March 30th, 2007 by binyas

Fusion at “JAZZ GARDEN” Pune…..

They met only about 10 times before they shocked the audience with their talents!!!!! Believe it or not. But that’s the fact. They guys from local outfit ’strange brew’ & vercitiled flautist “Bapu Padmanabha” from Karnataka on flute. And not to forget Uday Deshpande on Tabla had an amazing night at Jazz Garden. An ideal line up to play fusion music…they played a gig in Karnataka where they had a great response from the crowd. This led them to go for another one this time in Pune.

The show started at about 9:30, when Bapu & Uday started their run on their instruments with birthday boy Michael on keyboards – a rather quiter role than he normally is used to. hehe. After that Chris, Jakie & Sanjeev joined in after the intro. They started with either a flute was playing solo or a guitar, which was good, well not just good but awesome. Then comes an interesting part, where Jakie got a kick n provoked Uday to respond him n to start a bass-tabla jugalbandi. That really got the audience on their feet.. The response was pretty good, only the difference was that this time there were not many typical ‘I want metallica’ crowd but genuine music lovers with no age barrier.. overall a good beginning to a new musical venture. Hope they come up with something more brilliant which they will I’m sure.

Ramya …

Padmanabha Bapu, affectionately known as “Bapu” was studying tool engineering in Hospet (Karnataka). His knowledge of music was limited to the notes of harmonium taught by his grand father. He became so much obsessed with the flute that he started treating his idol Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, as his Guru in absentia. He purchased all audio cassettes of Hariji and started imitating his style, he used to practice for hours together and side by side he was continuously searching for a formal flute teacher within Karnataka.The search however brought no results because he was actually fated to become a disciple of his idol Hariji.

In August 1999, while pursuing 7th semester of his tool engineering programme, his urge brought him to Bombay. Initially he had to face disappointment of not being able to seek a meeting with Hariji and he returned to his college. Bapu was, however in no mood to give up and he was finally able to meet Panditji who admitted him to his class after the demonstration recital.

Since this trip to Bombay was without the knowledge and consent of his parents, Bapu had no money with him. He used to attend Hariji’s classes in the morning and work as a waiter (with pride) in a small restaurant, earning just enough to sustain him in Bombay. This exposure for 45 days brought a new confidence and Bapu was fully energized and charged up for a ‘break’.

Returning to his college, he received a monthly scholarship called “Panna Devi Music Scholarship” for complete one year. This was a display of a definite confidence that his guru had imposed in him. He completed the tool engineering course securing a first class in the year 2000.

For a fresh mechanical engineer, there were definite options to get employment in Karnataka, but his mind was set towards Bombay because he had a feeling that his profession, finally would be a flute player rather than a mechanical engineer. Fortunately he was offered a job in TACO(tata automotive components)in Pune. He took it as a two fold blessing, firstly Pune being the best cultural centre of India and secondly it being so close to Bombay.

While working at TACO, Bapu continued his interest in the flute and majority of his spare time was spent in perfecting his style. He performed at few social as well as cultural venues. His first major performance was at OSHO Samadhi in September 2001. This proved to be a turning point of his music career and he inclined himself to devotional and relaxing Indian classical music, he became a composer for FTII Pune, performed at major music festivals in India, and played as a part of music compositions in film industry.

By this time, his interests had fully shifted to music and he took a bold decision of leaving his job with TACO and devoting fully to music. Financially, his position also started looking up and he well realized that he had no regrets of this decision. He had local support of some friends and well wishers who encouraged him to go ahead. The results were rewarding and his first CD “VIVIDHA” was launched in Dec 2004. Since then he has launched a few more albums which have become very popular specially with the serious kind of music lovers.