Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain has won five Grammy Awards over the past three decades: 1992 (Best Global Music Album), 2009 (Best Global Music Album), and 2024 (Best Global Music Performance, Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Best Global Music Album). This week, Hussain will be opening the Udupa Music Festival in Bangalore along with sitarist Niladri Kumar. The biannual festival, now in its fifth edition, was founded by Giridhar ‘Ghatam’ Udupa, a leading exponent of the ‘ghatam’ (musical claypot).
“We started the Udupa Foundation in 2015. This is our ninth year. We used to perform across the country and organize free concerts. The biannual festival was launched in 2016,” Udupa tells World Music Central.
“Since 2001, I was dreaming of doing a festival in Bangalore. I would travel and play in different parts of the world, and thought I should bring those experiences to my favorite city, Bangalore,” he recalls.
Right from the first edition of the festival in 2016, the lineup dazzled audiences with concerts by Ustad Zakir Hussain, Niladri Kumar, Anindo Chatterjee, Trilok Gurtu, Shivamani, Mysore Nagaraj, Vidwan Mysore Manjunath, and Ronu Majumdar.
Udupa’s repertoire spans Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, jazz, flamenco, Arabic music, and European folk music. Over the decades, he has performed at prestigious venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Centre to Sydney Opera House and London’s Royal Festival Hall.
He has collaborated with musicians in the South Indian Carnatic tradition (eg. L Subramaniam, Mysore Nagaraj, Mandolin Srinivas, TM Krishna) as well as North Indian Hindustani style (eg. Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Trilok Gurtu).
Building international cultural bridges, Udupa has also performed with John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell, Hubert Laws, Ernie Watts, Airto Moreira, John Kaizan Neptune, and Lewis Pragasam.
He is very pleased and humbled by Indian music’s popularity around the world. “I have students from Brazil, South Africa, US, and other countries in Europe,” he proudly says.
Udupa has also co-founded Carnatic world music band Layatharanga, flamenco fusion band Indialucia, and Carnatic-jazz crossover European band Saagara.
He has strong views about how international collaboration and fusion should be performed. “It is not just two musicians from different traditions coming together on one stage to play,” he observes.
Each musician needs to understand the roots of other genres of music. “For example, I have showcased flamenco music in my band called Indialucia, based in Poland. I have learned flamenco rhythms – the idea, history and groove,” Udupa explains.
He then adopted these elements in his ghatam instrument. His fellow collaborator has also learned the Carnatic rhythm language, konnakol.
Among his international collaborations, Ghatam is particularly fond of the late great Malaysian drummer Louis Pregasam, John Kaiser Neptune, and Airto Moreira. “I have had the privilege of playing with many jazz musicians. My current partners include Miguel Czachowski, Waclaw Zimpel, and Fabrice De Graef,” he gratefully acknowledges.
All photos courtesy Udupa Music Foundation
Author: Madanmohan Rao
Madanmohan Rao is an author and media consultant from Bangalore, and global correspondent for world music and jazz for World Music Central and Jazzuality. He has written over 15 books on media, management and culture, and is research director for YourStory Media. Madan was formerly World Music Editor at Rave magazine and RJ at WorldSpace, and can be followed on Twitter at @MadanRao.