Reunion Island band Dogo Fara’s recent concert in the city was an embodiment of the French island’s Maloya musical tradition of blending protest poetry, jazz, slam, reggae and dance.
The back-to-back performances on successive days at the Krtashraya gardens of Aurodhan were part of the Tablatronic World Peace tour led by Subhash Dhunoohchand, composer and tabla virtuoso of Indian origin from Mauritius and Dogo Fara from Reunion Island, an isle that lies east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
They were performing in the city after sweeping audiences off their feet in Mumbai and Chennai.
The six-piece band Dogo Fara features Anas Mall, Maxence Emprin, Guillaume Imare (Massaï), Farid Aubras, Frédéric Riesser and Loran Trémoulu.
In the tradition of Maloya, one of the two major musical genres of Reunion Island, the band sung in Reunion Creole. Though percussion instruments were mostly used in the past, modern instruments have been added to the ensemble lately to render a new sensibility and contemporary texture.
Music critics compare Maloya to the American blues and jazz. However, unlike the blues, indigenous Maloya music was considered a threat to the French state and banned in the 1970s. The genre has seen a revival over the decades. Since 2009, Maloya has featured in UNESCO’s very select Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
While in Mumbai, the first Hindi phrase the band learnt was “Yeh kaun hain... yeh Dogo Fara hain” before unleashing their music.
“Playing here was special for us as we are very connected with India. We are planning a longer tour next year and will be here again” said Massai, lead singer.
Subhash Dhunoohchand | Photo Credit: S.S. KUMAR
Subhash, an innovative sound artist from France, considers the Tablatronic World Peace project one of the greatest modern explorations of tabla fusion in recent years. “The Tablatronic World Peace tour is an Indian electronic fusion project reflecting my own journey, travelling from India to Europe”, said Subhash, who has collaborated with the likes of Hariprasad Chaurasia, L. Shankar, Budhaditya Mukherjee, Sivamani, Anatholi Bulkin, C. Nardy and Celine Bonacina.
He was a disciple of one of the greatest masters of the Ajrada gharana style of tabla, Pt. Sudhir Kumar Saxena. “Indian music runs in my family. I was lucky to be connected with different genres like jazz, African, western classical and folk music, which hold great influence in my musical composition.”
“I am hoping a whole new chapter of Indian drumming will emerge with this. I take the tabla, electronic drums and other instruments which take the traditional sound of the tabla and place them in the modern setting of electronic music, with additional elements of breakbeat and house music,” he said.