Swedish notes for Pandit Taranath

Exactly 50 years ago while riding the subway in Stockholm 20something Swedish Jazz musician producer and drummer Bengt Berger stumbled upon an LP record of sitarist Ravi Shankar and tabla maestro Chatur Lal that became his rite of passage into Indian classical music The virtuosity and power of expression in improvisation the beautiful melodies and exciting rhythmic fireworks knocked me outStudent and Mentor Above Swedish Jazz drummer Bengt Berger was a senior disciple of below tabla and pakhawaj maestro Pandit Taranath RaoI immediately decided to come to India to learn tabla recalls Berger who hitchhiked for a month from Turkey via Iran Afghanistan and Pakistan to India This was in 1965 sadly itrsquos not possible today and landed in Tardeo at the doorstep of tabla and pakhawaj player Pandit Taranath Rao to learn the instrumentBeches Brew band members in a jam sessionLater Berger also learnt the mridangam from PS Devarajan an accompanist of South Indian saint Swamy Haridhos who also gave him the moniker Sopandev thatrsquos stayed with him till date Since 1970s Berger has been focused on creating World Music influenced by Indian West African I spent a couple of years in Ghana learning drumming and the xylophone and Swedish Jazz terming it as Country and Eastern In India on the occasion of Raorsquos birth centenary celebrations Berger will perform with his eightpiece band Beches Brew at various city spots even collaborating with Hindustani musicians Nityanand Haldipur bansuri and Sadanand Naimpalli tabla Excerpts from an interviewBeches Brew members from left Max Schultz Goran Klinghagen Staffan Svensson LiseLotte Norelius Sir Thomas Jaumlderlund Bengt Berger Stefan Bellnaumls and Mats OumlbergQ What commonalities do you find between Jazz and Indian classical musicA Jazz grows out of meeting between cultures So naturally some people who get fascinated with Indian classical will start using elements from it However different Jazz styles and there are many use harmonies in contrast to the Indian modal approach with different scales Also in many styles there are long choruses that you have to adhere to whereas the Indian music has taals However they can be complicated more than the average Jazz rhythmsQ While learning music in India in the 60s did you collaborate with any Indian musiciansA At the time I wanted to learn as much pure Indian classical music as possible However this does not mean that I am one of the more experienced tablawalas Living in Sweden is detrimental to your tabla career so for many years my focus is on the Western drums I began mixing genres after my return to Sweden especially after collaborating with the wonderful sarodist K Sridhar I cannot understand why he is not more widely appreciated to me he ranks on par with Amjad Ali KhanQ Tell us more about your association with Bitter Funeral Beer Band that played at the Jazz Yatra in Mumbai in 1984A The Bitter Funeral Beer Band named after a funeral ceremony in Northern Ghana was a 13piece group with music influenced by funeral music that I had studied in Ghana It was an early example of World Music and very well appreciated It was different because it had a social meaning plus lots of drums and exciting improvisation from quite a big bandOn January 10 530 pmAt Anandashram Hall Talmakiwadi Tardeo Entry FreeOn January 11 7 pm At True School of Music 107 Sun Mill Compound Lower Parel Call 66243200On January 12 7 pm At Tata Institute of Social Sciences DeonarCall 25525000