From high-octane drumming sessions, jaw-dropping beatboxing, groovy Latin music to classical jugalbandis, the Calcutta Drum Festival 2014 in association with t2, presented by Bickram Ghosh and Siddha, saw an array of performances at ICCR on July 18-19. “It was a victory for rhythm. This festival has been a dream come true for us,” said Bickram.
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They spoke a mouthful but it was all bass lines and beats! Using their mouths and mics, beatboxers Amitrajit Chakraborty (left) and Shuvam Kundu brought the house down. The surprise hit of the fest, the two teenagers got a standing ovation on Day One and had everyone nodding and bopping to the beats on Day Two. “I am supremely impressed by them. The interesting part is that they have no teacher... their teacher is YouTube,” said Bickram, the curator and presenter of the fest. “I used to play the drums, and then the grooves just came to my mind. I came to know about beatboxing through YouTube,” said South Point student Amitrajit, 17. Practising beatboxing is never a problem. “You can do it anytime,” smiled Shuvam, 16, who got hooked to beatboxing in Class VI, and then started following the tutorials on YouTube. The best part about beatboxing? “That you can use your mouth as a percussion instrument. I like doing dubstep, breakbeat, drum’’bass,” added Shuvam, a student of Mother International School.
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Empty bottles, buckets, cans, thermocol come in handy but who knew you could make music with them. India’s Got Talent finalists, the Sanjay Mondal Group, who also go by the name Kolkata Creative Waste Art Centre, wowed the audience on Saturday with their compositions. The 12 members, aged between 12 and 33, kept time by banging away at bottles, wiring pipes, thermocol, geometry boxes, plates, pots and pans. “We recently got a call to play in Costa Rica but the kids don’t have passports. Most of the kids don’t have birth certificates or ration cards,” said group leader Sanjay, a Tangra resident who formed the group eight years ago with kids from the area. Would they like to use proper instruments? “We would like to play with what we have, this is our identity. We are looking for a space to do our rehearsals,” added Sanjay .
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They turned up in smart-looking white shirts, waistcoats and trendy hats and had everyone grooving to the beat in their seats! Monojit Datta’s (right) newly-formed band Clave Mantra enthralled with romantic and fun Salsa songs.
