Sitarist Tommy Khosla formed JAWARI a couple of years ago. Since then, this multinational, multi-stylistic group has been establishing an audience drawn from different communities ethnically, culturally and musically. Defining the group’s music is not easy, though the influences of North Indian music, Latin America and jazz are immediately apparent. Add to this mix the spoken word poetry of Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay and the points of reference multiply accordingly. Perhaps the most important thing to say about Jawari is that the music has a wonderful poignancy and delicacy but allied to a strong rhythmic sense and group identity. It is simultaneously emotionally affecting but one also feels it physically. ROAD RASA (Vadi Records) is the group’s first album and follows on from Khosla’s own solo LP Vignettes. Interview with sitarist Tommy Khosla by Duncan Heining:
UK Jazz News: How did you come to play the sitar, Tommy?
Tommy Khosla: I come from a mixed heritage, part Indian, part European family. My dad bought a sitar on a trip to India and, when I was 12, I fell in love with it really. Before that I was doing a lot of jazz piano but, when I found the sitar, it was as if it felt connected to the jazz I was doing.
UKJN: You’ve studied with Ricky Romain and Anoushka Shankar. Obviously, I know about Anoushka but not much about Ricky.
TK: He’s an amazing teacher and also a political artist. He was teaching in Devon, an hour train ride from mine and I used to go up and see him. We used to spend the best part of a day together, learning, doing quite intense lessons and we are now very dear friends, still playing together a lot and now I’m learning with Anoushka Shankar as well.
UKJN: So, how did you come to form JAWARI?
TK: In the first instance, JAWARI came about because of a need to perform my music live. When I was approached to do a live gig, people would say “Oh, we really like your jazzy stuff. Can you come and do that live?” I can’t do that live solo. It just doesn’t work. Sitar, as you know, is a solo instrument but it’s kind of monophonic and it’s very difficult to do a satisfying solo show in a sort of jazz sense. Initially, it was just me, Gregorio Merchán, who plays the South American drum called a tambora, and Kenichi Kojima on acoustic guitar. We performed a couple of times under my name but then, in rehearsals we started making all this other music together. We thought, “This is something different” and we started writing more and more music. I got Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay involved on the poetry and then Taylor Frost joined on guitar and Billie Sophoclides on sax and flute and they brought in a more jazz element. Gregorio has brought his cumbia influence as well. It’s still evolving but I feel like it’s more an interdisciplinary collective, mostly focused on Indian classical music and jazz but also Latin American musical roots.
UKJN: Who were the artists who have inspired you?
TK: My main influence is Anoushka Shankar but I was also very inspired by John McLaughlin and Shakti. They were an amazing influence on me. When I heard their albums, I was just mind blown. Then, later on, I was inspired by artists like Badmarsh & Shri, who have this more electronic kind of vibe and, obviously, Nitin Sawney. Those are my main influences in terms of the Indian stuff.
UKJN: I have to confess that I struggle with rap but the way Lagnajita’s poetry and voice are used really works for me. It seems to add texture and offer a commentary on the music, almost like a Greek chorus.
TK: I’m so glad you’ve said that because not everyone gets it but that is exactly it. It kind of sits on the music and it is sort of like the Greek chorus in a way. It’s like just posing questions to the listener. It’s almost like another instrument as well, in the way Lagnajita uses the rhythm of her voice. For me, it’s quite emotive. It kind of guides me through the tracks, as well.
UKJN: As someone whose listening to pop, rock and rap has been rather limited, I hesitate to say this but there were three groups who did catch my ear – Massive Attack, Portishead and Arrested Development. ROAD RASA, for me, has that same laid-back kind of groove.
TK: Really? Yeah, that’s very interesting because a lot of those I grew up listening to quite a lot, so it’s always interesting to see what kind of sneaks into the music from what you’ve grown up listening to.
UKJN: How do you relate to the spiritual aspects and elements of Indian music?
TK: I relate quite strongly to them but in my own way in my solo classical sitar practice. For me, there’s a big devotional aspect to it. I don’t subscribe to a particular religion, per se. My Indian family is Hindu, so I’m aware of those beliefs and kind of get on board with some of them. But for me, the main thing with Indian music that I realized this year is a lot to do with prāṇa and the Kundalini energy that comes up from the root chakra and goes up the body.
And I think the whole way that Indian music is structured, if you play authentically, it does cultivate this rise of energy and emotion and power as well. Starting with the slow alap, it gets you into the state of the raga, very steady, held, wide open space. And as you go up to the jhor bringing in the heartbeat, things start to get a bit more constricted but more kind of vibrant. Then, you come to the vilambit, the slow piece and then speed increases with the tabla to the drut and jhalla. Now, there’s more structure, more energy but still being balanced by this rootedness that you began with.
I feel very grounded and increasingly energized as I play and that’s a very real feeling that I get if I’m practicing authentically. And I find that to be very spiritual and I have had quite spiritual experiences whilst playing. Sometimes, though rarely, I have visions or realisations or I feel like some other being is playing.
UKJN: Final question, Tommy. Where does your audience come from?
TK: We’ve got quite an interesting audience, honestly. It’s a real mix. I mean, we’re a London band, and so we have a very eclectic audience. I would say one that really spans young people of all walks of life who are just interested in hearing something like grassroots music that is not really in one of the established genres. I think people are very refreshed to hear that kind of music being made. We get a lot of people coming up and saying, “I’ve been wanting this music to exist for a long time but no one’s doing it in this way.” We have got, obviously, a lot of South Asian diaspora listening in. We get a lot of support from them. But one of our band members is Colombian – Gregorio and some of the tracks are in Spanish. So, we’ve got quite a globalaudience, I would say and that’s what I hope for. I hope that it connects with the people whose music we’re representing, as well as the people who are interestedin world music and jazz as a whole. I also want musicians to enjoy it and I think they do.
Road Rasa can be obtained via Bandcamp, by emailing vadirecords@gmail.com, or by messaging the band directly on instagram @jawariband.
