Samir Chatterjee - Music of Tabla

Samir Chatterjee - tabla solo
Kedar Naphade - harmonium

Sitting: In the main room on the floor with back jack support, chairs in the second and third room.
Dress Code: Casual, comfortable, decent. Please take off your shoes before entering the studios.
Food and beverage: Only water is allowed inside the studios. Please bring your own supply.
CHHANDAYAN'S PROGRAMS ARE MADE POSSIBLE BY THE NEW YORK STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR AND THE NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATURE.

A comment from 2023 solo at the same space:
"Dear ---,

It’s very refreshing to see you present a spontaneous solo, one which is not based on a fixed repertoire. AND at the same time, you didn’t give into the temptation (maybe) to try to explain with words to the listeners what you were doing. You gave the audience a lot of credit and I felt that they (most likely) met you in the moment with the music. The result was a performance where I see you moving towards a more innocent connection with the music, maybe not a coincidence that you mentioned your 2-year-old first impression of tabla at the end of the concert. In the end, a child is not aware of the culture he finds himself. Only listening, only exploring. This is true improvisation, and I am so happy and inspired to see you going in that direction. After this trip to India, I feel I am trying to at least point myself in that direction as well.

In this concert I did have the feeling that the real “juice” of the improvisation was arrived at after a period of “warming up”. This of course might have been my own subjective experience of it but I suspect that the role of the nagma and tanpura play an important part."

Samir Chatterjee
Samir Chatterjee is a virtuoso Tabla player. He travels widely across the world throughout the year performing in numerous festivals as a soloist or with other outstanding musicians from both Indian and non-Indian musical traditions. Samir performed at the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. He also performed at the UN General Assembly. His compositions are widely acclaimed as well as his writings. Samir is a firm believer in the transforming effect of music on the society and all aspects of his work reflects this conviction.

Chatterjee began his studies early with Bankim Ghosh, Balaram Mukherjee, Rathin Dhar and Md. Salim. His later formation as a musician occurred under the guidance of Amalesh Chatterjee and Shyamal Bose. All of Samir's teachers have been from the Farrukhabad Gharana of Tabla-playing, which he now represents.

Samir can be heard on numerous recordings featuring as soloist, accompanying many of India's greatest musicians and in collaboration with western musicians of outstanding caliber. In concert Samir has accompanied many of India's greatest musicians including Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Nikhil Banerjee, V.G. Jog, Shivkumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, Amjad Ali Khan, Salamat Ali Khan, Lakshmi Shankar, L. Subramanium, U Srinivas, Shujaat Khan, Shahid Parvez, Ajoy Chakraborty, Rashid Khan, Kaushiki Chakraborty, to name only a few.

Samir Chatterjee has been a catalyst in the fusion of Indian and Non-Indian music, in his own creations and others as well. He has performed with Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, Branford Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, Joshua Bell, David Liebman, Ned Rothenberg, Mark Dresser, Dance Theater of Harlem, Boston Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, and other jazz, classical and Avant guard musicians and ensembles. He also collaborates with Sufi-Rock singer Salman Ahmad of Junoon from Pakistan. He is the composer and director of Tablaphilia, Indo-Flame, Chhand-Anand, RabiThakur, Meghadootam, and Dawn to Dusk and Beyond. He performs with Sanjay Mishra on his CD "Blue Incantation" featuring Jerry Garcia as guest artist.

Chatterjee has been teaching for the last 50 years. Many of his students are established performers. He is the founding president of Chhandayan. He has authored books titled A Study of Tabla, Music of India and Those Forty Days. He has taught at the Manhattan School of Music, Univ. of Pittsburgh, New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Yale University, NYU, among many other major institutions in the USA, Europe and India. He has master's degrees in English and History.

Samir made significant contributions towards the musical revival of Afghanistan since 2008. He has received several awards including Sunshine Caribbean Award in 2016, Jadu Bhatta Award from Salt Lake Music Conference, Acharya Varistha Award from Pandit Jasraj Institute, Taal Mani Award from Council of Indian Classical Music, Delhi in 2018, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from SMIPAC Trust, Delhi in 2018.

"This was almost painfully reflective music, ending, finally, in an exuberant improvisatory interchange with Samir Chatterjee, whose Tabla playing also seemed less percussive than vocal." –The New York Times

"The superb tabla player Samir Chatterjee joined the conversation in the second movement,...and the music kicked into high gear,.... Chatterjee’s solo legerdemain foreshadowed a violin cadenza, improvised by Kurkowicz in a slightly disparate Romantic style; an extended give-and-take between the two enthused soloists anchored the finale, framed by a torrential, exuberant tune up by the entire band, propelled by Chatterjee’s rhythmic authority and Kurkowicz’s energy." –Boston Globe

"The highlight was the tabla playing of Samir Chatterjee in the final scene, which stood out from the other instruments with the kind of vivid, exciting performance that draws Western composers to a non-western music in the first place." -The New York Times

"The remarkable tabla virtuoso Chatterjee's playing is rather unique among tabla artists as his impeccable mastery of rhythm is expressed with a rather vocal-like quality. His tabla speaks the patterns, adding a commentary to the rhythm and interplay with the sitar. A fine collaboration." - Rhythm

"Chatterjee is a good foil for the sarengi virtuoso, as his drumming works in the service of the raga and of Mishra. There is none of the flashy "bird-in-a-bottle" showboating, which has infected much of contemporary tabla drumming. Mr. Chatterjee's solid support and sense of restraint are to be commended."- The Beat

"Chatterjee, who can sing and then play back the most complex patterns in the manner of great masters, also senses how to highlight more compact, swing-oriented parts through shifts in accents and dynamics." – The Boston Globe.

"Tabaliya Samir Chatterjee made audibly visible those divisional breaths-in-rhythm that is as much music as music itself. His intimate and broadened stretch of motif accentuation, his extemporizations, richly surrounded the dance figures wrought by Jonathan Hollander. Samir’s rhythmic play acted as a continuous narrative, capable of solemn declamation as well as celebration of the human form and of the life-giving elements of nature." – Sruti

Displaying consummate control and perfection, the artiste (Samir Chatterjee) enthralled the listeners with a very traditional and systematic exposition of ‘Jhamptaal’. Some of the ‘Quidas’ and ‘Tukra’ (types of compositions) were delectable for their intricacy and close finishing.–The Telegraph, Calcutta

The concert became more enjoyable due to the high quality of accompaniment of Samir Chatterjee on the tabla. The distinct and defined tone of his bols filled the atmosphere with melody. –Anandabazar Patrika, Calcutta

SYNC’s first album 'PORT OF ENTRY' does not at all sound effortfully avantgardistic or experimental. Rather than that, the eight tracks come across in an explicitly harmonic and relaxed manner; a merit, which we attribute mainly to Samir Chatterjee, whose Tablas provide a percussive basis of an airy, light-footed quality. - Rec'order pages

Samir Chatterjee weaves his discreet drumming. It is especially the warm-sounding and intimate Tabla-accompaniment by Chatterjee, which fuses differing concepts of Jazz into one term: openness. From the Northern Indian regions Chatterjee brought along that sound which appeals so religiously, but nevertheless - or maybe just because of that feature - adds remarkable accents to the western-urban-oriented music.-Jazzthetik Nr.

His (Ned Rothenberg’s) sense of line and drama is impeccable, and over Chatterjee's roiling tabla work and Harris's introspective guitar lines, the effect was compelling. .. this is unusually thoughtful music, and the subtleties of the tabla, along with Harris's sinuous guitar work, beautifully complemented Rothenberg's detailed, colorful and hyper-imaginative playing.–Washington Post