He wants to give you goose-bumps

This week, South Mumbai music store Furtados saw jazz musician Johann Berby hold an impromptu workshop on how to 'make party every day'

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Johann Berby can hardly walk two steps without breaking into a little jig. He walks about Furtados, Mumbai's oldest music store, in much the same way, and when he catches people watching, in defence he says, "I'm a musician, I love music".


Johann Berby at an instant jam session with Theo Croix (on violin)
and music enthusiasts Vaibhav Wavikar and JP. Pics/ Bipin Kokate

It was only natural then that his friends nicknamed him Dudou (after the sound of his bass guitar). Born in Reunion, an island off the coast of Madagascar, Berby grew up in a culture that was a blend of African, Asian and European influences, owing to its mixed ethnic population. The Afro-jazz artist began to dance at age five, but gave it up when he went to study music in France.

"For two years, it was no family, no parties, nothing but music. But I didn't mind. When I make music, I feel like a child. I'm excited." Seven years as a professional musician has taken Berby from Paris to Pondicherry. And the learning continues. "When I came to India, I learnt to play the Mridangam, a south Indian percussion instrument, and trained with singer Tulika Ghosh, sarod player Anupam Shobhakar, and vocalist Kishori Amonkar."

The musician who has an Indian grandmother, says he can't do the math because his ancestry also includes Malgache and Mozambiqueu00a0 strains. Berby has been part of the Trilok Gurtu band since 2007, as electric bassist. As endorsee of Warwick bass guitars, he sits in a room with 30 young musicians, to conduct a workshop on the 'language of percussion'.

Berby begins by asking the audience what music means to them. Words like 'emotion' and 'expression' are thrown around, but nobody steps up. The jazz musician then resorts to an exercise to loosen up the crowd. It starts with clapping, followed by stepping, a percussive dance form. More people join in, and he hums a tune, allowing everyone to find a place in the harmony.u00a0

Berby then answers his own question. "If you can feel the music in your body, you can give people goose-bumps. With music, you can make party every day," he says, quickly apologising for his poor English.
But he need not use words at all, his music says it best.u00a0

In the audience is 14 year-old Jazdegard Daruwalla, who taps his feet as Berby adds Afro beats to a metal song. "I play guitar, and like rock. But it's interesting to see folk rhythm added to a metal rift," he says.

For the grand finale, Berby is joined by friend Theo Croix, a sound engineer and violinist from Paris, who puts the fiddle to the metal with a rendition of Kurukshetra, a Trilok Gurtu song that borrows musical elements across the globe to, as Berby would say, give you goose-bumps.