By Pete Lockett

It is hard to imagine that I would have become so involved with India, Indian music and all things Indian when one considers that until my mid-twenties I had virtually no experience of anything Indian at all. True, I had had a few curries in the high street and there was one Indian kid at one of my schools but that was about it.  In fact, anything even mildly ethnic in my childhood hometown of Portsmouth on the English south coast was hard to come by.  The education system and media at the time didn’t throw any light on other cultures and so it was to remain a mystery until later life.

I moved to London in my early twenties and found the cultural mix much more varied and interesting.  This came to a head when I went to the ‘Festival of India’ in Alexander Park in London a few years later.  It was really my first experience of India on a larger than life scale and was set to change my life path in a positive way.  The festival filled the whole park for ten days or so with life size temples, events and food stalls.  It was incredible.  By chance one night we stumbled across a free concert. It was Ali Akbar Khan and Zakir Hussain and it made a massive impression upon me.  It was the first time I had heard the tabla and was completely transfixed and mesmerised.  It was a complete mystery at the time how these tiny little drums could make such a huge, huge impact.  I registered it unconsciously and luckily came across an advert in the local paper a few months later for Tabla lessons. I was already getting the desire to enrich my life with things outside my comfort zone and taking this step towards Tabla was a vital one. It lead me into Indian culture, music and art.

I studied in depth with my teacher, Yousuf Ali Khan of Farrukhabad Gharana (a school of music) and coincidently a student of Pandit Shankar Ghosh, for six or so years and then got bitten by the Carnatic percussion and went on to study Mridangam, Nattuvangam and Kanjira with South Indian master, Karaikudi Krishnamurthy.  The combined study was around ten years.  In that time, India seemed like a far off distant shore.  I wondered if I would ever go there.  Having spent so much time within Indian communities in London it seemed crazy to have not visited.  I would have to wait for the new millennium to make my first trip.

Luckily for me the trip came around the turn of the century and was to be a stunning introduction to the Indian music world.  The British Council had helped set up a five city tour with a group featuring the great Selva Ganesh, musicians from Ghana and the West and myself. Right up till the last minute it was hanging by a thread because of an intense World political crisis.  Luckily the promoters braved it and we had a fantastic and memorable tour which even featured the great TH Vikku Vinayakram for one of the concerts. When one arrives in a new place ones senses are always bombarded with smells, sounds, atmospheres and impressions.  Arriving into an Indian city for the first time certainly give you plenty of all this.  I liken it to being whisked onto a fast moving conveyor belt which you are pretty much on for the whole trip.  Busy bustling colourful streets, sounds coming from every direction, vehicles crisscrossing, and a complex and intricate matrix of motion and a never ending palette of stunning spices and food.  It is a place that never fails to excite me with its intensity. For the first tour, we had three days to rehearse and then did the short tour.  It was a great success and I had the opportunity to make great connections within the Indian musical world with Selva’s family, Bickram Ghosh, U Rajesh, U Shrinivas, Pandit Shankar Ghosh, Tanmoy Bose and more.  It was the building block for lots of future Indian collaborations. When I came back the second time, it was alone and for Ustad Allah Rakha’s memorial concert.  It was a great honour to be invited to play there and I will never forget the moment onstage where Zakir Hussain finished his solo performance, and turned to me and started clapping the thalum for me to play.  Terrifying and exhilarating all in one.  Luckily for me the audience loved it and really dug my Konnakol.  I felt like I had come through a massive doorway and that now I was ready to really pursue collaborations within India.

Over the next few years, this really started to come together and i got more involved, with longer and frequent trips.  One of the early collaborations was with U Rajesh who had invited me to play on his latest release of the moment.  I flew in and went straight to the studio where we spent the whole night recording.  I was already tired from jetlag and the flight and never forget sitting there listening to the first track.  It was at a virtuoso speed, 180bpm or something and was intense volleys of notes and rhythms on the Mandolin.  In the back of my mind I was thinking ‘Can I do this’?  But my body was already pulling me towards the live room telling me I would do this.  To this day, I have no idea how I played that track through first time from beginning to end with no mistakes.   By the time 11am came I was shattered and spent ten hours in bed. One thing you really notice when coming from the West is how nice so many people are in India.  With this first session for example, local percussionist Murali had supplied and delivered all the drums and stayed there all night helping.  It was not in a subservient way at all. It was though he had been a friend for life.  We always hang out a lot together when I am in Chennai. I met Bickram Ghosh for the first time on a project in the United Kingdom, but we had soon planned stuff together in India.  He and his whole family have become very close and we even spent Christmas there a couple of years back with my wife. This was my true introduction to the real Kolkata. These days whenever I visit that part of India, I normally stay at Bickram’s house in south Kolkata and it is such a very different and superior experience than staying in a five star in Park Street.  Bickram and I have toured and worked together extensively.  Most recently our album ‘Kingdom of Rhythm’ came out on Saregama and he also performs on my album ‘Journeys with the master percussionists of India’ (Music Today) along with TH Vikku Vinayakram and U Rajesh.  It is such an honour to work with these great players.

Shooting our video for KOR was a memorable moment also.  A few days in a sealed film studio in Kolkata, with eighteen flame torch bearing extras was something I will never forget.  My lungs are still recovering!!  It is one of two music videos I have done in India, the other being as special guest with Indian Rock band ‘Bandish’.  We shot earlier in 2009 in a disused old mill on the waterfront in Mumbai.  Dangerous to say the least. Lumps of concrete falling down and dancing on top of a water truck.  An incredible experience though.  

My most recent release is 'Made in Chennai' which is on the INDIABEAT label. This features Carnatic maestro Umar Shankar and is a real contemporary exploration of the South Indian rhythm world.  It is the beginning for me with India.  I have released five albums there in eighteen months and am thirsty for more.  My travels have taken me everywhere else in the World this year, from New Zealand to Canada, Argentina, Poland, France, Belgium, Australia and much more.  I have missed India and will be back soon and stirring up lots more interesting collaborations!!  Watch this space!!
 www.petelockett.com

It is probably, in the destiny of India to get conquered by westerners specially the British for years together. Though for the last 62 years, we are a thriving democracy, and have made other cultures our own, there are quite a number of others who have made us their own. In the music scene, one of the most leading personalities who is happy to call India his second home, is multi-percussionist Pete Lockett.
In this article, Pete writes about his Indian connection and how he got involved with all that is so very Indian, starting from the lachha paratha and dal which is now his favourite cuisine.  
Editor -CluedIN

Photo Credits:
Drumtek - "Australia's Ultimate Drummers Weekend" (AUDW) 2009.
Images By: Harry Cassio.