For fans of live music, The Bodhisattwa Trio is a known act that has spread their music to international audiences. On August 12, the three-man band celebrated their 10 year anniversary during Evolution (2012-2022): The Bodhisattwa Trio 10th Anniversary Concert at Princeton Club, with Jamsteady. The gig was a three-hour-long Anthology concert comprising original material, from all their material till date- their starting from their debut EP Fuzzy Logic (2012), debut album Intersections (2014), second album Heart of Darkness (2016), third album The Grey Album (2019) and tunes from their upcoming fourth album Frontier (to be recorded in October).
Joining them for the gig was bassist Mainak ‘Bumpy’ Nag Chowdhury and Jivraj Singh on live electronics. Post this gig, the band will be on their fourth tour to Europe in October and what makes the tour more ambitious is the recording of their fourth album in collaboration with Mimika Orchestra, an eight-member jazz orchestra from Zagreb, Croatia.
Speaking about their upcoming album, Bodhisattwa Ghosh tells The Telegraph that Frontier is a sci-fi themed space opera. The album starts with the destruction of the Earth due to nuclear war and human beings randomly escaping the planet and getting scattered in the chaos of space. The Trio have to travel through space in the hope of journeying to any inhabitable planet. The story is from two points of view— an interaction between the astronauts (The Bodhisattwa Trio) and the forces of outer space (Mimika Orchestra). It is going to be a one-of-a-kind Indo-Croatian modern jazz collaboration featuring a total of 11 musicians playing live together to capture the essence of a futuristic science fiction-themed instrumental concept album, which be an amalgamation of jazz, contemporary European classical music blended with influences from Indian traditional music to drum-n-bass to rock.
Mak Murtic, the composer and conductor of Mimika Orchestra, is writing parts for his orchestra which is said to complete the vision and create a sound which is expected to be novel and unique. The album will be recorded, produced, mixed and mastered by musician and music producer Marin Hrascanec from Koprivnica. The recording studio, publishing and distribution will be provided by an independent production house called Intek Music (Koprivnica, Croatia). The expected release date is around summer 2023 as they plan to take this project live across Europe and Asia in 2023 as well.
The crowd not only enjoyed watching the trio but had fun with the guest performers as well.
The entire gig had three sets starting with Bodhisattwa Ghosh on electric guitar, Premjit Dutta on drums and Mainak ‘Bumpy’ Nag Chowdhury on electric bass. Bumpy then went on to play for sets two and three as well (Heart of Darkness and The Grey Album + Frontier) where Shonai (inset) of the trio joined in with the piano and organ
Jivraj Singh had joined the gig during their last set where he performed with live electronics for six songs. “I played records on turntables, I did sound design using records. It was quite a free performance and very unrestrictive. I could do what I wanted and the trust and understanding was there. Since there is not much of an experimental music scene present the gig was nice and rare,” he said
Subhagata Singha or Rivu was in the audience. “It was cool to be back at Princeton, I haven’t been there ever since it closed. The set put together was amazing as well. It was fun to see the evolution of Bodhi’s music from earlier jazz influences to a more contemporary futuristic kind of sound,” he said.
Vocalist Arunima Dasgupta made an appearance for the gig. “It was really special going for the 10th Anniversary Concert of The Bodhisattwa Trio, especially since I have been following their music right from the very first album. The show was stellar as always and a real treat to listen to the albums played live, back-to-back,” she said.
Pictures: Rashbehari Das