Rudyard Kipling once said, “Oh East is East, and West is West, and the twain shall never meet.”  However, on 19th March, at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, Larry Coryell and his group fused Western music with Indian music.  They created an east west fusion by combining a guitar and a saxophone with the tabla and a Bansuri (an Indian drum and flute).  The performance exhibited the awesome talent of Ronu Majumdar with the bansuri and little known Aditya Kalyanpur who was marvelous on the tabla. George Brooks played the saxophone and was accompanied by Larry Coryell on the guitar.

Larry Coryell, also known as the pioneer of jazz-rock is one of the renowned artists whose skill has been acknowledged all across the planet.  Saxophonist George Brooks is one of the leading players in Indian Jazz, and has also performed with notable musicians all over the world.  Ronu Majumdar, is a great flutist who has also received Grammy nomination for his work with Bela Fleck in the album Tabula Rasa (1996).  Aditya Kalyanpur, the youngest member of the group, began playing the instrument at the age of five years, under the guidance of the tabla maestros Allarakha and Zakir Hussain.  He teaches at Harvard’s Sangeet Music School and has worked with Rolling Stones and Tim Ries.  The group debuted with their performances in Mumbai with Jazz Yatra, in the year 2003 and has been gaining popularity since then.

The concert consisted of many compositions, such as Akashik, Dubai dance, Train Brazil India, and more.  Each composition seemed to tell us a story or portray a message.  The music was able to give the listeners a feeling of day and night in India, or of a dancing man, or a journey.  Watching Ronu playing the Bansuri with great stretch of breath and Aditya Kalyanpur on the tabla playing peppy rhythms was the key factor that made the show how good it was, not to say that Larry Coryell and George Brooks didn’t do a good job, but the skill of the two Indian musicians was one of its kinds and not one many share across the planet, not even in India itself.  During the concert, there was also a complete repetition of various rhythms and melodies with different instruments; anything which was played on the guitar could be played on the Bansuri.  The rhythm of the Tabla was picked up on the guitar.  This kind of presentation was peculiar in the composition Train Brazil India and was well appreciated by the audience.  The Indo-jazz combination had pep to it and the songs were well composed and performed.

The concert was excellent and enlightening.  The enjoyment was one of its kinds, as the music invigorated the dark auditorium.  The audience was very happy to see the show and was energized by Ronu Majumdar playing the Bansuri. The mixture of the 4 instruments that created the Bombay Jazz, gave us the picture of India, and a journey.  Many people enjoyed the concert, some even claiming of having refreshed memories of their visits to Bombay, and their journeys on trains.  It is a great show, and should be watched by those who enjoy listening to Indian Classical music and jazz.