Trumpeting into the ragaas with a ‘Firebird’

Experience an innovative fusion of jazz and Indian classical music as trumpeter Satish explores raagas with his Firebird slide trumpet.

A trumpeter grounded in jazz and funk, and an audience habituated to the Indian classical sounds of strings, woodwind and reed, found middle ground at a recent show in the city.

New York-based trumpeter ‘Indofunk’ Satish, for whom dabbling in experimental fusion is second nature, played a Firebird slide trumpet — trumpet-trombone hybrid brass instrument — to channel its distinctive sound into an exploration of sampling of Indian classical raagas.

Though Satish was traversing familiar musical terrain, having regularly engaged in East-West fusion sessions with Indian ragas on the music scene in New York, he would commence the ‘Trumpeting into the Ragaas’ concert hosted by Aurodhan with the modest disclaimer about performing without the privilege of formal classical training.

Apart from a Grammy-nomination billing, Satish’s musician resume includes performances as guest artist/session musician for prominent bands like Bruce Springsteen, Blondie and Green Day. The founder of the now-defunct band ‘Indofunk’ — the band identity getting subsumed into his name — Satish is associated with various projects that include the not-for-profit artist collective, the Brooklyn Raga Massive, and groups such as Quadrature and The Nevermind Orchestra.

Over several years, Satish has honed his skills as an exponent of the Firebird. An innovation of Canadian jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson and Larry Ramirez, who conceived the hybrid design of a trumpet with its set of three standard valves and the slide of the trombone.

The show began with the instrumentalist probing the raga ‘Keeravani’ and following it up with an exposition of ‘Rasali’. The exposition was as formidable as it was free-wheeling as the artist reoriented the timbre of the Firebird, which usually enhances the experience of genres like jazz or funk, to the cadences, glides, nuanced variations and gamakas of the Indian classical tradition.