All of us love the music of Illayaraja and A R Rahman so much that we listen to thier numbers scores of times. In fact, we know these tunes so well that when someone takes the liberty to make a few changes in their songs, we sometimes accept them and sometimes don’t. Meet Stacatto, the first city-based band that pioneered the trend of specialising in playing ARR and Illayaraja hits. “We only make changes in the orchestrations and make sure that we don’t tamper with the melody,” reassured Vikram Sarathy, who is on the keys. “We try to re-orchestrate the songs so that people don’t get tired of listening to the same old songs,” cuts in Tapass Naresh, the percussionist. The band sure does have a lot to say about the songs of the two music maestros. “We make sure we don’t spoil the songs,” jumped in Ajay Gnanasekaran, the band manager, who also plays the tabla. With over six members of the 15-member band (the lineup usually depends on the songs they are playing and the occasion) sharing a childhood, the band coming about was only inevitable and the most natural thing. “We all studied at Chettinad Vidyashram and played together at culturals. Even when we moved to college, we got together to jam and eventually, the band formed,” explains Vikram. Remembering their mentor in their earlier days, Tapass says, “We definitely have to thank Suresh sir from school. He was the one who inspired us to do something.” They call themselves an experimental band and play a bit of this and that, including Carnatic music, contemporary rhythms and jazz tunes. “We try to fuse world genres with our music as much as we can,” says Sabharish Shankar, the guitarist, who also plays the Cavaquinho, from the Ukulele family. Speaking of world music, Vikram, Ajay and Bala, the other percussionist, represented the band and the country at Rio de Janeiro at Red Bull Tum Tum Pa, a freestyle percussion contest. The band members also make sure that they are constantly learning and pick up bits and pieces from each other. Shallu, the quiet bassist, shares his light music experiences with the team. Vandana, the female lead singer (who the boys swear they take care of like a little sister), with her Hindustani and classical background, and Tapass, who also plays for the rock band SKRAT, rock music know-how. Others in the band are Sruthi Sagar (flutist), Praveen (Mridangam), Manoj (Violin), Yeshwanth and Karthik (Keys), Ellavarasan (Drums) and Gowtham Bharadwaj (Vocals). Already having launched Satya Paul’s clothing brand in Chennai, they played at the launch of the single Sathyameva Jayathe. Stacatto is looking to perform more and for a niche audience that understands their music and specific orchestration. The band will play at Alliance Francaise, Nungambakkam, on October 7. [email protected]
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