Jugal Bandi

This one is like completing a Trilogy. After 2 wonderful concerts i attended recently, i felt my appetite for fusion music is picking up well. and to meet up, one more came along. Thanks to Divya, i could attend one more Phenomenal Fusion Music Concert today.
She somehow managed to grab 2 passes for a concert by "Jugal Bandi", a french band which plays world music.The band consists of 6 people.One vocalist & 5 instrumentalists. The instruments array was tempting enough to immediately say YES when she asked if i would like to attend.
Sarod-Tabla-Jazz drums-Trumpet-Bass Guitar.
Venue: Taj Krishna
Time: 7:30pm

The concert turned out to be one of the best ones i ever heard. honestly,after coming to know that the band members are from France (except the Tabla Player,who is a bengali),i thought that their fusion would be mostly be on folkish lines.But their compositions beat my expectations and they came out with excellent performance highlighting the beauty of Indian Classical music and Indian Raagas.
As always,the combination of Tabla & Drums pumped my adrenalin(cliche`). Soundwise, it was a terriffic combination because Sarod & Trumpet were the main instruments while Bass-guitar had its own play. The trumpet player did excellent job with the nuances. Sarod player did go Off-key while playing a composition in Raag 'Bhairavi'. This raaga seems to be their favourite;they played two compositions in this raaga. Similarily, another raaga which hit off very well is Raag 'Desh'. They were accompanied by an African folk singer and she oozed great energy.They experimented with raagas like 'Subha Panthuvaraali' and 'Pahadi', in which the Trumpet emerged out as a fantastic blending instrument. To give an analogy, the tracks were like "Do anything" track from Ilaiyaraaja's "How To Name It", in which he used trumpet as main instrument for raag 'sohini'.ofcourse, these guys put up a more crisp sound with fantastic co-ordination, given the fact that they hail from France and are still amateurs with Hindusthani Classical Music, though the compositions reflected a decent maturity. Not just me and Divya, but the entire audience thoroughly enjoyed each and every composition and must admit that they have stuff.

To Sum up, the experience was quite satisfying, musically and i wish i could get the recording of this concert, for this was a unique fusion which really had that multicultural characteristic, yet retaining the beauty of Indian Music. An experience which is unforgettable for both myself and Divya,whom i should thank for such a lovely evening.