Indian composer mixes old with the new A.R. Rahman brings his
winning style and other artists to EMU
Monday, April 10, 2006
BY KEVIN RANSOM
News Special Writer
As the world keeps turning, it keeps getting smaller. Still.
Indeed, due to such varied forces as the Internet, digital
technology and continued cross-cultural pollination, more Americans
are grooving to world-music styles today than they were 10 years
ago. Or even five years ago.
One form that has burrowed into the American pop-culture
consciousness in the last couple of years is Indian music. And,
within the broader Indian-music scene, one sub-genre getting
attention is the fusion of classical Indian music with modern
rhythms.
Perhaps the most accomplished of these fusionists is A.R.
Rahman, who began his career as a writer of commercial
jingles and went on to become India's most popular composer of film
scores.
Until the last year, Rahman's biggest claim to fame was his
collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the London and Broadway
productions of "Bombay Dreams'' in 2002 and 2004, respectively.
Webber produced, Rahman composed the music.
But Rahman's profile got even higher when he struck the seeming
unlikely collaboration with the Finnish folk group Varttina to
compose the music for the $23 million, four-hour-long stage
production of "Lord of the Rings,'' which opened in Toronto on
March 23.
Rahman's unique synthesis of traditional Indian music with more
contemporary rhythms inspired Sidney Fallon, wife of Eastern
Michigan University president John Fallon III, to seek out a
meeting with Rahman during a recent trip to India. Rahman and the
Fallons had a mutual Indian acquaintance, and the three parties
began discussing ways for young Americans to learn more about
Indian culture.
They decided on a pair of benefit concerts by Rahman and fellow
Indian artists Sekar, Kalish Kher and Vasundhara Das. The first
concert will be at the EMU Convocation Center on Saturday, the
second in Dayton, Ohio on April 22.
The show, "Wake Up! A.R. Rahman with 150 All Stars,'' will bring
together Rahman's works on stage through colorful costumes and set
designs, along with Indian and American singers and dancers. Rahman
also will perform with the Global Rhythm All Stars, a group of more
than 150 American artists that have performed with numerous
Grammy-winning artists.
Joining Rahman on stage will be cellist V.R. Sekar, founder of the
Madras String Quartet; singer/actress Vasundhara Das; and
singer/actor Kailash Kher.
"I love his music,'' said Sidney Fallon. "I like that it's a
wonderful fusion, which has a basic foundation in Indian music and
then brings together a lot of different rhythms. Many of the songs
he'll perform will be in Indian languages.''
Fallon said that 70 percent of the funds raised by ticket sales
will go to the creation of an endowment for a program that will
"help our young people to gain a greater understanding of the world
by studying Indian music, and culture.''
Three filmmakers are also expected to be in town for the event,
Fallon said. Rakeysh Mehra, director of "Rang da Basanti,'' will
show the movie and talk to students, and music from the film will
be performed at the concert. Ramkumar Ganeshan also plans to meet
with students and faculty. And Swedish filmmaker Niclas Ribbarp
expects to make a documentary about the project.
In India, Rahman has come to be known as the "Mozart of Madras,''
and, according to the BBC, he's sold between 100 million and 150
million CDs.
He's also collaborated with a range of artists, from Nusrat Fateh
Ali Khan to Michael Jackson to David Byrne to Sarah
Brightman.
But Rahman started out amidst much more modest circumstances.
Following the death of his father when Rahman was just 9 years old,
he turned to music and developed his instrumental skills. Then, at
age 17, he took a job writing music for TV commercials before
leaving India to earn a degree in Western classical music from
Oxford University.
Still in his early 20s, Rahman had a fateful meeting at a party
held to celebrate an award he won for writing a TV jingle. One
reveler was Mani Ratnam, a leading Indian filmmaker. One thing led
to another, and, in 1992, at age 25, Rahman composed the score for
Ratman's film, "Roja,'' in the Tamil language. The score won
acclaim in India for its fusion of classical and modern Indian
music, and Rahman was on his way.
Rahman's next several projects were also Tamil-language films, and
he became known as India's leading Tamil film-music composer. From
there, he turned to India's more commercial and cross-cultural
Bollywood movie biz, composing the score to Ramgopal Varma's
"Rangeela.''
In 1997, Rahman found a global springboard for his talents when he
signed with Sony Masterworks and released "Vande Mataram,'' a
re-creation of India's national song that became an anthem of sorts
among Indian youth. Sony released the record in 28 different
countries.
Fast-forward to 2004, when "Bombay Dreams'' made it to Broadway.
The success of that project led Rahman to broaden his horizons once
again. This time, it was in China, where he composed the score for
the Chinese epic film "Warriors of Heaven and Earth,'' which Sony
Pictures distributed on a worldwide basis.
Fallon is looking forward to Rahman's upcoming EMU show for more
reasons than one.
"I really do think one of the best ways of bringing peace and
harmony to the world is to learn about other cultures, and music is
probably the most powerful of all,'' said Fallon. Then, with a
laugh, she added: "I'm also learning Hindi, so listening to this
music is a great way to pick up the language.''