Monday December 8, 2008
Making it his own
By SHARMILLA GANESAN
It’s not rocket science nor is the concept new, but Prem Joshua’s fusion of Eastern and Western music warrants much more than a cursory listen.
THE impression you get at a Prem Joshua concert is that music belongs, not to a particular group of people, but to one and all. Joshua does not perform Hindustani classical music like he has bor-rowed it from someone else; rather, he takes complete ownership of the form and does with it as he feels.
Purists may view his eclectic blend of Indian classical and contemporary music as irreverant, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Indo-fusion musician Prem Joshua performing at the Temple of Fine Arts’ fund raising dinner concert. – GLENN GUAN / The Star His music, which he terms “indo-global-fusion”, is the product of a deep respect and love for Indian classical music.
Joshua and his band’s music is a mix of Hindustani classical music, jazz, funk and trance, while also using elements from other music traditions around the world, such as Middle-Eastern, African and European. His compositions further draw upon sources as diverse as Hindu mantras and Sufi poetry.
With over 15 years’ experience performing with the sitar, flute, soprano sax and dilruba, Joshua has definitely done his time.
“I don’t see why we need to have this divide between ‘pure’ and ‘impure’ forms of art,” said Joshua, who was in Kuala Lumpur recently to perform in the Temple of Fine Arts’ (TFA) fundraising dinner last week. “What (my band and I) do with our music is bring together different cultures with a lot of respect for the respective traditions, and I think this really adds to the Indian classical music scene.”
Joshua pointed out that Hindustani classical music itself is the result of a fusion of various styles and elements. “I think we probably need both the (so-called) ‘pure’ style as well as the more evolving kinds. That is how music grows and develops.”
Born in the Black Forest, Germany, Joshua began learning the flute from the age of five, and as a teenager, started performing the flute and saxophone with various rock, jazz and fusion bands.
In the late 1970s, at the age of 18, Joshua made the decision that changed the course of his life forever. He travelled over land, hitchhiking most of the way, to India. As he passed through countries like Greece, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, he started feeling the pull of the indigenous folk music in each place.
Finally, arriving in India was like a homecoming to Joshua. “I was accidentally born in the West!” he laughed. “And even now, when we’re in India, we often forget that we’re not Indian.”
In India, Joshua took up the study of Hindustani classical music under the great sitar maestro Ustad Usman Khan. After years of study, Joshua returned to the West in the early 1990s, ready to share his music with the rest of the world.
He has released 14 albums to date, and tours extensively around the world. His band, made up of long-time partner Chintan Relenberg, Raul Sengupta and Satgyan Fukuda, is currently based in Goa, India, during the winter months, and the rest of the time in Europe. Joshua is also the best-selling world music artiste in India.
Joshua’s showcase at the TFA dinner was a fantastic introduction to the kind of music he and his band make. The repertoire was well chosen, to please both those who were inclined towards traditional pieces as well as those who enjoy avant garde music.
The myriad influences present in the compositions were obvious even to the untrained ear.
In a piece invoking Sufi mystic, for example, a distinct Middle-Eastern flavour was apparent. The use of the saxophone and Arabic drums gave the piece a haunting, mystical quality that brought to mind the qawwali (Sufi devotional music) style.
Another piece, Cosmopolitan, which was inspired by Bali, paired sultry flute melodies with languid sitar music, accompanied by gamelan-sounding percussion.
Joshua was in full form, his lightning-fast fingerwork coaxing out flawless raag (melodic modes) from the sitar. His skill with the soprano saxophone and flute were no less enthralling.
His band was equally amazing; Sengupta’s percussions breathed life into the performance, while Fukuda’s bass was the grounding force. As for Relenberg’s keyboard and electronic loops, well, it must take great skill to give that perfect amount of edge to a performance without going overboard.
The audience was also given the opportunity to watch local sitar exponent Kumar Karthigesu perform several pieces with the band.
It was indeed fitting that Joshua ended the show with a piece that was derived from the Sanskrit mantra of marriage vows; his fusion of melodies from the East and West seems to be the perfect union between two very different forms of music.
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