Avant-garde classical composers have been getting off on it for decades. Rock musicians ranging from The Beatles and The Byrds to Frank Zappa and The Stooges all tuned into it for inspiration. And it completely revolutionised legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s approach to music.
What’s the deal? Indian classical music: an improvisatory approach to creating music that sidesteps Western pop’s cul-de-sac of choreographed chords to tap into what cooking new Mother City quartet Babu refers to as “the more complex realms of human experience - the subconscious, perhaps mystical world”.
This isn’t just some nifty ‘new age’ marketing spin either. For Reza Khota (guitar), Kesivan Naidoo (drums), Shane Cooper (bass) and Ronan Skillen (tabla, percussion, didgeridoo) playing Indian classical music is a fundamental way to engage in a spiritual dialogue with their audience. “I don’t think we’re playing Indian classical Music, actually” corrects Naidoo. “In the picture we’re painting we draw a major influence from that sound, but except for Ronan we’re all actually playing Western instruments. It’s the sound and the approach to the improvisation that comes from Indian classical music.”
Indeed, so Babu is some sort of jazz ‘fusion’ band then, like say Weather Report or the Mahavishnu Orchestra? “Yes - and no. I think we are actually playing ‘world’ music” says Naidoo. “I think a lot of fusion out there is very contrived. What we’re doing is more organic” clarifies Khota. “We’re exploring the common concepts between different improvisational approaches. Jazz and Indian classical music are two of the basic improvisational styles. So it’s more conceptual than just taking a style plus a style.”
How conceptual? Well, through a shape-shifting exploration of the spaces where Indian classical inspired composition and jazz architectures meet and greet their ecstatic melodic improvisations search for nothing less than the heart of the Indian raga's tale, its eternal sound sentiment, that universal musical structure which transcends generic distinction to harness the mystical language of music itself. Coltrane rather cosmically recognised this impulse as the sacred "first syllable, the primal word, the word of power, Om”. For Babu it’s simpler. “The intention behind this music is to reach a deeper place in yourself” says Naidoo. “Explore stuff in yourself, and invoke things in the audience that makes their lives better. Babu is there to make your life better.”