The show goes on. After multiple concerts in Bengaluru and Goa in January, flautist Rajeev Raja and his group have a busy week lined up in Mumbai. They will first appear with Dharavi Rocks, a team of slum dwellers making music out of discarded waste material. This will be followed by three gigs paying tribute to the 1970s Indian rock band Human Bondage, along with vocalist Henry ‘Babu’ Joseph.
The show with Dharavi Rocks on February 2 is part of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. For the tribute, managed by Niloufer Rohira of Streaminlive, the Rajeev Raja Combine will be joined by Babu, part of the erstwhile Human Bondage line-up, at the BlueBop Café in Khar on February 6, followed by shows at the Bombay Gymkhana at Azad Maidan, and AntiSocial in Lower Parel on the next two days.
“Though I and my group essentially play original jazz fusion, we love to experiment and diversify when we can,” says Raja, a self-taught flautist, raised in Bengaluru and settled in Mumbai. An advertising veteran who started BrandMusiq, a sonic branding agency, he adds, “The set with Dharavi Rocks will have special tunes like Kerala Boat Song, inspired by the boat races, and an adaptation of my composition Seville, a flamenco-flavoured piece conceptualised on a family visit to Spain.”
Babu Joseph |
Raja says he has performed with Dharavi Rocks three times before. He elaborates, “They have some wonderful percussionists who play on buckets and trash cans. And they also have rappers performing in English, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam. After individual sets, we will jam together.”
According to the flautist, the Human Bondage tribute shows received a fabulous response in Bengaluru and Goa, specially among those who had grown up on the band. The group’s 1970s line-up included drummer Ramesh Shotham on drums, his brother Suresh Shotham on guitar, Babu and Radha Thomas on vocals, and Xerxes Gobhai on bass.
By the time he began playing the flute, Raja recalls that the members of Human Bondage had gone their own ways. “Ramesh moved to Germany and Suresh and Radha headed to New York. However, Babu stayed back in Bengaluru, where besides singing he played the flute.” he recalls.
Interestingly, Raja may have well made it to the Karnataka cricket team as a batter, hadn’t an injury come in the way. He switched to learning the blues harp, and eventually got hold of a two-rupee bamboo flute. Wanting to learn the western style of metal flute, hugely inspired by Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, he picked up a Chinese make and became part of jazz band Imbroglio. He also took special tips from Babu. He says, “He would mentor me and give me a chance to play at gigs they did at Hotel Bangalore International.”
Babu later moved to Spain. When Rajeev visited Australia last year, he met Bengaluru guitarist Paul Santiago. He says, “We talked of Babu and how he was still active on the live scene, and the idea of bringing him down for a few shows came up. One thing led to another and this whole three-city tour came into being.”
Besides Raja on flute, the Combine features guitarist Hitesh Dhutia, bassist John Thirumalai and drummer Adian D’Souza, with Paul Santiago guesting on guitars. Ramesh Shotham and Radha Thomas made special appearances in Bengaluru. The show at AntiSocial on February 8 will be opened by guitarist Adil Manuel’s Collective, featuring vocalist Kanchan Daniel.
Raja has, of course, done rock and blues covers often with the Mumbai group Wanted Yesterday, featuring vocalist Subhash Kamath. He says, “Besides the nostalgia of going back into songs I grew up on, these songs are challenging for me as most of them don’t have the flute. So I have to add a new dimension. Of course, I will be doing flute songs like Jethro Tull’s Bouree and Locomotive Breath too.”
The covers include the Rolling Stones’ Dead Flowers, the Beatles’ She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, Cream’s Born Under A Bad Sign, the Doors’ Light My Fire, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary and Eric Clapton’s Layla. “We shall also pay tribute to Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, who passed away recently, by playing Bertha,” says Raja.
Once these shows are over, the flautist plans to concentrate on the next album. The Rajeev Raja Combine had released the album Cosmic Chant in 2013, and has since added many songs to its live repertoire. Raja points out that the new album will contain a lot of these newer pieces. “The core band will be the same, but I may call in some guest musicians too. I want to make this a world music album,” he says. While balancing his flute-playing with sonic branding work, Raja keeps himself constantly busy. And he loves it.
