Internationally-acclaimed musicians Utsav lal and Sam Comerford will conclude their Indian tour organised by the Irish Embassy tomorrow. They spoke to Karan Bhardwaj about the blend of Indian and Irish musical traditions
Utsav lal
How did you think of this fusionIJ
We started off playing jazz together but a few years back started the Ragas to Reels project. At the start, we only focussed on doing a surprise for a solo concert I was doing in Dublin. That was a lot of fun so we decided to try and expand the concept. The music progressed since the first attempt. Earlier we were juxtaposing the two styles side by side or switching erratically between the two but now we’re trying to focus on blending them on a higher level and writing new material inspired by our influences. Improvisation is a huge part of the set. Since both of us play a lot of jazz and love improvising, we’ve tried to keep that at the forefront of the arrangements. Indian classical music has a huge emphasis on improvisations and Sam has been working hard learning the nuances of the chosen ragas. The music will be a confluence of Irish traditional music and Indian classical music. While they both seem like they’re world apart, they actually share quite a lot in common. Both are modal, oral traditions and feature slow emotion-drenched melodies and fast exciting climaxes.
What do you make of Sam’s musicIJ
I love celtic music as I’ve been studying it for a while in Scotland. Sam is a sensitive and musical player and I really like his take on the traditional tunes.
Indian youth is fascinated with EDM and rap. What inspired you to learn classical Indian musicIJ
My fascination for the piano came early and way before my foray into Indian classical music. In the initial years while I played both Western classical and Indian film music on the piano, it was strong classical-based Indian film compositions by Naushad, Shankar-Jaikishen that first introduced me to the challenge of playing Indian classical music on the piano. As I got deeper into it, the power and challenge of the music completely overwhelmed me. This coupled with the fact that there were loads of Western classical piano records available, but nothing for Indian classical piano made me explore this path.
Tell us about the inspiration of your music.
Irish fiddle players like Martin Hayes and Caoimhain O’raghalag were a huge inspiration. Another wonderful Irish fiddle player Tommy Potts influenced me as well since he’s really unique in the very free and raw manner that he plays in. From the Indian side, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Ustad Shujaat Khan were a big influence. I’m a big dhrupad fan and learn from Ustad Wasiffudin Dagar.
How much liberty do you take with ragasIJ
In a solo Indian classical recital I try to be as true to the ragas and as strict as possible in my rendition in order to retain the purity of the raga and the sanctity of the recital. Playing and learning the ragas on the piano will be a work in progress for most of my life and it will be a continuos evolution. In this tour we have been more relaxed because of the focus of finding a confluence point between Indian and Irish music. Sam has been working hard to learn how to improvise with the ragas but in this sort of a collaboration we do stretch the limits to incorporate smooth transitions between the two styles.
Tell us about learning Western music and piano abroad and home during the formative years.
My initial piano training in India was a combination of learning to play Indian film compositions by ear and also undergo formal Western classical training at the Delhi School of Music. Most of my formative years training was performance-oriented and did not encompass much of sight reading of music. It was after I moved to Dublin and trained under Irish concert pianist Padhraic O’cunneagain that suddenly several doors opened up in terms of exposure to Western classical music, composers, competitions, masterclasses and high quality instruments. I felt if I was going to play the piano, I should learn how to play it with the proper technique that’s been developed over hundreds of years. That training gave me a solid technical grounding and also taught me a lot about the piano as an instrument, its various subtleties and the huge variety of styles that can be played on it. I wanted to study jazz because it was another form of music that was steeped in improvisation.
What is the piano scene in IndiaIJ What are the limitationsIJ
In the past few years, I can note a huge upsurge of interest in the piano especially amongst the youth. The most apparent limitation is the accessibility and availability of an acoustic piano in smaller towns of India. So many places do not have even an acoustic upright piano leave alone a grand piano. Also, one of the biggest limitation in our country is the shortage of good piano tuners.
Sam Comerford
Share your experiences of playing for the Indian audience.
Indian audience have been great so far. There have also been a few Irish people in the audience. It’s interesting to hear how the Irish audience perceives Hindustani classical music and to hear how Indian classical musicians perceive Irish music.
What do you make of Indian musicIJ
I’m most familiar with Hindustani classical music and I love it. It’s endless in depth and as an improviser, playing a raga is a fascinating discipline. I don’t know Bollywood and pop music well. I like the sound of the old Bollywood from the 60s quite a lot. We’re playing one of those pieces in the concert as they are quite a favourite of Utsav and he has introduced me to some of them.
Tell us about the inspiration of your music.
First of all, I find all kinds of music inspiring. Traditional, jazz, folk, rock, classical, free improvisation, noise, anything! But in this concert, the Irish music we will be playing is mostly traditional. I went back to listen to old Irish flute players from the 30s like John McKenna and got very interested in Tommie Potts, who plays Irish music and makes it sound improvised on the spot. We’re also playing some music by or associated with Caoimhín O’ Raghallaigh, a great contemporary Irish musician who does wonderful things.
In short, I’m playing music that represents my favourite Irish music from throughout the years. We also wrote some sections that attempt to integrate Irish and Indian music in an organic way.
How and when did you start learning instrumentsIJ
I played flute and whistle from the age of nine and saxophone from 15. With Irish music I was sent to lessons and then started to enjoy it. Saxophone came about when I was bored with what I was doing in Irish music. I was curious about improvisation and jazz.
What are the Indian instruments that you collaborate withIJ
In the concert the instrumentation is traditional Irish flute, piano and tabla. On one piece I play tenor saxophone. It’s a great format because it allows for great interaction and the instruments have clearly defined yet versatile roles. I’d love to continue this concept with more musicians. There’s so many possibilities! Utsav and I agree that the first thing we would add would be a traditional Irish fiddle player. It’s such a versatile instrument. I’d love to explore using bodhrán, the Irish frame drum (similar to an Indian duf), in combination with tabla. Shennai would be an interesting contrast to the uilleann pipes, which are an Irish bagpipe with double reeds. Irish concertina with harmoniumIJ Or bansuri, sitar, surbahar...there’s really too many possibilities!
What’s the scene of music in Ireland likeIJ
The music scene in Ireland is small but vibrant. There’s wonderful things happening and everyone knows everyone else. In traditional music, two of my favourite groups are Ensemble Éiru and The Gloaming. The Irish audience is enthusiastic and great listeners.