A folk singer from Bengal who sings spiritual Baul songs, on hearing a snatch of Blues music remarked, ‘that sounds so muck like our kind of singing.’ Indeed it is possible to hear Baul, Blues, and folk rhythms one after another, without feeling any strangeness. Any kind of good music rejuvenates and moves a person and knows no geographical boundaries.
This is also the case with instrumental music. A person listening to a Latin American flute could easily be reminded of a plaintive rage composition. The guitar recital of the Latin American guitarist Paco de Lucia could be just as thrilling as a recital by an Indian sitarist playing in full flow. As for percussion, imagine the dance the gods would break into, if African drums were to play alongside the mridamgam, tabla and the dholak!
There are scores of music lovers around the world who like Elvis Presley’s singing as much as the singing of Sabbalakshmi. Even in the very interior of India it would not be surprising if someone were to talk of the Las Vegas legend with as much as feeling, for it is possible to feel comfortable with specific cultures and yet like the music one has been associated with.
Since music allows latitude, it encourages an exhilarating exchange of genres and people. In ancient days Muthuswamy Dikshitar introduced many North Indian rages into Carnatic music. The late John Higgins ‘Bhagavatar’, an American, was a distinguished scholar of Carnatic music. Similarly, Kadri Gopalan, an exponent of Carnatic music, plays it on the western saxophone. The Beatles produced some wonderfully popular numbers, such as ‘Norwegian wood’, and ‘Girl’, by infusing elements of Hindustani classical music. Suman Kabir uses the tabla to great effect with his trademark solo guitar. Indeed many Indian musicians and groups display comfort in playing a western melodic rhythm in their music. Bollywood has matured in the nineties to mix melodic traditions. A R Rahman pioneered this new trend. In most of his music he has use African beats and the tabla to good effect.
Music has promoted the fusion of genres without compromising the identity of any form. Really good musicians around the world like their creative counterpart in other field to shuttle into each others tradition while being rooted in their own. That is what richness of music really means. That is the kind of music that elevates.
