I'm very happy to announce a series of interviews with Jazz musicians from around India. This has been in the pipeline for sometime, and finally I've got it underway. I intend to do this at least once a month with musical personalities in the jazz field from around the country, and hopefully this should provide some very interesting insights into jazz and improvised music in India today.
This first interview gets us off to a great start. Sankarsan Kini - Shanks - is an independent producer and multi instrumentalist based in Auroville, India. He explores genres of jazz, blues, rock, folk and funk with different independent projects. He plays guitar, violin, mandolin, trumpet and harmonica. He scores for cinema and theater. For links to his music find him here on SoundCloud:
Tell us about some of your first musical experiences. How did you get into music and what we're your earliest memories?
My earliest memory of music is my father playing the tabla, harmonium, harmonica and my mum singing. I started singing and playing harmonica first, then picked up the harmonium. Initially I learnt to play some old Hindi film songs from my dad on the harmonica and then started fooling around on my own. I learnt tabla from my dad for many years growing up. My initial musical experiences were primarily in a Hindustani Classical world. 'English' music as pop/rock was called was taboo. But western classical music was allowed and my little-sister brought that in when we were in primary school. I remember some Mozart and Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons'. My earliest musical experience of note was hearing the fiancée of my fourth grade class teacher play and sing 'Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham'. I didn't care for the song but he played a simple C, F and G on a nylon string guitar and the sound of the harmony coming out of a wooden box awoke the guitar player in me. It was six more years before I got my hands on a guitar but this was the day that did it.
What are you currently working/practicing on your instrument?
On guitar, I'm focusing on right hand picking and internalising triads all over the fret board. I'm also working on playing three or four note patterns over changes, alternating comping and soloing over changes, singing standards and accompanying myself on guitar using a combination of full chords and substituted upper structures so as to bring in altered sounds.
What attracted you to Jazz and improvised music, as opposed to other forms of music?
Initially jazz appealed to me as a means to be different from the other rockers around me. It appealed to me, then a nineteen year old as a means to appear sophisticated and superior to others. I was listening to Coltrane's 'Blue Train', a big band compilation with 'Bird' and some others, and an album of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. The third one made a little sense to me and I actually started rewinding the tape to two or three songs and playing them back. One of them was 'Mood Indigo' and I transcribed Duke's four bar intro on that using the guitar and I remember suddenly feeling like the notes in that intro were not random 'jazz' notes anymore but were hinting at four different chords. I started hearing more music in jazz after that.
Coming from a Hindustani background I could improvise easily but I lacked structure and harmony was still a vague concept. So I appreciated improvisation but couldn't improvise over changes yet and this challenge drew me to jazz. How do you play out and step in now and then to outline the changes, here and there? That still intrigues me and I'm thrilled when I get close. I only started to hear the jazz in jazz after I grew up a little and then the deviance started to taste good. Now about a decade and a half later I can't do without harmony and substitution.
How do you see the Jazz scene in India? Talk a little about the playing experiences, musicians, venues and audiences.
I've met jazz musicians playing at very high levels in India and have been lucky to have been able to interact with several of them. I'm happy to see kids blasting out of music school ripping through changes. India is in a very dynamic state and I'm not surprised that jazz in India shows much promise. It still has a long way to go but I see many more talented kids being backed by their parents to pursue the discipline of jazz and it's only a matter of time before the numbers add up to become clearly visible on the world map.
India needs more jazz venues. Venues that make a killing from electronic music could throw a coupla crumbs our way and it wouldn't hurt em. I believe you can't play jazz at the level that people play pop/rock/EDM here and hope to sound half decent, leave alone get a gig. You need to be able to play jazz at a good level in order to get paid for a gig at a 'jazz' venue. And that takes many more years. Jazz needs support. The commerce of jazz is not tapped to benefit the artist in India because I believe it's too damn easy to make money, buy gear, up your lifestyle playing whatever rather than kill yourself to sound half decent and get a free meal and two drink coupons at an empty bar. I like the Pianoman, Delhi the B flat Bar, Bangalore, Sheesha Cafe, Pune and Kasha ki Aasha, Pondy to name a few of the few jazz venues I've been to. I've enjoyed some good jazz at these venues and while it strains the owners and musicians to keep the ride swinging it sure does help to keep the scene regular.
We can't expect the Indian audience to shut up and listen to a jazz concert in a bar. These places are great for the music but you're gonna have to try to settle into the gentle lilt of 'Naima' over the din of forty inebriated raised voices knowing that much of that is translating to your performance fee. It's a compromise, but if your monitors are sounding good and you've done your homework I daresay you can play a pretty satisfying show and go home with enough to pay the help and the electricity bill. It's not half bad when you realise that those raised voices are going to office day after tomorrow at 9am, and suddenly your office doesn't seem so bad :)
Something very particular to India is the diverse combination of musical styles, in particular the merging of jazz forms with Indian classical music. What is it that attracts both Indian and musicians from abroad to explore this kind of music?
Merging of styles is a dangerous medium. I hear it backfiring once too often. I prefer juxtaposing styles rather than combining them for I believe a full immersion in both styles is only what can bring about a graceful union.
I enjoy the fire and brilliance of Shakti, but to me that sounds like the Indian musicians are juxtaposed with McLaughlin's fusion of styles. I don't hear the other three playing jazz or fusion. Sure their improvisation is spontaneous, hair raising and hugely inspiring. But they're still ricocheting off the tenets of Indian music in an effort to break through. I believe Amit Heri, Sanjay Divecha and Prasanna have achieved fusion in their compositions by virtue of their immersion in both mediums.
I've met several Indian classical musicians who want to experiment with jazz. Alas, Indian classical musicians are literally hard wired into thinking modally, and most shy away from structure and modulation which for jazz are akin to what cheesecloth and curdling/fermentation is to cheese. As a result the jazz musician is most often forced to vamp modally, dumb down his output and assume a role as an accompanying artist. Sure there are exceptions, but few and far between. I really enjoyed what Louis Banks and Shankar Mahadevan did at a private party once several years ago. It was spontaneous and Shankar didn't sing the same phrase twice though he was singing a ghazal. That's the closest I've seen a classically trained singer come to jazz.
Who were the musicians that influenced you as a developing musician?
Zakirbhai when I was growing up. He's the reason I stuck with the tabla for 15 years.
T N Krishnan the Carnatic violinist. Kumar Gandharva the breakaway Hindustani Classical singer who with half a lung developed his own style. Sting helped my song writing. Aerosmith, Roxette and Guns and Roses brought me closer to the western world of sound. Dave Brubeck's 'Time Out' was the first jazz album I think I enjoyed thoroughly and everyday for many months.
The Grateful Dead to me was the gateway to making beautiful music immersed in intoxicated consciousness. This is the highest point I have had experimentally with music and fortunately for my brain was short lived and opened me to the idea that it was going to be music for me hereafter and not grad school.
John Scofield. I'm still intrigued and addicted to the sounds he makes. He's perhaps the only musician whose
music I have absorbed at such depth and yet have only heard a fraction of what he has put out to date.
Can you tell us about some of the Jazz based musicians or groups in India that we should be listening to? Share a little for those who might not know.
Amit Heri's compositions are my favourite among Indian jazz composers. Mumbai based Sudanese pianist Karim Ellaboudi is a treat to listen to. Guitarist Sanjay Divecha 's album 'Full Circle'.
What can we look forward to hearing in your own work and projects in the next year or so?
My album should be out in a coupla months. I've been lucky to have collaborated with Mishko M'ba, Matt Littlewood, Holger Jetter and Suresh Bascara to put this album out. It's got tunes in different styles from big band to slow rock to smooth jazz.
I am working steadily to create a body of original jazz tunes written more as an exercise but they're turning out surprisingly well. Matt's on board this project as well as on a third with the Temple Rock Trio, a reinterpretation of traditional Carnatic Classical music supported by acoustic guitar and saxophone played in a variety of styles from funk to rock to West African.
I'm collaborating with bass player Mishko M'ba to write and perform songs for bass and guitar. We recently toured North India. We're called Stringly Yours.
Being a musician is not just about playing and performing. Can you tell us about some of the things that interest you outside music?
Food. I love to eat perhaps more than anything else. So that drives me to cook for in India finding a restaurant that serves healthy and tasty food without ripping you off is difficult, to put it mildly.
Riding. I ride a Bullet. I've ridden smoother, faster more efficient bikes in India, but a classic cast iron engine driven Bullet still offers the most pleasurable ride among what's available here right now. Apart from being my primary mode of transport right now, enjoying the ride adds hugely to the quality of life. Needless to say I take it out now and then on long rides and get to see the country around where I live.
Tennis. I play to enjoy chasing the sweet spot. I don't care much for competitive sport. I have a tennis partner who's happy to rally and enjoy quality hitting. It keeps my hand-eye coordination supple and responsive and is good for my music which in performance demands much of that.
Film. The most attractive and compelling alternate reality there is. The last coupla years have seen technology and art come together like never before.
