Summit Attempt performs at Princeton Club. Picture by Rashbehari Das

This was a reunion concert with a difference as old-time friends and mid-90s rockers came together at Princeton Club on January 3 with a new sound — and a new name. Summit Attempt is the brainchild of Sumit Bhattacharya, the guitarist, lyricist and vocalist for the band, which also includes Dwaipayan Saha on drums, Mainak ‘Bumpy’ Nagchoudhury on bass and Sayantan ‘Bumba’ Sengupta on guitar.

After a musical hiatus of almost a decade, these former band-mates came together in June 2007 to record an eight-song album called Blue Bugyal. All of them have played with Latin jazz band Orient Express and were part of the Calcutta-based jam band Easy Riders, which was around from 1993-98 and was well-known for its originals.

Sumit, who stopped playing for a while to pursue a career in journalism in Mumbai, has returned to music, calling it a “curse” he “just couldn’t be parted from”. Meeting up with old friends two days before their recording, a shared idea and common musical ears culminated in Blue Bugyal. “Bugyal refers to high-altitude Himalayan meadows. Having spent a lot of time trekking, most of my songs were written there,” says Sumit. The album was produced in Canada and will be released in 2008.

Summit Attempt’s music is influenced by singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Neil Young as well as jazz-rock guru John McLaughlin and Miles Davis, not to mention the jam sensibilities of the Grateful Dead. The band is heavy on instrumentals. “As we grow older, we have less to say,” laughs Sumit.

The first show at Princeton was packed with friends, musicians on the circuit and Easy Riders loyalists. The band’s song list for the evening included Changes, Some People, the instrumental Journey Within and Farewell, as well as covers of Calcutta rock pioneers High, Blue Sky by the Allman Brothers, Chick Corea’s Spain and an interpretation of Hendrix’s Purple Haze. Plenty of improvisations — often mellow, often bluesy — characterised the sound.

“Summit Attempt is a dream and the whole idea behind it is to enjoy music and do what we like,” says Sumit, whose plans for the band include more gigs in the city and beyond.

Diya Kohli