Who said Bangalore is cool?

Bengalooru Habba…

Had a blast this week. An amazing super-duper fantabulous week. Bangalore is so hot it is just shades away from going to Hades. Culturally, I mean. The weather is cold and blustery and everyone’s catching the chills. I had three of them, back to back, over Nov-Dec.

Sunday 3rd Dec: The week blasted off with the Sunday Jam free rock concert by Bangalore’s brightest. It takes place on the first Sunday of every month, usually at Gurunanak Bhavan off Cunningham road. This time, it was at Chitra Kala Parishad– CKP to the cognoscenti, where the budding Bangalore artists get trained.

At the same time, there was a presentation by Kundan Shah of his latest Hindi comedy flick at Bangalore Film Society.

What is more, Bengalooro Habba (BH) also got underway, and there were Hindustani and Carnatic classic music concerts all over the place.

Like a true Libran, I couldn’t decide which one to go to until 6 PM, after which it was anyway too late…I would never have made it to either given the traffic at that time. So I sat at home feeling like an idiot. Actually, to be honest…I was still recovering from the last of the chills and couldn’t get around to moving ass.

Monday 4th Dec: BH in full swing. Flute recital by Pravin Godkhindi at Ambedkar Bhavan followed by a Hindustani vocal by Kaushiki Chakravarty. Godkhindi was nice, and tried out some fancy stuff like intermixing vocal phrases with the flute, and switching dynamically between a concert flute and a common flute, but the net effect wasn’t terribly impressive. Wish he had just stuck to playing straight music. Fellow Bong Kaushiki was amazing! Her vocal pipes are obviously of a high order, and she soon had the plaster falling off the ceiling. She has an amazing octave range, from deep bass to crystal clear high notes. She looks ridiculously young (and pretty), but she sang with the panache and pizzas of a doddering old prima donna. The only irritating thing was the smug, self-satisfied “Look…I know I am good”, expression on her face. But I guess that is a Bong failing. And when you are that good, I suppose you have earned the right to be smug.

Tuesday 5th Dec: My day off from concerts. Prepared for a presentation in my French class next day. But lots of stuff going on at BH.
Wednesday 6th Dec: Went to St. John’s Auditorium in Koramangala to see “Bunny Brunel and the Jazz All Stars”, a multi-national jazz-rock group. Took the 500 bucks seats. Was disappointed to see that it was on the balcony, not in the main hall. But didn’t feel like shelling out 1000 or 1500 bucks for the more expensive seats for a bunch of guys I had never heard of before, esp. now that I am not working. Most of the cognoscenti seemed to have the same idea, because the balcony was packed and the main floor was virtually empty. Actually, it was a pretty good move, because from the top, you could see right into Vergil Donati’s drum kit, and see what he was doing. The All-Stars consists of Bunny Brunel (French) on Bass, Mitch Forman (US) on Keyboard, Frank Gambale (Aus-Italian) on lead and Virgil Donati (Aus) on Drums of Heaven (just joking). Each of them is apparently a star in his own right, reading their impressive CV’s in the handout. They started with a bang, and these guys played mean, hard driving jazz rock. Brunel was impressive with a firm and authoritative baseline, which was the foundation for the groups sound. But the man who truly impressed was Vergil Donati.

He was billed as “the world’s best drummer”, and he lived up to it. The man was truly awe-inspiring. He looked like the god Shiva presiding over the drums, he literally "looked" as if he had six arms and legs. "Looked", not just "sounded". You could actually see 6 arms and legs. The sound was that of 3 or 4 world class drummers playing simultaneously, each a different, and complex, rhythm. The crowd was stunned into reverent silence. It sounded like a Russian artillery battery doing shelling practice after a few too many vodkas. A lot of Thrash Heavy Metal drummers practice the rat-a-tat-tat rolling thunder effect on the bass drums. Well, Vergil baby sounded like three different simultaneous rolling thunders. And not just the monotonous rolls of the average thrash drummer either, there were three complex syncopated rhythms going on at the same time. That was just with his feet. His arms were meanwhile doing amazing things with the high hats and cymbals.

On some of the “slower” pieces, which were still a good sight faster than the fastest pieces of most other jazz groups, Virgil filled in time by juggling with his drum sticks, playing across, and other antics, all the while playing at a speed that would have left other drummers exhausted.

Truly a mind-boggling, awe-inspiring performance. It is probably the only concert I have seen in recent times, that truly deserves that adjective - “awesome”, which is the only adjective that kids nowadays seem to know.

Thursday 7th Dec: Back to BH Hindustani classical recitals at Ambedkar Bhavan. A lovely sitar-cello recital by a Mallu-Dutch husband wife duo, Shubhendra and Saskia Rao. The lady was trained in western classical music on the cello, and having fallen in love with all things Indian, switched to Hindustani classical. I believe she is the only Hindustani classical musician who uses the cello. It was a revelation hearing her...the ragas sounded so grand and majestic on the cello. It was counter-pointed by playful flurries of notes on her husband’s sitar. They looked really cute playing together. I liked the way she sat back and smiled smugly at her husband, every time she played a particularly impressive phrase. And each time he gave her a quick smile and she got back to playing looking like a pampered child. All very sweet and homely.

It was followed by a wonderful Dhrupad recital Gundecha Brothers. They had an unusually long and impressive aalap, which was remarked on in the press, so I won’t repeat it. But what stuck in my mind were their brilliant, electric yellow sherwani’s and the saintly expression on their faces (I wonder what was going on in their heads, in reality?). Along with the two pretty young things wearing bright red and white salwar kameez playing the tanpura at the back, it created a visual treat as well. The one on the left was especially pretty. I wonder if anyone has her number?

Friday 8th Dec: A German jazz group, the Wolfgang Haffner group, sponsored by Max Muellar Bhavan, playing at the Chowdiah memorial hall. Went crazy trying to access the hall. It is easily visible from the dramatic curving road along Sankay lake, but boy, it doesn’t seem to have any roads leading to it. Got there eventually, late, but they were late starting as well, so no loss. They played some nice neat jazz. Nothing spectacular, but nice and melodic, with lots of electronic effects. Germans seem to go in for that a lot…remember Kraftwerk?

Saturday 9th Dec: But...the week was topped off by Rock-day at Bangalooru habba. This deserves a whole another posting, so no more here.

And it doesn’t end here…next week, The Shakti concert featuring Zakir Hussain and John Mc Laughlin, and DEEP PURPLE on Sunday!!!

Is Bengalooru hot, or what?