Beats from the African drums

CHENNAI: Chennaiites came to know about Beat Gurus just couple of hours before the Bangalore-based band performed for the first time in the city on Saturday as part of a fashion show. But by the time the group went onto the stage for the second time, they had created a fan base. Audiences welcomed the seven-member percussionist band with shrieking whistles and thunderous applause. The band lived up to the expectations and kept the gathering on their toes with its ‘Afrindo’. The USP of this troupe is their instruments — Djembe (African hand drum), Dijiridoo, Congas-Bongos and Chinese Cowbell, among others. “We keep experimenting with different instruments. If it suits our kind of music, we use them,” says Ganesh Govindasamy, the head of  Beat Gurus. Ganesh started the band in 1990 with the name, Green Rhythm, with Prashanth Muralidhar, who is the manager of the troupe now. Basically a drummer, Ganesh got introduced to Djembe when he became a part of the Singapore International Foundation. “Djembe is a 5,000-year-old African instrument and I really thought I can connect with people with the sound it produces,” says Ganesh.  Beat Gurus don’t perform classic, but African, Western and Cuban music. Ganesh says they have done more than 3,000 performances in India and abroad, including Europe, Malaysia and Singapore. “We have sometimes performed non-stop for more than an hour, depending upon the programme,” he  says.   Another interesting aspect is their renunciation of electronic instruments. “We want the music to be completely raw and don’t want to mess it up with electronic sounds,” says Ganesh. Pointing to Dijiridoo, Prashanth says, “It’s a unique instrument, which produces a sound that will create a psychedelic effect on you.”Other than running a school to teach this unique music form, Beat Gurus is also planning to record an album. “A lot work needs to be done. We are working on it,” says Daniel.