Mumbai-based artists Darshan Doshi, one of the foremost musicians from the drumming scene, Rhythm Shaw, the renowned guitarist, along with the versatile Avishek Dey on Bass, all joined forces to form the Darshan Doshi Trio and released their debut album ‘Live on Tour 2021’, an album that has been recorded during a 6 city tour in October 2021. Two vocal tracks in the album feature the stellar vocalists Vasundhara Vee & Varijashree Venugopal. Fans have been patiently waiting for this release and nonetheless the band’s debut performance foretells its majestic grandeur, way ahead of time!
Yash Warrier | Founder, BeatCurry
Madhulika Gupta | Content, BeatCurry Team
THE FINESSE OF FUSION
Before talking about the guest appearances, the team of Rhythm Shaw, Avishek Dey and Darshan Doshi attested the level of comfort and camaraderie amongst themselves with each musical they presented. Starting with their solo performances in ‘Triple Threat’, ‘Four for One’, ‘The Shadow’, ‘Night in Tunisia’ and ‘Insrhy Master’ the sheer musical diversity we find throughout these five songs is unconventional. It’s a testament to the talent the musicians have with their sensibilities at its zenith.
The trio surprised their fans with two unthinkable collaborations. The album starts off with the powerful singer from Bangalore, Varijashree Venugopal, singing ‘Bandish Blues.’ You talk about exemplary innovations of a murki and the tehrav in ragas of a classical singer and we can picture Varijashree Venugopal with her prodigious vocals mesmerizing her audience. The album also featured the virtuoso soul, RnB and Jazz singer Vasundhara Vee, where they performed a rearrangement of her single, RUN.
Courtesy: Picture Courtesy of the Darshan Doshi Trio
Starting from ‘Triple threat’, we witness Rhythm Shaw’s expertise. The vibe that the trio inculcates for their listeners through the testing times brings hope and a charge from within. ‘Four For One’ is yet another song that transports to the ecstasy of life and the positive energy left in it. It succeeds in embedding rock concert goers with a comparable rock vigor, every bit of it explaining the glaring genius of Avishek and his control over the strings. ‘The Shadow’ is the trio’s balmy rendition with the unique and rich coating of Jazz and Blues. Avishek and Rhythm in their blissful element, Darshan’s addition is truly exotic and binds the team together.
The delicious fusion will compel you to bop your head, taking you into their exhilarating space of radiance. ‘A Night in Tunisia’ is probably one of the most complex yet overwhelming compositions out of the lot. It takes the listeners on a turbulent jazzy ride full of upheavals, embellishing the album with this work of art. Subsequently, ‘Insrhy Master’ offers the ideal relaxing Bass tones, emphasizing on every chord changes enabling listeners to feel the connection. The album is the exemplification of a mutual passion to bring Jazz-Rock Fusion to the audience. The Darshan Doshi Trio is proudly one of the flag bearers of this movement.
Listen to ‘Live On Tour 2021’ on Spotify here:
BeatCurry had the opportunity to have an exclusive talk with the artists who were part of the release.
To think that such a voice rooted and in the realm of classical music would feature with a band famous for their rock tonality, is not just surprising but also invigorating. Talking about her fascination for western music and collaborating with the DDT trio, Varijashree said:
I come from a classical music background. Both my parents are classical musicians, and my core training is in Carnatic music. At the time I was in school, we were introduced to the world of the internet. Once we were able to discover the other side of the world, I started exploring and opening my ears to various types of music from the west. So I would develop a fascination towards notating the swaras and understanding the music. So that exercise has always been there since I was about 4, when I just started writing and understanding Indian notation. So that has just been continuing until today.
Courtesy: Picture Courtesy of the Darshan Doshi Trio
Something that started for me as an exercise is now more of a cultural confluence of two different music cultures or styles or thoughts trying to make that a very meaningful concoction. That’s always been my quest, of course, of holding onto my roots always. This has led to many collaborations, like with our own fantastic musicians, like from India and the other artists from other countries who are not that exposed to Indian classical music. So that’s made things very exciting for me to give, take, learn and share. With the Trio, I feel all three of them are the best at what they do. I was actually very excited to listen to all the other pieces that they were performing. As much as I enjoyed performing with them, I also enjoyed listening to their other pieces, standards and compositions from the Jazz arena. Of course performing with them was exciting and energetic as always and it’s always been a joy to play with them.
Vasundhara Vee is one of the only hand-picked jazz/soul singers associated with resuscitation of soul, Jazz into performances creating a special place among the newer generation. Featured as a guest artist in the album, she performed her latest single ‘Run’. Here’s what Vasundhara said:
Before anything, it’s a great honour that Darshan wanted to reimagine RUN and infuse his aesthetic into it. There’s no greater compliment than when musicians want to make a version of your song. RUN is significant for me since it’s my solo debut and it’s a sound that Dhruv Ghanekar crafted for me. For 2 years it lived as a RnB Pop tune and then I walked into the rehearsal studio and it was a full blown rock tune!
Courtesy: Picture Courtesy of the Darshan Doshi Trio
This particular show was also the first time I got to sing ‘RUN’ live and it was fun and also a little overwhelming emotionally. The sound on stage was so thick you could cut it with a knife. And the audience was grooving through the show. Darshan is one of the greats in our country and his choice to also exist as an independent musician inspires thousands of people. Darshan, Ridu (Rhythm Shaw), Avi (Avishek Dey) have brought back this fiery Jazz-Rock Fusion music, one hardly gets to hear this caliber of musicianship and I know everytime people hear it, they have hunger for more. Nothing is better when the players are bomb!
Taking us though the journey of ideation, curating the DDT Tour 2021, the LIVE experience and the release, Darshan said:
Being a musician working in the film music space for years, I was missing out on playing the music that I loved, something very close to my heart, due to the happenings in the last two years. Sometime during September, I was hearing positive news about the scene gradually opening up. So I was like, man, this is my time to make sure that a tour happens. I knew it was a bit risky right now, but I want to take that chance to make sure that I’m able to play this music in front of people.
I called up a couple of friends, a couple of club owners. I checked up on all the backlining and gears at the venues, and they were supportive to understand our plan and provided us with all that we needed. We were fortunate to have Furtados to come on board and help us as a gear partner. It was an amazing experience. The response I got from the audience was exceptional. I got to play the music that I wanted with the band that loves playing this music. I didn’t expect so many people to turn up and it was really good.
THE LIVE VS. VIRTUAL TAKE
The kind of energy that we receive at a concert with 10,000 people in front of us, even 150 people who really love your music, is something you can never compare. That’s another level of energy. The kind of response that we got, along with all the guest artists, with the crowd with its energy, it completely takes the performance to the next level. The same thing in the studio might be around 80% the energy, but that little extracted energy and some things that you react to in front of the crowd on stage at that moment cannot be replicated in the studio. And the best part is that when you have a crowd that knows your music inside out, the experience to perform goes to another level altogether. It was a little hectic, but at the end of the day, it was all worth it.
Courtesy: Picture Courtesy of the Darshan Doshi Trio
SUPPORT FOR THE SCENE
The best part about us is that we always want to keep learning. We’re never like, okay, we are doing good etc. It will never happen. I think for all three of us, I can say that we are trying to explore different ideas, especially with Rhythm. Whenever I meet him, even if we are on a drive going somewhere, we’re always listening to new music and artists. We try to inspire each other, try to have a very positive frame of mind saying that, okay, whatever we’ve been doing commercially, that is there. But this is the music I feel that we are here to do. I think as musicians at this level, it’s my duty to keep pushing this genre of Jazz-Rock Fusion, where the next generation musicians and the people at large connect with it. We really want more clubs, companies, and people in the scene to support this genre.
Expressing his passion for Jazz-Rock Fusion through the album, Rhythm Shaw said:
Jazz-Rock Fusion music is something we really like listening, playing and discussing. It will never die, to be honest. You really have to love it in order to do it. I am sure there are lots of people who love and do it for passion. It doesn’t have a huge market, it has a niche audience. I don’t know if at all this genre would get billions of views, but I love, appreciate and enjoy this space. This genre of music is a combination of Rock, Fusion and Jazz elements. The approach I think is more on the rock because there is some heavy stuff in terms of sound using distortion.
Courtesy: Picture Courtesy of the Darshan Doshi Trio
The jazz element is actually the vocabulary we are using musically in the playing with modal changes with some time signature change with the whole attitude of what we want to play and or rather what we want to sound like. The fusion element is basically fusing these two genres, but then again songs like Bandish Blues is something we can call fusion because it has a lot of Carnatic influence as Varijashree was adept with this genre. So I think that’s something we are trying to fuse and explore.
Trio bassist Avishek Dey shared:
Courtesy: Picture Courtesy of the Darshan Doshi Trio
I always reflect my compositional ideas into the music that I’m playing, so that it becomes unique and it reflects my passion for it. It was my honor to perform with such talents from our country.
Listen to ‘Live On Tour 2021’ on Spotify here:
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