Stringing the world

BENGALURU : Sometime in the mid-1970s, violinist Dr L Subramaniam started collaborating with artistes from different genres. Soon after, producer Richard Bach approached him for a project, after his concert in Los Angeles. “Since I didn’t have my band or group, I decided to use excellent musicians from USA, like Emil Richards (a percussionist who had Italian roots), Milcho Leveiv (pianist/composer from Bulgaria), Ralph Humphrey (drummer) and others. The album Fantasy Without Limits was released and it got listed among the top 10 jazz albums,” he recalls. 

Subsequently, Bach asked him to do five more albums and each featured a jazz legend. “Finally, I wanted to feature 10 legendary jazz artistes in one album and this created Beyond Borders,” he says, about his latest album which features prominent jazz musicians from India, Europe and the USA. While the title track has been released, the rest of the videos will be released soon. It features Stephane Grapelli, George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Jean Luc Ponty, Herbie Hancock, Billy Cobham, Larry Coryell, Ernie Watts and Corky Siegel.

Subramaniam admits the album took longer than anticipated. “Besides the involvement of many legends, another reason was selecting best lines from the recording and using them. “It’s worth it since it is the first time 10 jazz greats are part of one project. The music composed is specifically written by me for the respective artistes and it has been performed with me as well as the best of backup musicians,” he says. It also features his musician daughter Bindu Subramaniam who did the vocals.    

Mixed in Los Angeles and mastered in Poland, the finished product is a matter of pride for him. “I don’t release a project unless I am totally satisfied so that I don’t have any regrets later,” says Subramaniam, who is currently working on recording Indian classical varnams for next-generation musicians, in addition to working on the first digital concert for the 30th edition of Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival.