Drummer Man

As a part of the Delhi Classical Music Festival,the Capital witnessed a rare concert earlier this month. Santoor maestro Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma and master of the bamboo reed Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia came together for a jugalbandi after many years. As the two delved into the alaap and jod elaborations around the teevra (sharp) madhyam in Raag Yaman,one phrase melted into another. The audience was just about moving into a meditative trance when tabla player Vijay Ghate joined in,a rare element in a Hindustani classical music concerts at the jod stage (tabla players mostly join in once the main composition begins). But this wasn’t any ordinary drum playing. Ghate cajoled only the baanya (the left tabla),treating it like a bongo with a steady eight note pattern. The effect was very folkloric,not only because santoor and flute are not traditional Hindustani classical music instruments,but also because Ghate used some African rhythmic phrases.

It was just an experiment and extremely spontaneous. I did not expect it to work so well. If you try something different musically and the results are interesting,it’s a different kind of high,” says Ghate,49,whose skill on the king of drums has many senior musicians asking for him as the accompanying artiste. His vibrant presence and impeccable timing in the Capital saw the two maestros get surprised at various occasions; with the thaap,representative of various gharanas,sounding specifically like that of his guru,Suresh Talwalkar,many times.

Ghate does not dribble any musical pedigree as he comes from “a simple middle-class Jabalpur family with a basic interest in music”. It was his mother who discovered his musical inclination. “I was three and thumping the floor as my mother hummed a popular song. At first she thought it was a coincidence,so she changed the song. When I changed the beat along with her,she decided on getting me a set of baby tablas,” says Ghate.

Thus began Ghate’s journey with percussion.

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But it was a three-day concert by tabla maestro Zakir Hussain that got him hooked to the idea of playing tabla for a living. He was 13 and was enchanted by the concerts. “He is the reason I decided to take up the instrument seriously. He is also someone who has given a celebrity status to the instrument. For a long time,the tabla was just an accompanying instrument,” says Ghate,referring to older days when tabla players were made to sit behind the main performer.

At present,Ghate is one of a handful of tabla players who can accompany all three forms of classical performing arts — vocal,instrumental and dance. “I find dance to be most challenging,especially when Pt Birju Maharaj is on stage,” says Ghate. He says there is some kind of rhythm working in his head all the time,even when he is sleeping. “It’s like heartbeat now,” says Ghate.