Of old hits, new tunes and selfies

Jayanagar’s Kittur Rani Chennamma Grounds reverberated with notes and beats from eight musicians brought together by October Octaves. Stephen Devassy, on keyboards, and Bala Bhaskar, on violin, stole the show with their spectacular performance.

‘Beat Gurus’’ co-founder Ganesh Govindaswamy and 14 students of Surana College who had trained with him for a week ahead of the performance, set the mood for what was to be an evening of high-energy music with their opening act. The djembe took centrestage during their two percussive pieces.

The band of eight — featuring bass guitarist Keith Peters, Ghatam player Giridhar Udupa, drummers Arun Kumar and Shomy Davis, Bhargava Halambi on khanjira and morsing, and lead guitarist Abhijit, in addition to Stephen and Bala — belted out track after track, keeping the audience engaged throughout.

Lilting melodies from Bala’s violin filled the air, and the octet began with his composition, ‘Surya’. Fun with five, Stephen’s piece and a faster number, followed. Midway, he walked up beside Bala, a synthesiser strapped to his shoulder. During this act — and later — it was mostly the violinist and keyboardist centrestage, matching movement for movement, responding to one musical phrase with another. 

Every now and then, others would pitch in with their interpretations, in addition supporting this young duo — who got together the first time during that concert, we hear.

In another, the musicians experimented with a piece that started in the ‘kathakali padam’ format, a seven-beat cycle, and later switched over to the six-beat shuffle rhythm. At this point, and in the finale piece, the percussionists came to the foreground, and all eight — and the rest of the gathering — had fun with their almost-whimsical improvisations.

For nearly every act, the octet had surprises up their sleeves: at one point, audience members realised Bala was beside them. The violinist even stood for selfies with the more enthusiastic lot, playing, even switching from one film hit to another the whole while. In the group’s two movie-number medleys, featured ‘Roja’ and ‘Alaipayuthey’s Snehithane’, with Keith playing the bass line just as he did with A R Rahman and his orchestra, when the song was originally recorded.

They had the audience singing along for the old favourites — ‘Kal ho na ho’, ‘Kuch kuch hota hai’, ‘Hamma hamma’, ‘Mustafa mustafa’ — and even letting their hair down and dancing for some. Bala even threw in a few lines of ‘Mungaru male’ and ‘Baanallu neene’. ‘Krishna nee begane’, performed by most Carnatic artistes, was another Kannada composition that delighted the Bengalurean crowd. At about 10 pm, when a slight chill had set in, the open-air performance drew to a close. The concert, as Stephen let the gathering know, was dedicated to the memory of Bengaluru boy Arun’s mother, who had passed away just three days ahead of the performance.