Badal Roy
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Badal Roy (Bangla: বাদল রায়) (born Amarendra Roy Choudhury in Comilla, eastern Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh), 1945) is a tabla player and percussionist known for his work in jazz, cross-cultural music, and experimental music.
Roy was born into a Hindu family in a predominantly Muslim eastern Bengal region of British India (which later became East Pakistan, then Bangladesh).[1] His nickname, Badal (meaning "rain," "cloud," or "thunder" in the Bengali language) was given to him by his grandfather after he began crying in the rain as a baby.[2]
He emigrated to New York City in 1968 with only eight dollars and began working as a busboy and waiter in various Indian restaurants. Soon, however, he began performing with Steve Gorn at a restaurant called Raga, eventually attracting the attention of Miles Davis. Davis invited Roy to join his group, and Roy's playing is documented on Davis's albums On the Corner (1972), Big Fun (1969-72; released 1974), and Get Up with It (1970-74). Roy subsequently performed and recorded with many leading jazz musicians, including Davis, Dave Liebman, Pharaoh Sanders, John McLaughlin, Airto Moreira, Charlie Haden, Yoko Ono, and Ornette Coleman (playing in Coleman's electric band Prime Time). In the 1990s Roy began performing with the Brazilian guitar duo Duofel. He has also collaborated with Ken Wessel and Stomu Takeishi in a fusion trio named Alankar. They currently have one album entitled Daybreak.
Unlike many tabla player, Roy does not come from a family of professional musicians and is essentially self-taught.[3] Consequently, his playing is freer than that of many other tabla players, who adhere more strictly to the tala system of Indian rhythm. He often plays a set of up to five tabla (tuned to different pitches) at a time, which he plays melodically as well as rhythmically.
He has appeared and offered workshops at the Starwood Festival (run by the Association for Consciousness Exploration), and at the SpiritDrum Festival[4], a special tribute to the late Babatunde Olatunji (co-sponsored by ACE and Musart), with Muruga Booker, Jim Donovan of Rusted Root, Halim El-Dabh, and Sikiru Adepoju, among others. He often plays with Muruga Booker in the Global Village Ceremonial Band, and with Michael Woolf (Impure Thoughts).
In 2004, Roy worked with Richie Havens on the album The Grace of the Sun. In the first half of 2006, Roy traveled to Japan in order to appear in a tribute for David Baker, his recently deceased recording engineer and friend.
He speaks the Bengali, English, Hindi, and Urdu languages.[5]
[edit] External links
- "Badal Roy: Funky Tabla" (Artist Profile from Music of the World site)
- "Tale of A Tabla Nonconformist" by Iris Brooks
