin brother team of Ganesh and Kumaresh Rajagopalan (who use only their first names professionally).
A North Indian raga, Maru Bihag -- usually played in the early evening -- was an appropriate program opener, underscored with the 16-beat rhythmic cycle Tintal.
Khan’s passionate sarangi (a kind of bowed sitar) took the lead, followed by a brilliant display of tabla challenges, back and forth, between Hussain and his brother Fazal Qureshi.
Next came a colorful display of athletic dancing by three members of the Manipuri group, playing drums as they spun and whirled across the stage.
Then another shift of emphasis, with Taufiq Qureshi adding an indefinable combination of drums, cymbals and mouth percussion sounds to a pop-inspired mix.
Finally, climaxing a program fully displaying the great breadth of Indian music, the violinist brothers, Ganesh and Kumaresh, performed with the accompaniment of Vinayakram’s intriguing clay pot rhythms, blending the intensity of Karnatic (South Indian) music with fiery, Western-inspired technical expertise.