I was chatting with Anand yesterday and in the midst of conversation, came the discussion on music as it always does. We were just thinking about composing something etc. etc.
Way back in 2001, soon after starting to work, I came across this colleague named Anand and while talking I came to know that he played keyboard. Pretty soon we decided to catch up hear each other play our instruments that is, his keyboard and my flute. It was a fun get together. We kept playing some random things. He had this $100 keyboard and I had this $1 flute. I didnt know what to call it? A flute? A piccolo? A brass windpipe? Whatever it was but I could successfully play some tunes. Anand and I decided to continue doing some small jamming sessions ofcourse just with keyboard and flute and some singing in the middle. We both were new to Austin and accidentally came to know our musical interests and decided to just continue meeting and enjoy the music. Some of the initial tunes we tried were Bombay Theme, Nightingale by Yanni and so on.
During one of those when I was attending a concert organized by ICMCA (Indian Classical Musical Center of Austin), I was introduced to this new graduate at UT named Dinesh. He also was passionate about music and himself was a singer and a tabla player. And he was a very down to earth who did not jump around beating his musical skills. So I told him about us, the two rookies who jam and asked him to join us if he wants. He immediately jumped at the idea and promised to join when we would meet next.
Next time we met, we thought why not we start music band. So Anand, as always taking the initiative, went ahead and put some Ads on Sulekha informing about our desire to form a band. And thus started our first Austin based Indian music band. But as it happens most of the times with bands, this band got disbanded within few weeks even before something could be achieved. I guess there were too many "knowledgeable" got together who did not have the ear to listen to others. And there you go. Back to square one we were. That is, Anand and I kept meeting and doing some jamming. But our efforts to bring in other people who were aware of their knowledge as well as limitations continued. On quite some occassions, few strangers with different interests joined us for jamming sessions. They kept joining and vanishing and our jamming sessions continued. The only sad thing was we lost touch with Dinesh then. But we had a new friend Sesh who was an amazing violinist. So now our music jamming session were kind of involved myself, Anand and Sesh.
This is when I left for Korea on a business assignment. In October 2003, a fresh attempt by Anand, Sesh and Dinesh (who Anand again got in touch with and brought him back) led to the formation of our dearest music band, Omkara
I had a wildcard entry into the band as soon as I cam back from Korea. Thank god there were no auditions for me :-) My friends say that is the reason why I almost always screwed up on stage.
But Omkara was one of the best musical platforms where I learnt a lot from other talented musicians and came to learn about the amazing talents of Dinesh, Sesh, Anand, Vaish, Sriram and Priya. Everyone of us improved ourselves considerably by performing together.
We performed almost 15 live concerts in Austin, Houston and Dallas. It was not just about music. It also gelled friends. Dinesh and Anand became two of my closest friends. They gave me a nice gift which was our last composition based on a Tamil song by A.R Rahman.
Listen to it here :
I miss you guys. And the musical compositions. Lookign forward to visiting Austin and doing some compositions.
I hope I will start an Omkara soon in Bangalore.
Way back in 2001, soon after starting to work, I came across this colleague named Anand and while talking I came to know that he played keyboard. Pretty soon we decided to catch up hear each other play our instruments that is, his keyboard and my flute. It was a fun get together. We kept playing some random things. He had this $100 keyboard and I had this $1 flute. I didnt know what to call it? A flute? A piccolo? A brass windpipe? Whatever it was but I could successfully play some tunes. Anand and I decided to continue doing some small jamming sessions ofcourse just with keyboard and flute and some singing in the middle. We both were new to Austin and accidentally came to know our musical interests and decided to just continue meeting and enjoy the music. Some of the initial tunes we tried were Bombay Theme, Nightingale by Yanni and so on.
During one of those when I was attending a concert organized by ICMCA (Indian Classical Musical Center of Austin), I was introduced to this new graduate at UT named Dinesh. He also was passionate about music and himself was a singer and a tabla player. And he was a very down to earth who did not jump around beating his musical skills. So I told him about us, the two rookies who jam and asked him to join us if he wants. He immediately jumped at the idea and promised to join when we would meet next.
Next time we met, we thought why not we start music band. So Anand, as always taking the initiative, went ahead and put some Ads on Sulekha informing about our desire to form a band. And thus started our first Austin based Indian music band. But as it happens most of the times with bands, this band got disbanded within few weeks even before something could be achieved. I guess there were too many "knowledgeable" got together who did not have the ear to listen to others. And there you go. Back to square one we were. That is, Anand and I kept meeting and doing some jamming. But our efforts to bring in other people who were aware of their knowledge as well as limitations continued. On quite some occassions, few strangers with different interests joined us for jamming sessions. They kept joining and vanishing and our jamming sessions continued. The only sad thing was we lost touch with Dinesh then. But we had a new friend Sesh who was an amazing violinist. So now our music jamming session were kind of involved myself, Anand and Sesh.
This is when I left for Korea on a business assignment. In October 2003, a fresh attempt by Anand, Sesh and Dinesh (who Anand again got in touch with and brought him back) led to the formation of our dearest music band, Omkara
I had a wildcard entry into the band as soon as I cam back from Korea. Thank god there were no auditions for me :-) My friends say that is the reason why I almost always screwed up on stage.
But Omkara was one of the best musical platforms where I learnt a lot from other talented musicians and came to learn about the amazing talents of Dinesh, Sesh, Anand, Vaish, Sriram and Priya. Everyone of us improved ourselves considerably by performing together.
We performed almost 15 live concerts in Austin, Houston and Dallas. It was not just about music. It also gelled friends. Dinesh and Anand became two of my closest friends. They gave me a nice gift which was our last composition based on a Tamil song by A.R Rahman.
Listen to it here :
I miss you guys. And the musical compositions. Lookign forward to visiting Austin and doing some compositions.
I hope I will start an Omkara soon in Bangalore.
1 comment:
Sastry - your article rings a bell and brings great memories back to mind. Those were some of the best days in Austin, when we used to jam away without worries. Om-kara was indeed an exhilerating experience and a great learning experience.
Until we jam again....
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