Composer-flautist Guillaume Barraud dives into his musical journey and Mumbai

Amitabh Bachchan ke ghar ke saamnerdquo comes the answer quite like a direction given to an autorickshaw driver in Juhu The question that this writer posed was whether composerflautist Guillaume Barraud had been to Mumbai before The Parisbased Barraud is amused Having lived in the city for five years in the early noughties the 46yearold certainly knows his way around townEven as he is speaking with this writer over the phone Barraud is preparing for his next concert in Kochi This is part of a India tour for the composer and his quartet mdash Tam de Villiers guitarist Guillaume Ruelland bassist and Maxime Zampieri drums ldquoIt is good to be backrdquo he admitsHariprasad Chaurasia PIC COURTESYWIKIMEDIA COMMONSThe country has changed a lot since Barraud first visited it in 1999 ldquoI was already into yoga and meditation in Paris It exposed me to the sound of the fluterdquo he recalls A guitarist by training Barraud found the flute more specifically the bansuri more suitable for his expression ldquoI was moved so much and transported by the hypnotic sound It is like you sing into the flute All your emotions move through your breathrdquo he remarks Having heard the sounds of Shakti and The Mahavishnu Orchestra as well as the influence of Hindustani music on Miles Davis and John Coltrane he was curiousBarraud left in performance with Prabhu Edouard in GenevaIt so happened that the visit to India proved to be the beginning of an adventure Barraud learned the bansuri through one of its greatest exponents Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia Their meeting was a matter of pure chance he admits ldquoI was travelling through Gujarat and had bought my first bansuri I was practicing at a hotel one morning when someone knocked on the door A student of Panditji and I started talking about the bansuri Soon we were friends When I visited Mumbai to meet him he introduced me to PanditjirdquoBarraud collaborates with composer Frank Strobel and the Tonhalle OrchestraThis is when Juhu became the place to be for Barraud between 2001 and 2008ldquoPanditjirsquos school was also close by and we had a band that would perform across the cityrdquo he shares The five years of learning would inform his approach towards composition and music He shares ldquoAll composition emerges from the mode or the raga as we say For instance with my first work I was focussing on Gurjari Todi I was playing the guitar on that particular scale and was able to develop harmonic changes and progressions to find a narrativerdquoThe need to tell a story or have a conversation through music is one of the lessons handed down during his schooling with Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia Describing Panditjirsquos class Barraud recalls ldquoFor him the class was an opportunity to develop new ideas like in a music lab We were his mirrors He would experiment new ideas and we would repeat in a questionanswer form through music creating a conversation a narrative Is that not so similar to jazz improvisationrdquoIt is no surprise then that the composer has adapted this style as a part of the composition process for the upcoming project Tales OfThe Bamboo Reed ldquoWe plan to release the album next year but it is currently a work in progress The tour is an opportunity to build up the chemistry and tighten the sets as we go alongrdquo he says After performances in Delhi Chandigarh and Kochi they will arrive in Mumbai before the final performances in Bengaluru Despite the number of stops Barraud admits there wonrsquot be enough time for a proper Mumbai darshan ldquoI would love to go and meet Guruji again Sadly we wonrsquot have enough time But that is the life of a musician on tourrdquo he concludesOn November 27 9 pm onwardsAt Bonobo Kenilworth Mall Linking Road Bandra WestTake your pick from these offbeat French jazz classiquesgtgt Gypsy Guitar by Angelo DeBarreLog on to Spotifygtgt Paris 24H by Paris Jazz Big BandLog on to Spotify Apple iTunesgtgt Sous les Pommiers by Anne PaceoLog on to Spotify Apple iTunesgtgt Meet Quincy Jones by Les Double SixLog on to Spotify YouTubegtgt Cour Encore by Clara LucianiLog on to Spotifygtgt Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge GainsbourgLog on to Spotifygtgt La Bellevilloise by The Pantheon Gypsy BandLog on to YouTube