Samir Chatterjee - The Music of Tabla

Samir Chatterjee - tabla solo
Kedar Naphade - harmonium

Samir Chatterjee is a virtuoso Tabla player. He travels widely across the world throughout the year performing in numerous festivals as a soloist or with other outstanding musicians from both Indian and non-Indian musical traditions. Samir performed at the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. He also performed at the UN General Assembly. His compositions are widely acclaimed as well as his writings. Samir is a firm believer in the transforming effect of music on the society and all aspects of his work reflects this conviction.    

            Chatterjee began his studies early with Bankim Ghosh, Balaram Mukherjee, Rathin Dhar and Md. Salim. His later formation as a musician occurred under the guidance of Amalesh Chatterjee and Shyamal Bose. All of Samir's teachers have been from the Farrukhabad Gharana of Tabla-playing, which he now represents. 

            Samir can be heard on numerous recordings featuring as soloist, accompanying many of India's greatest musicians and in collaboration with western musicians of outstanding caliber. In concert Samir has accompanied many of India's greatest musicians including Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Nikhil Banerjee, V.G. Jog, Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, Amjad Ali Khan, Salamat Ali Khan, Lakshmi Shankar, Manilal Nag, L. Subramanium, U Srinivas, Veena Sahashrabuddhe,  Shujaat Khan, Shahid Parvez, Ajoy Chakraborty, Nishat Khan, Rashid Khan, Tejendra N. Majumdar, Arti Anklekar, Kaushiki Chakraborty, to name only a few. 

            Samir Chatterjee lives in the NY-NJ area and has been a catalyst in the fusion of Indian and Non-Indian music, in his own creations and others as well. He performs with Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, Branford Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, Joshua Bell, David Liebman, Oliver Lake, Dave Douglas, Ned Rothenberg, Mark Dresser, Mark Feldman, Jerome Harris, Eric Friedlander, Steve Gorn, Dance Theater of Harlem, Boston Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, and other jazz, classical and avant guard musicians and ensembles. He also collaborates with Sufi-Rock singer Salman Ahmad of Junoon from Pakistan. He is the composer and director of Tablaphilia, Indo-Flame, Chhand-Anand, RabiThakur, Meghadootam, and Dawn to Dusk and Beyond. He performs with Sanjay Mishra on his CD "Blue Incantation" featuring Jerry Garcia as guest artist. 

        Chatterjee has been teaching for the last 45 years. Many of his students are established performers. He is the Founding President of Chhandayan. He has authored books titled A Study of Tabla, Music of India and Those Forty Days. He has taught at the Manhattan School of Music, Univ. of Pittsburgh, New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Yale University, NYU, Columbia University, Princeton University, UCLA, among many other major institutions in the USA, Europe and India. He has master's degrees in English and History.

       Since June 2008 Samir started working towards the musical revival of Afghanistan. He has received several awards including Sunshine Caribbean Award in 2016, Jadu Bhatta Award from Salt Lake Music Conference, Acharya Varistha Award from Pandit Jasraj Institute, Taal Mani Award from Council of Indian Classical Music, Delhi in 2018, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from SMIPAC Trust, Delhi in 2018.

Reviews 

This was almost painfully reflective music, ending, finally, in an exuberant improvisatory interchange with Samir Chatterjee, whose Tabla playing also seemed less percussive than vocal. –The New York Times

 

The superb tabla player Samir Chatterjee joined the conversation in the second movement, pulsing tribute to the legendary Indian violinist L. Subramanium, and the music kicked into high gear, Kurkowicz’s scurrying violin riding Chatterjee’s intricate drumming over Technicolor splashes from the orchestra. Chatterjee’s solo legerdemain foreshadowed a violin cadenza, improvised by Kurkowicz in a slightly disparate Romantic style; an extended give-and-take between the two enthused soloists anchored the finale, framed by a torrential, exuberant tune up by the entire band, propelled by Chatterjee’s rhythmic authority and Kurkowicz’s energy. –Boston Globe

 

Tabla player Pandit Samir Chatterjee is a walking history book when it comes to Indian music. –WNYC (NPR)

 

The highlight was the tabla playing of Samir Chatterjee in the final scene, which stood out from the other instruments with the kind of vivid, exciting performance that draws Western composers to a non-western music in the first place." -The New York Times

 

The remarkable tabla virtuoso Chatterjee's playing is rather unique among tabla artists as his impeccable mastery of rhythm is expressed with a rather vocal-like quality. His tabla speaks the patterns, adding a commentary to the rhythm and interplay with the sitar. A fine collaboration. -Rhythm

 

"Chatterjee is a good foil for the sarengi virtuoso, as his drumming works in the service of the raga and of Mishra. There is none of the flashy "bird-in-a-bottle" showboating, which has infected much of contemporary tabla drumming. Mr. Chatterjee's solid support and sense of restraint are to be commended."- The Beat 

 

Chatterjee, who can sing and then play back the most complex patterns in the manner of great masters, also senses how to highlight more compact, swing-oriented parts through shifts in accents and dynamics.–The Boston Globe.

 

Samir Chatterjee gave detailed and forceful Tabla Lahara in ‘Jhamptal’. The crispness and clarity of his ‘bol’s and balanced synchronization of ‘Tabla’ (the right-hand drum) and ‘Bayan’ (the left-hand drum) made his recital quite enjoyable.–The Statesman, Calcutta.

 

Tabaliya Samir Chatterjee made audibly visible those divisional breaths-in-rhythm that is as much music as music itself. His intimate and broadened stretch of motif accentuation, his extemporizations, richly surrounded the dance figures wrought by Jonathan Hollander. Samir’s rhythmic play acted as a continuous narrative, capable of solemn declamation as well as celebration of the human form and of the life-giving elements of nature.–Sruti

 

Displaying consummate control and perfection, the artiste (Samir Chatterjee) enthralled the listeners with a very traditional and systematic exposition of ‘Jhamptaal’. Some of the ‘Quidas’ and ‘Tukra’ (types of compositions) were delectable for their intricacy and close finishing.–The Telegraph, Calcutta

 

The concert became more enjoyable due to the high quality of accompaniment of Samir Chatterjee on the tabla. The distinct and defined tone of his bols filled the atmosphere with melody.–Anandabazar Patrika, Calcutta

 

The movement inventions were equally unpredictable. Neil Applebaum traded increasingly complex and spontaneous rhythmic patterns with Samir Chatterjee in Tabla Tap Talk.-The Washington Post.

 

On Blue Incantation, guitarist Sanjoy Mishra’s compositions reveal an intriguing and ingratiating raga influence, underscored by Samir Chatterjee’s tablas throughout most of the album. Their combined sound during “Bach in Time” (based on J.S. Bach’s gavotte and Rondeau from Lute Suite No.3) is fascinating and quite enchanting.–AUDIO, USA

 

Chatterjee uses the Tabla to add an extra melodic touch, rather than remaining limited to a percussive role.-InPittsburgh

 

SYNC’s first album 'PORT OF ENTRY' does not at all sound effortfully avantgardistic or experimental - as one might have expected of a musician with Ned Rothenberg's background. Rather than that, the eight tracks come across in an explicitly harmonic and relaxed manner; a merit, which we attribute mainly to Samir Chatterjee, whose Tablas provide a percussive basis of an airy, light-footed quality.-Rec'order pages

 

Unusual techniques require unusual technicians”. In SYNC’s PORT OF ENTRY Samir Chatterjee weaves his discreet drumming. It is especially the warm-sounding and intimate Tabla-accompaniment by Chatterjee, which fuses differing concepts of Jazz into one term: openness. From the Northern Indian regions Chatterjee brought along that sound which appeals so religiously, but nevertheless - or maybe just because of that feature - adds remarkable accents to the western-urban-oriented music.-Jazzthetik Nr. 

 

The glory of the program's first half was Samir Chatterjee's "Rite Rhythm," composed last year for Ethos and Eric Phinney, who is currently studying with the distinguished Indian Tabla player. The work features percussion from all over the world, including Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and America. ... The work had all four players participate in a complex rhythmic dialogue that remained miraculously comprehensive.-The Kansas City Star

 

His (Ned Rothenberg’s) sense of line and drama is impeccable, and over Chatterjee's roiling tabla work and Harris's introspective guitar lines, the effect was compelling.  .. this is unusually thoughtful music, and the subtleties of the tabla, along with Harris's sinuous guitar work, beautifully complemented Rothenberg's detailed, colorful and hyper-imaginative playing.–Washington Post