I render my apologies for being away for so long without any communication. I had actually not planned that I will not write. It’s just that sometimes you don’t do much in life which is worth writing. But surely this weekend I experienced something which is as much worth writing as it is worth knowing. Here I introduce beatboxing to the uninitiated.
As defined by the World Beatboxing Community, beatboxing is the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one’s mouth, lips, tongue, voice, nasal passage and throat. As per me, I think it is the coolest form of music one can hear. Without using any musical instruments a beatboxer creates different musical sounds. Enthralling – isn’t it?
The concert that I saw at Queen Elizabeth Hall of Southbank Centre, London was called “Music Through Unconventional Means”. The world-renowned beatboxer Shlomo collaborated with Gauri Sharma Tripathi, an exponent in Indian classical dance form of Kathak. Having learnt Kathak as a kid, I always wondered if the way I was taught Kathak is the only way Kathak can be. But seeing this performance of Gauri Sharma changed my opinion. She concentrated on sounds more than bols (or words); she concentrated more on the rhythms in the movements than choreography. I realised one can experiment with everything as long as one is honest in the experimentation.
I quite liked the idea of merging beatboxing with Kathak. Both forms of producing music are based on rhythms.
The collaboration did not end here. Shlomo brought on-stage an acclaimed British Tamil musician Susheela Raman. Even though she sang in Tamil, of which I understood not a single word, but who needs words when the whole ambience is taken over by the might of music. The sounds were reaching the ears with emotions that meant so much; one was free to interpret it the way one wanted. Music is a language in its own right.
I experienced enchanting music full of creative imagination. Attending such concerts gives an opportunity to listen to very good music, to experience the magic created due to synergies of different music forms, to appreciate the extent of man’s creative imagination and to wonder about the capabilities of human faculties.
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