Gig A Bite

Soumik Datta

I vividly remember five shows from 12 back-to-back nights of gigging recently. No, the sub-zero temperature and unfamiliar time zone in Glasgow, where I attended the annual Celtic Connections festival, can’t take blame for this frozen, selective memory. Few gigs create magic that inevitably raises the bar for the rest of the festival lineup and hopefully, stays with you. London-based sarod player Soumik Datta’s set with beatboxer Jason Singh and vocalist Fiona Bevan was one such performance. It was only my second night at the festival. The mood was that of a family Christmas gathering, a really large one at that ”“ glasses went around for a frequent refill of wine or beer, spells of laughter and all around cheer when bagpiper Ross Ainslie dressed as a chef, walked onto the stage with a plate of haggis, a traditional Scottish pudding stuffed and served in a sheep’s stomach. The Scots were celebrating their favorite poet Robert Burns’ birthday and no supper in honor of Burns is complete without haggis. The place was the Old Fruit Market ”“ a 1960s era fruit market in the heart of Glasgow’s Merchant City that had been turned into a concert venue that easily packs in over a 1,000-member audience.

Datta’s set was the closing act for the evening and was fire from the word go. In form, Datta’s sarod may have been a classical instrument, but the sound was all rock. The 28-year-old artist plays his electric sarod like he would a mean Stratocaster. The riffs are richer than those produced by a guitar and Datta even inspired a bunch of festivalgoers to line up in front of the stage and dance. The classical instrument was driving a high BPM dance, but not without some help. Singh’s beatboxing was also nothing like we’d heard before ”“ one moment, there were desert kites screeching as the sounds of a sand storm approached and the next, there was a chopper taking off from the terrace of a skyscraper [think The Matrix]. If you missed vocals [ I didn’t], there was the lush-voiced Bevan, who has been lapping up praise in the UK.

Towards the end of the show, Datta managed to impress us some more with a toast to India’s national poet ”“ Rabindranath Tagore ”“ and launched into his own version of “Where The Mind Is Without Fear.” I was convinced that if Datta played to school kids in India, we’d have more takers for the sarod.

I regret missing out Datta’s tour with Circle of Sound, his collaborative project with Austrian drummer Bernhard Schimpelsberger, which included a gig in Mumbai. I don’t intend missing his show today and I highly recommend you don’t either.

Soumik Datta performs at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival as part of Folk Nations on February 8th, 8.10pm at Cross Maidan. Entry: Free. Go here  for the full music schedule at KGAF.