When RhyDhun-An Odyssey of Rhythm first showed up in cassette shops (yeah, there were once those), there was nothing really world music about world music. With its on-the-edge drumming, its djembe, its bongos and its body percussion (which am certain, many like me, heard for the very first time), Rhydhun brought the world to Indian music, so to speak. To say that the album was pathbreaking is to put it mildly.
It has been 20 years since the album debuted and the music scene today is unrecognisable from what it was two decades ago. Rhydhun though, is as magical as ever, and if anything, has grown in its ability to mesmerise its listeners. For those who do not know, this was percussionist Taufiq Qureshi’s debut work that featured not only his father Ustad Allarakha and brothers Zakir and Fazal, but also Shankar Mahadevan, Geetika Varde and violinist L Shankar, among others.
For those who have listened to the album over the years, first on cassettes, then on CDs and then on YouTube after feverish searches, it is extraordinarily difficult to choose a favourite. Each track is special — be it the celebrated title track Rhy-Dhun (Nothing but the Voice), the dreamy Nand or the Lavani-flavoured Jiji-Rhy.
However, if held at gunpoint, I would certainly choose ‘Tree of Rhythm’, which is perhaps the only recorded track in which we can hear Ustad Alla Rakha sing while he and his sons play the tabla in perfect unison. Now you know why the track’s name is so apt; it holds within its rhythmic branches an entire era and all its traditions, the waft of which still blows in the wind.
Play By Ear showcases a potential earworm every week for you, the discerning listener, who is on the hunt for some musical serendipity.