There's a long lineup of musical treats in store for Mumbai this February

Festival-goers in the city can look forward to sampling diverse musical traditions in February

Mahindra Blues Festival
 

You don’t choose the blues,” says guitarist Rudy Wallang of the genre he and vocalist Tipriti Kharbangar of Soulmate have mastered over the last decade and a half. “The blues choose you.” When the Mahindra Group decided to launch a blues festival in India in 2010, the Shillong-based band — by then two albums old and a fixture at various major gigs — was the first to be contacted.

“The simplicity and honesty of it” is what drew Wallang to the blues, and while songs typically involve playing only three chords, revealing your heart and soul in them is incredibly difficult, he observes. The success of Soulmate and the emergence of blues events have encouraged more musicians in the country to become possessed by the blues. At the Mahindra blues band hunt this year, Quiet Storm, a band from Jowai, Meghalaya won.   

Jimmy Vaughan

Musicians in towns across India have taken to the form, which first developed from the experience of black slaves in white America who poured both pain and hope into song. Growing up in Bhopal, Rohit Lalwani listened to the Chicago, Texas and Memphis blues, and recruited a bassist and drummer to his amateur band in a town where familiarity with the genre was scant. Very often, the appeal of the genre itself is so strong, it becomes the subject. Lalwani’s Lal and the People sing about having a “bad case of blues”.

Arinjoy Sarkar, who used to play pop tunes on his guitar in his early teens, found the sound he was looking for when Amyt Dutta, a Kolkata-based blues veteran, introduced him to B B King. Sarkar’s blues trio won the band hunt two years ago for compositions such as “Cold Cold Cold” and “Don’t you leave me behind”. Lalwani and Sarkar will be part of a Homegrown Blues Collective, set to debut at the Mahindra Blues Festival this year. 

They will play alongside established names such as Soulmate, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa. Also sharing that stage is Kanchan Daniel, a psychology professor who took to writing blues songs some years ago after fighting off cancer. 

Larkin Poe

Buddy Guy, a stalwart of the Chicago Blues generation, participated in the festival several times, enthused by the idea of taking the blues to new shores. He is headlining this year, too, along with other international acts Keb Mo, Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, and the young duo Larkin Poe. For Mahindra, the idea to promote blues was born of a desire to connect with communities in the Mississippi Delta in the United States, where the blues originated and where the company sells its tractors. Jay Shah, vice president of cultural outreach at Mahindra, says audiences in Mumbai have warmed to the genre. “In this city, people struggle with a smile on the lips. It fits with the spirit of the music.” The band hunt attracts talent from cities such as Surat and Kalimpong. Likewise, young American blues artists spotted by Buddy Guy’s club Legends in Chicago are invited to play in Mumbai.

While the budding Indian blues artists are making a name for themselves, they are still modest enough to be replying individually to YouTube comments. Their following is limited but intimate. They have to record and produce their own albums, and shoot videos at home. “The hard part is it is still very DIY,” says Sarkar, who has been releasing one video a month. “The good part is you are independent and free to do what you want.”

The Mahindra Blues Festival will take place in Mehboob Studios, Mumbai on February 8 and 9

A Bharatanatyam dance recital from the Kala ghodaArts Festival last year

Sama’a: Sufi music festival 

The pursuit of a connection with the divine, as exemplified by Sufi music, marks all religious cultures. It is why the mystical school of thought is an ideal go-to for the divisive times in which we live, says Suvarnalata Rao, head of Indian music programming at the city’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). She is the curator of the annual Sufi music festival Sama’a, which will include traditional presentations from Bengal, North Africa, Rajasthan and a contemporary band from Mumbai this year. 

Kings Squad

Wisdom from Tantric, Sufi, Bhakti and Buddhist philosophies informed the wisdom of Baul fakirs of Bengal, who shared it in song. Parvathy Baul, among the rare women leading the continuation of the art, will sing some compositions that date back to the 15th century. Using spoken word to explain the songs, Baul hopes to invoke the same contemplation among listeners which she experiences while performing.

The all-woman Moroccan group Hadarrattes Souiriyattesis

Hadarrattes Souiriyattesis, an eight-member, all-woman group of musicians from Morocco, will sing traditional songs, made up of zikhrs or chants that gain in speed and eventually induce a trance-like state. The women — described as “a library of old songs” — came together to preserve the music of the Hadra ritual which involves clapping and playing small cymbals and drums. 

A desire to show that mystical ideas are relevant even today inspired Neeraj Arya to form the band Kabir Cafe. Where the Mumbai-based band will set the 15th-century poet Kabir’s verses to modern music, ghazal singer  Mohammad Vakil will take a more traditional approach in performing the Sufiana writings or kalams of poets from various backgrounds including Amir Khusrau, Guru Nanak and Meerabai. Trained by his uncles, the renowned Hussain brothers of Jaipur, Vakil notes that the future of the Sufi form is safe. “The search for the creator is eternal. So this music will never end.” 

NCPA Mumbai will host Sama’a from February 7-9

Neo-fusion rock band Kabir Cafe

Kala Ghoda Arts Festival

Another woman-led group is set to play at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. What is believed to be the first all-female Hindustani Carnatic music group, formed by the master tabla player Anuradha Pal. Conversely, a Bandra-based community choir, KOKOMO, will bridge the gap between western classical music and various ethnic styles from around the world. Like every February, the crescent-shaped precinct in south Mumbai will throb with other events too. Among them are a dastangoi performance of Munshi Premchand’s “Idgah” for children, Irani and Kashmiri food walks and the release of a volume on Kaifi Azmi marking the poet’s centenary year.

While remaining otherwise apolitical — because the festival relies on various governmental authorities for permissions — the visual art installations this year will extol the virtues of “unity in diversity”, in response to the ongoing strife in the country.

KGAF will unfold at various venues in Kala Ghoda from February 1-9

Making the World