In the world's music stopovers, this duo virtually live on beats per minute.
One is a drummer from the United Kingdom and the other is a percussionist
from the heart of the United States of West Bengal! Say hello to the incomparable
Bikram Ghosh and Pete Lockett!
Frankly, this rip roaring pair needs no introduction. So animated is their musical
camaraderie, that they will go to the end of the world, if they must to shift rhythm
to an overdrive. Using every part of their body to create what they call – 'beats', is
a peak pleasure for their listening audience.
Now Pete goes for exotic-looking world instruments that speak like a linguist while
Bikram, lets his tabla do the talking. And when they jam, Fusion gets a
‘you gotta hear it, to believe it’ vibe!
A spectacular drummer, Pete says, “Definitely the deepest of all the percussion traditions!
I've looked at it and it's immense, the amount of rhythmic development there's
been over the centuries with in the Indian sub-continent, certainly more than anywhere else in the
world.
For me as a percussionist, it's just such a rich reservoir of rhythmic information.”
His partner-in-arms is the son of the illustrious tabla maestro Shankar Ghosh.
In his ten-year career, Bikram has performed with the greats of Indian classical music like – Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Amjad Ali Khan, Balamurali Krishna, Kadari Gopalnath, T N Krishnan among others.
Says the tabla maestro who played the title track of the late George Harrison's album Brainwashed, “I've always had interestingly a juxtaposition happening musically or culturally in my upbringing.
When I was in school I was part of a band called Satellites. I was
playing conga and stuff, after that I would go directly from school to Bade Ghulam Ali Khan's house. Munawar Khan Saheb, a great singer was my mother's teacher, I used to play with them to the great kayals and tumris!.
So this juxtaposition has led me to a lot of work currently
which I'm doing, which has led me also to enjoy collaborative work. It has inspired me to check out a variety of music.”
Like his venture with Pete. He agrees, “We've been doing lots of shows together, some big
shows in all the cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata. But the two
big projects that are on are – Sanef and Repercussion.
On their fantastic chemistry, Pete remarks: “Working with Bikram is really interesting, besides it is a lot of fun. It's an amazing challenge and there are lots of elements to it.
There are certain things that happen where we'll just be improvising and we'll change it at the same time into something completely different for no apparent reason! It is a very common thing when we are playing
together.”
Carry on blokes...
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