Bikram Ghosh is the Indian Percussionist who has been an avid player of musical instruments in the domain of classical music and fusion music. He is the one who is famed due to his experimentation and reinterpretation of music and culture. The music he creates is strongly influenced by the Thumri and Khayal genres of Patiala gharana.
Early life of Bikram Ghosh
His roots are in Kolkata, West Bengal; his biography reads his father to be the tabla maestro Pandit Shankar Ghosh and classical vocalist, Sanjukta Ghosh. His educational degree started its institutional journey from La Martiniere Calcutta and finally his graduation in English was completed from St. Xavier`s College, Kolkata and Masters in English Literature from Jadavpur University. His first tabla guru had been his father Pandit Shankar Ghosh, who had played with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
Career of Bikram Ghosh
Bikram Ghosh is equally brilliant with the experimental genres as well as traditional music ventures. He has carved out a unique niche for himself amidst the sea of musical talents by mastering the Carnatic percussion. He is fast becoming a household name for fans of Indian classical music. His lightning-fast yet what exposes as extremely unsoiled, spotless drumming mirrors the style of his gharana (music lineage), but it also contains rhythmic elements from other influences. He has performed on fifteen recordings, including the award-winning CD Kirvani, released in 1996.
Bikram Ghosh figures prominently amongst the best in the world when it comes to the umbrella of percussion. He has a number of solo recordings in his kitty and over forty accompaniment albums as his grand accomplishments. He has played on the album "Full Circle" with Ravi Shankar which was awarded the grammy. For many years, he has accompanied Ravi Shankar as his prime accompanist. He has played with all the stalwarts of Indian Classical music (Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Dr. Balamurlikrishna etc) and is widely recognized for his incredible range on the tabla.
He has played time and again at renowned auditoriums like the Carnegie hall, NY, The Royal Albert hall, London, The Barbican Centre, London and The Kennedy Centre, Washington DC. He is one of the very few tabla players equally at ease in both the Hindusthani and Carnatic Music traditions.
The band of which he is an integral part Rhythmscape performs neo-fusion music, celebrated their 10th anniversary in 2011. To mark the omnipotence of the musical juncture, Rhythmscape collaborated with Greg Ellis to execute their performance in Kolkata and Mumbai, an event organized by Folktronic. The band also released their second album, Transformation, which had won the Best Fusion Album at the Indian Recording Arts Awards 2012. Bickram performs within Troikala along with Assamese folk/indie singer Papon and Scottish singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni. Troikala was created and organized by British Council in association with Folktronic. He has also performed as part of fusion Sufi act, "Sufusion" along with vocalists Ambarish Das and Parvati Kumar, keyboardist Indrajit Dey, and drummer Arun Kumar.
Bikram has collaborated with Sonu Nigam to compose the music for the film "Jal". Bikram has also scored music for many movies including the Mira Nair production, Little Zizou. Even Bickram has his own music company, Melting Pot Productions, which launched in October 2010.