A musical melting pot

Visualize a Hyderabadi band and perhaps what most of us would conjure up in our minds is a motley group of desi musicians.
But that’s not exactly the scene in the city. From a two-piece jazz band comprising Joe Koster of Swiss origin and George Hull from Hyderabad, to a five-member band called The Banjara Hillbillies comprising of musicians from different parts of the world, expats in the city and visiting international musicians are taking Hyderabad’s music scene to a different level.
Twenty one-year-old vocalist and guitarist Pranati Khanna, who jams along with a couple of musicians in the city, says that the presence of visiting musicians livens up their performance. “I get to meet new musicians from different countries and different cities too. It’s fun. There was this French guy who joined one of our sessions, he was a very ‘hippie’ sort of a chap, and played exactly what we liked — that is Woodstock kind of music. He had his own way of playing the guitar. He even played some French acoustic songs, which were pretty cool.”
What most expats like Joe Koster and Patrick Dempsey find interesting is the intercultural experience that they get when they go to see other local or Indian bands perform. Patrick Dempsey, who plays bluegrass on the mandolin for The Banjara Hillbillies, says, “Hyderabad has given us a chance to see and meet different musicians. It’s been interesting. I come from North America where there are diverse genres of music, and Hyderabad too has exactly that. The best part of it is that the audience has accepted us and the kind of music we play.” Joe Koster, pianist of a two-piece Jazz band, adds, “It’s an intercultural experience like no other, when you play with the different people.”
There is also a small group of musicians who call themselves The Persian Band. Parsa P, the band conductor, says, “We have six band members from the city, two Persians, one Iranian and one guy from Maldives. So our music has a different flavor. We bring out our unique elements, mixing it with what we bring together as musicians.”