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 Folk
music is here to stay. This has become increasingly evident
in Kolkata with the number of folk based bands coming up, as
well as the swelling crowd of lovers of this genre. After
all, the sound of the soil has its own way of pulling at the
heartstrings.
But newly formed band Brahma, say fans, is a cut above the
rest. There is a lot of authenticity in it and the Western
music strains merely go to emphasise their music as being a
part of the World music tradition. This six-member band
presented their first show on Augsut 23, 2007 and was
overwhelmed by the response.
Sanjay Bhattacharya, the frontman, lead guitarist and the
music composer-arranger had always wanted to make music
based on the age-old Baul tradition. The reason stems from
his upbringing. As a child, he visited Baul concerts and
kirtans with his mother, which was very popular in the area
he grew up. Guitar attracted him and once he had mastered
it, specifically the jazz and blues, along with some friends
he founded pop Bangla band Cactus in '93. Sanjay, however,
bowed out of the band because he felt, "Cactus did not want
to grow musically and I felt I was stagnating."
The concept of Brahma crystallised at the same time Sanjay
married vocalist Malabika in 2002. Malabika is the only
vocalist in the band, as she is trained in Indian classical
music. She took to Western music while in college and then
surprisingly and smoothly, changed to folk when Sanjay asked
her to try out the genre. The two then took off on an
educational tour, scouring the Bengal countryside and
learning from Indian folk traditions. Thinking of a name for
the band was easy. Malabika's maiden name was put to use. |
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Sound & Lights |
4 cordless, 12 Mike, Mixer, Dat, CD, Lights as per Setup
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