Fusion Fare

Blues and Indian classical music have been fused together by many before.

Blues and Indian classical music have been fused together by many before. But when Salil Bhatt,son of the Grammy winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt began to jam with Canadian star guitarist Doug Cox half a decade back,they knew that their music was good enough to get out of the practice room and into the recording studio. The result was an album Slide to Freedom that won them a Juno this year,making Bhatt the first Indian ever to get an award known more as the Canadian Grammy.

The collaboration just seemed to work so spontaneously, says Bhatt,39,who has now roped in Fijian tabla player Cassious Khan to perform at the famous Chicago International World Music Festival and other music festivals in Seattle,Portland and Vancouver.

I met Doug at a concert. Later he invited me to perform in Vancouver. He was familiar with Indian classical music,especially my repertoire,which made the collaboration easier. He is an extremely precise multi-instrumentalist and understands the nuances of Indian classical music and the intricacies involved with my instrument Satvik veena a hybrid slide guitar which is different from many other Indian string instruments, says Bhatt about Cox,who is also known for playing the Dobro-a resonator guitar.Bhatt calls the music produced by the trio,a mishmash of blues,reggae,jazz,funk,American country folk and Indian classical music. With so many styles coming together,the effort is to make some great music by innovations and not noise, he says. The trio will be performing in the company of some big names like Zakir Hussain at the Chicago festival.

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