Pondicherry’s underground music scene finds Freedom

Pondicherry is right for matters of the soul. Whether it’s carefree wandering — on bicycles for Rs25 a day on its cobblestone pathways lined with pastel bright walls adorned with cascading bougainvillea; or unabashed gluttony — digging into satisfying continental and Creole fare in the sea town’s quaint restaurants and bistros; or tranquil soul-searching — in the world renowned Aurobindo Ashram or the nearby ‘city of dawn’, Auroville.  So it’s no surprise that ‘Pondy’, as weekenders call it, accommodates music just as beautifully.

Last week, the town played host to a cluster of musicians from various genres and with different levels of experience in the annual Freedom Jam — the Pondicherry chapter of a music festival that started 15 years ago in Bangalore. The town’s sea breeze, history and the keenness of the Pondicherry government to use music as a vehicle for tourism, has kept the festival going for eight years now.

But music has lingered for much longer in this charming sea town. Mathew Samuel, who is engrossed in research on the history of music in Pondicherry, informs us that for over a hundred and fifty years, Pondy has been an important centre for learning of classical music. Samuel, who first arrived in the town as a young student in 1975, says popular music on the other hand, has been lilting for the last forty years. “In the ’60s there was a rich culture of live music and impromptu dances,” he says. Mutuelles, the Town Hall, continental hotels and the light museum were famous music venues of days gone by, while jazz, honky-tonk and rock were the most preferred types of music. It was local band Ace Stones’ entry into the Simla Beat Contest in 1970 — a battle of the bands of sorts, sponsored by the cigarette brand Simla — that was a memorable boost to the scene. Samuel himself was part of Bajaa — a beat band in the ’70s, and recounts that the town’s main park (Bharathi Park), was a spot for many informal jam sessions. Pondicherry’s standing as an important centre for philosophy is intrinsically related to the musical history of Pondicherry. The Aurobindo Ashram and later Auroville (founded in ’68 by Mirra Alfassa or The Mother) turned the sea town into a melting pot of various cultures, as people from all over the globe visited, and many made Pondicherry their residence.

Siddharatha Patnaik, who came to study African-American Literature in the Union Territory in the ’70s and started Bajaa, says that Pondicherry at the time had more musical influences than perhaps any other place in India. And those were days with nada connectivity, he reminds:

“The only way to have more exposure to music was to meet people. And that was happening in Pondicherry. There were people from all over and they weren’t just backpackers, they were expats who were choosing to make Pondy their home. Along with this you have the Tamil population, Bengalis and north Indians.” He cites the example of Sri Chinmoy, the spiritual guru from Pondicherry who was an important influence on musicians such as Carlos Santana and John Mclaughlin in the ’70s.

Samuel points out that the world-famous musician Nadaka who came to Pondy in 1974, and became an important part of contemporary movement of Indian music. With disco in the ’70s, there was a lull in live music in Pondy. But towards the end of the ’90s, Pondy grew from a day destination of seedy hotels to an in-style tourist destination. This transition of the ’90s was soil being tilled for another sort of music that would happen post-millennium.

The era of Freedom Jam that Patnaik started began in 2003. Musicians from nearby cities, mainly Chennai (three hours away by bus) and Bangalore (seven hours away by bus) performed in Hotel Kalapet in an all-nighter. The festival grew, and the most recent one saw four stages for various genres of music, with the Gandhi Square, the city’s iconic landmark, as a central stage where locals gathered for three evenings of live performances. The other spots were the Children’s Park at the corner of Pondy’s main promenade that had Hindi music, jazz at Sea Gulls, a popular restuarant and rock music at the port. Another ongoing celebration of decibels is Secs Sat Pondy, where bands perform every second Saturday in Pondy and more than 50 months of live performances have gone by.

Krishna Mckenzi, lead singer, Emergence, who came to Pondicherry 18 years ago, says that in the past few years there have been various collaborations between musicians in and around Auroville. “Jazz musicians are are collaborating with classical Indian musicians much more than before. An important catalyst for a lot of this musical exchange has also been French musician Mishka M’ba who came to Auroville seven years ago,” says Mckenzi.

While jazz and fusion have had an unremitting presence in Pondy, today even genres such as rap (played by Medicis), disco, trance and techno have a presence, says Samuel reemphasising the fact that the small union territory has always been eclectic, “It is a place where the east and west have always met,” he signs off.

The eighth Freedom Jam festival happened on 26, 29 and 30th of January. Some of the musicians who performed were Lakshmi Santra, Agam, Parvaz, Chronic Blues Circus, Drones from the Turbine, Blue Tesla, Farmer, Low Rhyderz, Odyssey, Prism, Prodigal Return, Verses, Blues Conscience.