We’ve all loved AR Rahman’s Nenjinile from 1998 hit Uyire (or Jiya Jale from Dil Se in Hindi) and then we heard a renewed version of this very song when ARR was conferred with an honorary doctorate at a tribute concert at the Berklee College of Music in 2014. The Indian Carnatic music rendition met western rock and the tribute by the Berklee Indian Ensemble became a sensation with more than 50 million YouTube views to date. In 2016, the ensemble led by vocalist and pianist Annette Philip came to India for a concert in Bengaluru and had a sold-out show.
Formed in 2011, the Berklee Indian Ensemble transitioned into a professional band in 2021 with members representing many countries including India, Jordan, Israel, Nigeria, Indonesia, Norway and the USA, among others. And now to celebrate 10 years of the band’s existence, the ensemble releases its first official album, Shuruaat (beginning), today. Featuring 98 musicians from 38 countries, the band has already released two singles from the album — Sundari Pennae, a reprise of an older Tamil song and Lady L featuring Shreya Ghoshal and Grammy-winning tabla master, Ustad Zakir Hussain respectively. Talking about the experience, Shreya Ghoshal gets nostalgic when she says, “I have so many memories of my Berklee residency! Just visiting Berklee is a life changing experience for any musician; for anybody who loves music. We performed so many songs together, but we had such a blast with Sundari Pennae that we decided to record and share it with everyone who missed the live concert. I remember it was the only song of the concert in 5/8 (a complicated musical bar)! Those fives gave me nightmares, but the song was so beautifully rearranged.”
Shreya further added that she felt the Berklee Indian Ensemble musicians brought nuances to the song that were beyond a showcase of their skills. Rather, it was always about the soul that they put into these songs. We further explore the process and behind the scene work that went into the making of this album and catch up with Annette, along with three of her other band members, Rohith Jayaraman (vocalist and percussionist) Guy Bernfeld (bassist) and Aleif Hamdan (guitarist) who spoke to Indulge in an exclusive conversation, earlier this week.
An improvised effort
Sundari Pennae honours Indian traditions while boldly experimenting with a variety of global sounds. Lady L commemorates the 50th anniversary of the iconic indo-jazz fusion group, Shakti, which originally released this song in 1977. “Shreya Ghoshal is an icon and one of the most beloved artistes of our time. We had taken some serious creative liberty, rhythmically, and were humbled by how much time Shreya spent honoring the arrangement. Having Zakir Hussain himself play with us on this Shakti tribute and BIE reinterpretation was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; simultaneously awe-inspiring and nerve-wracking,” shares Annette while Rohith, reveals that the entire album is a result of several improvisations. “We were sitting in a room together and started playing and within a few hours, half of the songs were improvised. It was natural for the group,” says Rohith. Guy also agrees that out of all the arrangements that the ensemble has done so far, this is the most in-depth one. “It began with a few ideas and then everyone in the band got involved to brainstorm on different ideas making it a really cool and enjoyable process,” shares the Israel-based bassist.
Fusing Indian classical instrumentals and western progressive rock, the ensemble has recreated dozens of popular songs in different languages. And what they aim to do is blend the music and create a unique rendition. But how do the band members of the different regions understand the song they intend to recreate? To our surprise, they didn’t give us the answer we were expecting, “music has no language.” Instead, Annette took us through the process that they follow to breathe life into a composition. “The first thing we do is to know what the song means and then we think about what it means for us and then what we absolutely love about this song and how we can completely reconstruct it and make it just ours with our stamp on it. Once we are happy we ‘sheepishly’ send it to the artiste that we collaborate with and hope that they like it. We share the context of why certain decisions were made to the original song. For instance, we told Shreya that we want Kollywood semi-classical arrangement to meet progressive rock and consort meets semi-classical,” explains the founder of the ensemble and shares that there is a lot of back and forth of free-flowing ideas. “We weren’t afraid to cut things and weren’t so attached to any tune, even if we had made it several times,” she adds.
Going beyond music
Recreating the existing popular songs can be tough since they come with their own popularity with their original compositions. And it can be all the more difficult when a song belongs to a completely different region and language. And we point out to the band members that most of their songs have been in Tamil. “I never thought about this before you asked. I think this is an internal bias that we are unaware of. We naturally gravitate towards Carnatic music but we are not thinking so regionally. We are inclined toward what sound interests us, what can we recreate, and what is different and totally new that we are decoding. It is not intentional but it so happens,” expresses Annette and adds that the ensemble has also released several songs in Punjabi, Nepali and Urdu. The ensemble has also recreated Sri Lankan and Nepali songs along with a medley of a Tamil lullaby combined with an Israeli song. “We also have a rapper from Pakistan,” Annette clarifies.
Cherishing global influence
Touring across the world with their ensemble, the foundation of the band members lies at the Berklee School of Music. The band members confess that their exposure to world music and musicians has helped them create some exceptional melodies. “To be honest, it’s the key. It was the intention from day one. The idea was to create a space that was artistically porous that allows and almost requires global influences to come into a place where we can be ourselves and that’s the best thing we can do to the music that we create,” says Annette.
“One thing I enjoy is that independent music is growing across oceans. This was difficult before that. It was always film music and not independent music. But now it’s nice to see independent music videos growing and playing on radio stations as well. Musicians have opportunities to collaborate with other bands and even for this album; we have worked with many independent artistes. I am excited to see more music and musicians creating their own pockets in the industry,” Rohith adds and Aleif points out that how people listen to music has also changed in the last 15 years. “It used to be restricted to CDs but now there’s so much. The exposure to things is like never before,” adds the guitarist. So do you support the emerging trend of social media and online platforms? “Yes. I think a great example of someone who made it big through online platforms is Jonita Gandhi and Jacob Collier. The latter wasn’t a one-person discovery. We all discovered him at the same time because of YouTube,” says Annette.
Music unites
Apart from sharing a similar platform — Berklee School of Music; the band members have many more similar interests. If not music, Rohith tells us food will bring them all together as all the band members love food and most of them cook as well. All of them are bound together as a family and despite working with different bands in their respective countries, come together to create these masterpieces. Unlike many other creative teams, the band doesn’t struggle with creative differences. In fact, Aleif tells us, “Everything is perfect all the time and always. We discuss things and never let our egos clash. It’s a room full of family and we trust each other’s abilities and vision.”
Shuruaat releases today.
priyanka.chandani@newindianexpress.com