AROUND THE WORLD IN 60 MINUTES

Live 1o1 last Friday was a journey through the realms of music, where the communiqué was folk music, taking forms from various parts of the country and the globe.  Be it the Indian influence from Bengali, Rajasthani, Konkani or the global influences from Africa, South America, Spain and closer home from Bangladesh,  the unique sounds and melodies were a totally new and enthralling experience and the first of its kind in Chennai.

Bringing out the Indian and global tunes beautifully was Bonnie, the lead vocalist for the evening.  The brain behind the whole concept, Bonnie's versatility and fluency was unbelievable.  And his performance, passionate and totally captivating. 

Making the evening even more memorable were K V Balakrishnan, also known as Tabla Babu on the mridangam, ganjira and dhol, Donan on acoustic guitar, Mario on bass and the special guests -Maarten Visser on saxophone, Patrick Rozario on accordion and Vikram on the conga, castanets and djembe.

The essence of the entire evening was the folklore behind every song that Bonnie explained, which gave meaning and reality to the whole concept.  For instance, their first song was about food and Maarten on the sax gave the Bengali 'Majhi Re' a smooth Bengal and Western feel, something that has never been attempted before.  Their second song from Rajasthan called 'Halerio' was on the celebration of the birth of a baby, where Balu joined in with the dhol and Vikram on the castanets.  There was also the original 'Mast Mast' from Maharashtra - which is more popularly recognized as the film song 'Tu Cheez badi hai mast mast' featuring Askhay Kumar and ravishing Raveena Tandon.

The band next went into an Arabic song, 'Bledhi', which started off with Donan playing some amazing acoustic guitar and of course the maestro Patrick Rozario took off on the accordion.  Then from Africa, came a passionate Senegalese folk song 'No More', on the oppression of the Senegalese people by foreigners.  And to put the crowd in a light and mushy mood came a Spanish love song - 'Trista Peyna'.

Bonnie and the group 'returned to the subcontinent' with a story of a simple farmer from Bangladesh who sells vegetables for a living with a song called 'Noya Badi'.  To push up the tempo was the popular party song, the 'Baila' that was sung by Donan in his imitable interactive style - that sent the crowd wild and had them whistling and hooting away to glory.

The final song was the popular 'Didi' from Khaleed - the crowd were ecstatic when Mario started off the groove on the bass.  The song then went into a round of appreciative solos.  First it was Patrick on the accordion, whose music kept everybody spell bound.  Vikram took over on the conga with some heightening afro rhythms, after which Balu brought out the majesty of the mridungam with everyone wondering how so many varied nuances could come of out of one instrument.

We have to give these musicians credit for this extraordinary attempt to mix Indian folk and global music with a blend of the sax, guitar and bass, along with the mridungam, dhol and other percussive instruments like the castanets, afro drums, etc. Kudos to Bonnie for taking the initiative for this effort and for presenting such uncommon styles and singing in eight different languages.

Well, that was not all.  It was Neel Murgal's turn to take the stage.  Having come all the way from New York, he introduced the crowd to world music with a sitar composition for which Balu joined him.  After that he introduced the Daf (Persian fame drum) with a deafening bang and left everybody awestruck.

And could the French be left out of the party?  Nandita on the vocals and Ravi on the guitars joined by Ranjith on drums, Sagar Desai on keys and Mario on bass performed two French songs off the album 'Kok al am'.

Coming up next week is the 'Brit Rock Nite' in association with The British Council with a band from the Culture Café.  The other band performing comprises musicians like Sudeen Prabhakar, Timothy Madhukar, David Pascal, Keith Peters, Donan Murray and Shyam Ranjith.  There will also be musicians like Mario, Sanjeev and other surprises getting into some hard core British rock featuring Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, The Beatles and others.

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