Score Discoveries:
BENDING THE SOUNDSCAPE
SREYOSHI GUHA THAKURTA
Score Discoveries:
The
Big
Other
BENDING THE SOUNDSCAPE
We can only think of big fat weddings and living in caravans when we are first introduced to the term“ gypsy”. But, it is way beyond that!
This specific label comes from the term“ Egyptian”, as Egypt was wrongly attributed as the land of origin of the gypsies. However, the term“ gypsy” is most commonly used to refer to the Romani people and it is now considered a derogatory term. The Romanis have always operated on the fringes of mainstream society, which was one of the major reasons why they were faced with a lot of discrimination.
Evidences have shown that the Romani people have had their roots in India and the Romani language bears a striking resemblance to Hindi. The similarity in music also stems from this. The etymology of the word“ Romani” can be traced back to Dom, a sub-altern social class in the Indian society who are mostly involved in burial and cremation as their professions.
Owing to social and cultural discrimination they migrated to Europe and travelled all over the continent, settling down in different countries. The prominent clans of the Romani people living in Europe include The Travellers from Scotland, Ireland and Scandinavia, The Gitanos of Spain, the Sinti from Germany, Austria, Poland and Italy, The Kale from the Balkans and The Manouche( from the Sanskrit word‘ Manushya’) of France.
Inspite of having intricate differences in style, owing to geographical influences, Romani music all over the world share the similar temperament. This genre of music was brought into the limelight by Django Reinhardt, Stephane
Grappelli and Quintette du hot club de France in the early 1930s in Paris.
The Big Other, which began as an acoustic instrumental trio( violin, cello and guitar) in 2013, in the heart of Jadavpur University, Kolkata started drawing their musical inspirations from the works of Reinhardt and Grappelli, as is evident from their rendition of Minor Swing for their first ever public performance. Each of the members had different backgrounds in music, starting from Western Classical to Blues to Classic Rock. As the trio expanded gradually to an eight member ensemble, various other influences, such as Hindustani Classical, Folk and Jazz seeped in. Currently, The Big Other plays as a quintet throughout the City of Joy, edging towards revolutionizing the city soundscape.
The band started out playing classical music, swing and film scores, eventually finding their way to Romani music. Recently, their music has matured with time and they have incorporated other styles of dance music in their repertoire of Gypsy Jazz. Their motive is to make their mark in a market saturated with electronic beats with their playful and high-spirited acoustic dance music. Apart from this, they also borrow inspiration from music closer to their roots in Baul and Murshidi traditions, and protest songs in different languages from all over India. The Big Other is probably the only folk band in Kolkata which has recently been granted residency in an upcoming cafe in Kolkata where they have always performed to a full house.
With the grand come back and popularization of Folk music all over the world through the internet, The Big Other is truly a product of their time!
The Score Magazine
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