Fusion of a melodically successful kind was at play at the Dorothy Winston theatre at the much-awaited Mumbai Unplugged show in Auckland on Saturday, August 20. The audience's exhilaration was clearly evident with repeated and long rounds of applause at the virtuosity of the music masters from Mumbai.
A full house heralded the overture of traditional Indian music, with Taufiq Qureshi who is rightly hailed as a daringly creative percussionist, exploring novel sounds and rhythms and Purbayan Chatterjee working his magic on sitar. The celebrated duo was joined by Auckland's own Ben Fernandez on keyboards, Manjit Singh on tabla and Jo Shum on bass.
Rich, plangent and infinitely melodic, Chatterjee's rendering provided a beautiful illustration of the instrument's potential. Close your eyes and it could play either way, as an independent epic of notes, or even as a single instrument providing comprehensive background music to the gamut of moods in your mind. Chatterjee would go on to delight the audience with his sitar doffing a roving hat to everything from the famous 007 Bond music to popular numbers from Mumbai's Tinseltown.
Qureshi focused on the African djembe along with a conventional drum kit. He displayed his incredible virtuosity holding the audience spellbound with his sheer wizardry and mastery over rhythm. He reprised his famous simulation of a train's sonic rhythm and then ditched tangible instruments altogether to rely exclusively on his own throat and mouth to produce vocal beats-'n'-tunes that remind us how creativity can synthesise everything from nothing.
Qureshi, the youngest son of tabla doyen Ustad Alla Rakha and brother of the legend Ustad Zakir Hussain, has introduced many innovations on the Indian musical stage, one of them being bringing the djembe as an accompaniment on the concert stage. The successful transition of the traditional African from Africa to the classical stage in India was evident at Mumbai Unplugged.
Peppering the concert with their one-liners, the artistes commanded the audience's attention throughout the show. Qureshi liberally sprinkled verbal cymbal-clashes, remarking towards the show's coda that the audience, which might seek a restaurant supper afterwards, might not have much luck considering New Zealand's habit of closing shop earlier in the evening. The audience was quick to chuckle in agreement.
Mumbai Unplugged clearly exceeded the expectations of the audience with their presentation of about a dozen melodies. Many who attended posted superlative reactions on the concert's social media pages. Several said it was the "best concert they had attended" in a long time. At the concert itself, many shouted for the show to carry on after the concluding piece.
Earlier Qureshi and Chatterjee spent three weeks workshopping with students of the University of Auckland School of Music. Mumbai Unplugged was hosted by the Mohan Nadkarni Foundation in association with Might-I supported by the University of Auckland School of Music.