United Beats

“The beauty of fusion is in keeping the originality of each element and genre intact and creating perfect harmony,” says Lockette,who will be playing along with 24 percussionists from Rajasthan on the inaugural day of ‘Celebrate Basant’,a five-day festival of arts and craft by Sanatkada and Mahindra at Baradari,on Friday evening. Lockett,who has tried his hands on drums from all parts of the world,approached the Jaipur Virasat Festival organisers in February 2010 and they took him to Pabusar village in the Shekhawat region north of Jaipur. He wanted to dabble with something different from the typical sarangi-surnai music of western Rajasthan and was fascinated by the lesser known chang,bhapang,derun and matte,all of which instruments of percussion he found making the right noise. “These were villagers just 5 km away from each other,yet unfamiliar with their respective arts,” says Lockett,who presented his arrangement at the recently concluded Jaipur fest. “Such events and collaboration of artistes from diverse backgrounds create a secular platform to help sustain arts in harmony,” says Divya Bhatia,who has been holding the Jaipur Festival since 2003, and is in Lucknow too.