The sixth edition of The Park's New Festival opened in Chennai on August 29 with a sit-down concert helmed by Shankar Tucker and his group. An American clarinettist and composer, Shankar uses his understanding and appreciation of Western classical music, jazz and the Hindustani classical form to re-arrange and create a sound that has earned him a huge fan base in the virtual world. His online channel, The Shruthi Box, a storehouse of intelligent creations, is an indicator of an imaginative mind with attention to detail. As part of the six-city tour of the Park's New Festival, Shankar Tucker & Troupe will play at the Blue Frog in Mumbai on September 09, 2012. Click here to find out more. Akhila Khrishnamurthy speaks to Shankar Tucker.
Akhila Krishnamurthy (AK): You are opening The Park's New Festival across India. How do you feel?
Shankar Tucker (ST): It's very exciting. What began as an informal jamming of sorts with a group of artistes has evolved into an ensemble with a brand new line of material.
AK: Do you enjoy the buzz of a live concert?
ST: Being on stage is like being in an altogether new and different space, or world, so to say. It has its own set of challenges.
AK: How do you curate a live concert?
ST: Honestly, I haven't done a show that is a representation of my online channel. A live performance, speaking specifically of the material that we are presenting at the Park's New Festival, is a combination of the things I've created online along with work that my co-artistes have developed. Basically, I'm arranging and composing. So it's a challenge to replicate all of that in a live performance.
AK: What is the core of your performances at the Park's New Festival?
ST: Almost all the music we are presenting is set against the backdrop of Hindustani classical music. We have added our own touches and improvisations to existing repertoire from this genre and have simultaneously created original material inspired by Hindustani classical music.
AK: In the process, is classical music becoming more accessible to a younger audience?
ST: Well, I'm not on a mission to do that but you can say that's one of the outcomes of what I'm doing.
AK: Improvisation is the core of your music. How do you recognize tracks/tunes/ragas that you'd like to improvise?
ST: There isn't any fixed pattern. I just pick something that I find has a good groove and a musical situation that seems inspiring and fun to work with. For instance, there's an instrumental piece that I've composed called Night Monsoon that's touring the cities at the Park's New Festival. We started doing the piece in a certain way but over rehearsal sessions and a concert or two, it has evolved a great deal. We've added a new section at the beginning and it sounds interesting.
AK: How do you select the artistes you'd like to collaborate with?
ST: For recordings, I work a lot with vocalists who either sing a particular genre or can straddle different styles with ease. In a live performance, I usually like to work with people I share a wavelength with and who I think are talented and intuitive, and most importantly, who are willing to give their time and effort for rehearsals.
AK: Is that how this ensemble was formed?
ST: You can say that. I've known these artistes for a while now. I met them while I was spending time learning Hindustani music with Shri Hariprasad Chaurasiya in Mumbai. Nirali (Karthik) is a Hindustani musician and we started meeting and jamming once or twice a week. Amit (on tabla) also joined us. It also helped that Karthik, Nirali's husband, is an excellent guitarist and programmer. Together, we decided to pool our talents. I'd say, right now, we are all meeting in the middle.
AK: On your own, you juggle many roles; arranger, composer, clarinettist. Is it tough?
ST: Yes, sometimes it gets confusing. It's weird how I do it all but I focus on doing what I can to ensure that the final product is great.
AK: How would you describe your brand of music? Fusion?
ST: Honestly, I'm not thinking of it as a genre. My purpose really is to pay careful attention to the arrangement specifications of what's going on in the various sounds that create the music.
AK: What is it about Indian classical music that fascinates you?
ST: I was seriously into jazz while in college but as a clarinet player, I was limited by it. I was always struggling to keep my volume within a jazz ensemble. I wanted to find a suitable road where I could use my grounding in Western classical music and jazz to improvise and create new sounds. I remember listening to Hariprasad Chaurasiya and I was amazed at how he could interestingly and intelligently improvise a track or a raga for a whole hour. That really got me thinking.
AK: Have you also worked with Carnatic music?
ST: I think Carnatic music is really more about the repertoire. I find it relatively easier to work with it than I do with Hindustani music, for instance.
AK: Does the fact that you have a sound understanding of a classical form help your journey in freely improvising with others?
ST: Absolutely. It's not difficult to cross over from one to another if you know and understand one form really well. With each form that I learn, I feel that my understanding of another genre becomes a lot easy.
AK: Do you have any role-models in India?
ST: Well, I'd say Shankar Mahadevan. I love the way he straddles so many different forms with finesse.
AK: You've been spending a lot of time in Chennai, right?
ST: I've been in Chennai for the last six months because I've been creating music for an independent Tamil film.
Akhila Krishnamurthy is a freelance writer based in Chennai. She writes extensively on the arts - music, dance, theatre, in that order - and the people who make the arts happen.
Akhila Krishnamurthy (AK): You are opening The Park's New Festival across India. How do you feel?
