A jugalbandi between the East and the West

This Sunday, the Times of India Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival, to be held in Bangalore, will focus on western music and Indian classical music. “We’ve had different themes in the past, and this time the focus is ‘India and beyond’. It’s basically going to be a western classical jazz-pop crossover,” explains violin maestro L Subramaniam.
The festival — which was started as a tribute to Subramaniam’s father, renowned violinist V Lakshminarayana — will see American keyboard player Chris Rhyne and Norwegian saxophonist Froy Aagre share the stage with the violin maestro, his wife and playback singer Kavita Krishnamurthy, his son Ambi and his daughter Bindu.“We will have elements of Indian classical music from the south and north, along with jazz, pop and then world music. It’s a whole different approach,” says Subramaniam.
Apart from compositions by Herbie Hancock and George Duke, Subramaniam says the musicians will play a few pieces that have been composed especially for the concert. “There are some special pieces that we’ve composed. We premiered them at Chennai earlier this week, so by the time we come to Bangalore, they’ll be in a different shape, hopefully. Every concert is different. You play and improvise,” he says. And while the festival won’t see a jugalbandi in the traditional sense, there will be “improvisational sections” in the concert. “It’s not a trade-off kind of thing; it’s more like long solos in which they’ll express the same feelings of that particular composition, with their own classical background,” says Subramaniam.