PART 4 ( also read : Part 3 | Part 2 | Part 1)

The Different Roles of the PROFESSIONAL Musician in India

The work opportunities for the professional musician in India are manifold and vary greatly with the different kinds of music and languages involved. Also there is the live work and then the recording kind. Briefly they can be divided in the following manner:

Classical : The Indian Classical concert is quite active in the "season" which is the winter months and there are numerous festivals held all over the country. Also all year round, small concerts are held in the metros and sometimes in the homes of the rich gentry who are known to patronise this art form. In the old days, this art was kept alive by the Maharajas of those days as it is definitely not the music for the masses. The industrialist of today has replaced the royalty and it continues to flourish both in India and abroad. The west has been greatly enamoured by the mystic of Indian Music along with all the other traditional Indian spiritual arts like yoga etc. The World Music scene has also seen a renewed interest in Indian Music and we witness numerous collaborations between Western and Indian Classical Artistes. There is tremendous opportunity for the adventurous but also a lot of hard work! Also, like almost every artistic activity in India, there is a lot of work for the few who are on the top! The rest have to share a minuscule amount of work which really makes their life difficult. Unfortunately it is as important to be in fashion as to be talented and this is true of even this pure art form. And the Indian herd mentality makes things worse whereby there are very few opportunities for new artistes and thus exploitation and frustration. Organisations like SPIC-Macay are working hard to bring Indian Classical Music to the masses and this has greatly helped the plight of these budding virtuosos whose talent would otherwise have been left unexposed. All major recording companies have recorded the major stars of the Indian Classical Music extensively and although not large sellers by a long shot, they lend a "respectability" to the catalogue and will continue to sell for decades if you are lucky enough to get an inspired performance.

The Western Classical Music Scene on the other hand is almost non existent! The persistent efforts of the Parsi and Christian community have resulted in presenting to the world some of the greatest Western Classical musicians in the world. The often quoted example of Zubin Mehta is an excellent choice of the brilliance of Indian talent in this area. We also have the recent example of , the young violin maestro Robert Gupta who has astounded the music critics of the west. However the audience in India is pathetic and no Western Classical musician can hope to earn a decent living practising his art. However his talents did find an outlet surprisingly in the Hindi Film Music scene. The huge orchestras of Laxmikant Pyarelal and R. D. Burman were full of violin and brass players trained in the Western Classical mould and fortunately their talents could be used to make music, although of a different kind! The great music teachers who taught at the Trinity and Royal College of Music courses in the metros of our country have truly played an exemplary role in the development of Western Classical Music in this country. Their selfless dedication and tireless hard work have given us some great musicians who have succeeded in giving us so much joy. The armed forces too have been responsible for the development of this dying art in India, especially in the brass sections. Traditionally, we seem to having the weakest brass players due to lack of demand for their services and the Armed Forces have tried to reverse this with their own Music Training College in Madhya Pradesh where they train musicians in martial music. As is apparent, Brass is an important musical instrument there!. The lack of good musical instruments has also created a problem for aspiring musicians in this field. All in all it is not a cakewalk to succeed in these 'unusual' musical instruments. The training however in popular instruments as piano and guitar is plentiful and of good quality. This is of course true because of their use in all genres of popular music which makes it both lucrative and glamorous. All in all, the lack of an organised training institution in Indian and Western music is sourly felt as the music talent in this country is outstanding and we are just waiting in the wings to capture our place on the stages of the world. I had heard that Yamaha is interested in starting their music training division in India but have received no corporate support from like minded companies. Truly a well planned music training program of this nature would be a boon to the people of this country and I hope somebody picks up this challenge soon!

Pop : As the name goes, this is the most popular form of music in the world and includes just every type of music that exists and their combinations! In India the most popular music is Hindi Film Music and this accounts for 90% of the professional music talent in this country. The live scene of Hindi orchestras is indeed one of the busiest that I have ever seen. I had a bass player once who at times used to do four shows in a day! The whole country loves this music and there is lot of work for the good musician in concerts, restaurants, dandiya shows, weddings, award functions, college functions, club shows, private mehfils etc. It's also a great way to see the world as the expatriate Indian loves Hindi films and the music and besides the numerous "star" shows held all over the world, there are a lot of small shows held in centres all over the world. Indeed there are very few places where the Indians haven't reached yet! Besides the USA and Great Britain, the West Indies, Surinam, Netherlands, Spain, Fiji Islands( I think we can discount that out for a few years!), South Africa, Australia, New Zealand. Israel, the Middle East are popular concert centres. The Hindi recording scene is also very active. The film song and background recordings account for some of the finest Indian musician talent in the country while the version and the remix market give steady employment to the others. The Indipop market has picked up over the last few years and the Ghazal and the Qawali scene does see a few albums out every year.

The regional Non-Film sector is also booming with many superstars to their credit. The Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati and the South Indian languages are particularly active with many hits being scored over the years. Unfortunately the English Music scene has all but disappeared in India. In the sixties, the effect of the rock music invasion in the west was felt in India with the birth of so many rock musicians here. Biddu was one such known Indian personality who ruled the roost during his short reign in Bombay city. I can never forget his shows in Shanmukananda Hall and Bhulabhai Auditorium. Truly a turning point in my life! The seventies did see a spurt of interest in this music but being limited in market size all the rock/pop musicians started turning towards advertising and Hindi pop music, yours truly being no exception. Today, lot of active musicians in the Indipop scene are musicians who have had their roots in the English scene in India. Some of the names that come to mind are Euphoria Leslie Lewis, Loy Mendonsa, Ehsaan Noorani, etc;

Even A.R. Rahman and Sandeep Chowta of the mainstream Hindi Film scene have had their beginnings in Rock bands which explain their fresh and unconventional approach.

To be continued...

Nandoo Bhende : nandu@sudeepaudio.com
The author is one of the pioneers of Pop and Rock Music in India.