Experience The Soul Of India At Jodhpur RIFF 2024: An Epic Celebration Of Tradition And Sound

After witnessing the many marvels of roots music from the 16th to the 20th October, 2024, Jodhpur RIFF audiences were both satiated and exhilarated with the wide spectrum of world, roots and folk music, dance and drama they had experienced over the past five days.

“It gives us great pleasure and pride, each year, to be able to host and showcase in the uniquely majestic environs of the Mehrangarh Fort, a rare cornerstone of history, the treasure that is Rajasthan’s living heritage— its diverse folk artists,” said HH Maharaja Gaj Singh II of Marwar-Jodhpur, the Chief Patron of the Festival. “The magnificent fort, our immensely talented artists and roots music masters from around the world, come together to create an unforgettable experience for audiences every year.”

“Much akin to roots music, Jodhpur RIFF is premised on the principle of organic growth, as it nourishes its essence,” said Festival Director Divya Bhatia. “Over these many years we have grown in terms of the kinds of acts we have introduced audiences to.. like we introduced a folk-classical dance collaboration last year and then this year, a variety of musical theatre forms. We have had a steady growth in the number of repeat attendees at the festival and have grown in many other ways too. Yet, we have retained our quality, and the immersive and intimate essence that is Jodhpur RIFF’s signature.”

The 19th of October commenced with a magical dawn for audiences, brought in to the sound of guitar strings plucked by one of Africa’s best guitarists: Louis Mhlanga, whose innovative fuses the intricate finger-picking techniques of traditional African string instruments, such as the kora, with the soul of American jazz. Other highlights of the day include an ‘In Residence’ session of Pavakathakali, or glove puppetry from Kerala — performed next to a nilavilakku (a lit copper lamp), accompanied by singers andinstruments like chenda, chengila, ilathalam, and shankhu — and Kutiyattam, a 2000 year old art form recognised by UNESCO as a 'Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’, performed by the masterful and acclaimed Kapila Venu.

As day turned to dusk, audiences gathered to witness ‘Inayat: A Duet for Four’, a collaboration between Tarini Tripathi and SAZ, the dynamic trio of Langa musicians Sadique (on the dholak), Asin (vocals and Sindhi sarangi) and Zakir (khartal) Khan Langa. SAZ, who came together via Jodhpur RIFF to not just preserve their community’s musical heritage but also create new songs and performance pieces for the present generation, work some of their magic in collaboration with other musicians and performers from across India and the world. Their collaboration with Tripathi, which resulted in a small but intriguing piece during last year’s Jodhpur RIFF, has grown to become a full blown show in itself this year, is testimony to the dividends such collaborations, steered by Jodhpur RIFF, can yield.

As the moon emerged and inched its way across the sky, the musical action at Jodhpur RIFF 2024 shifted to the Zenana Courtyard, beginning with the powerful voice of Sumitra Das Goswami, called the ‘Cuckoo of Rajasthan’, who now performs on some of the most prestigious world stages, ranging from the Lincoln Centre in New York to the Berliner Philharmonie. Das Goswami sings so soulfully, at times, that it appears that she and her subject — be it the mystic poet Meera or Krishna’s lover Radha — are one. With the next act — Sona Mohapatra — audience members flooded into the space in front of the stage, dancing to her music and requesting endless encores. Singer, lyricist and composer, Mohapatra, though primarily trained in Hindustani classical, keeps her love for folk music alive in what she calls ‘Desi Soul’. Sheperformed an especially curated set for Jodhpur RIFF, comprising lesser known folk songs (including ones from her home state Odisha), her early pieces — which she revisited to listeners’ delight — as well as her new song Baadila. She wrapped up her set with a collaboration performance with SAZ, to overwhelming cheers from the audience.

After Mohapatra, audiences were thrilled at a special announcement. SAZ, a band whose journey is inextricably linked to the journey of the festival, announced its first album with an album cover reveal. The album, comprising five songs by the talented Langa trio of Sadique, Asin and Zakir Khan, will be released closer to Diwali, just in time for the festive season. Further details will be available on @jodhpurriff and @saz.music.official later this month.

Next up were Gray by Silver, a four piece ensemble, whose blend of keys, vocals, percussion, strings and junggeum bamboo flute created a supernatural soundscape which immediately transported audience members to another place and time— one in which the traditional and the contemporary, the Korean and the universal, could co-exist. Next up were Puuluup, a revolutionary nu-folk band from Estonia, whose music stands as testament to the fact that the roots music universe is full of surprises. Their performance, a fusion of lyrics in a medley of languages, including some they have thought up themselves, was set to groove based compositions with electronically amplified echoes, knocks, squeaks and scrapes set to the softly strummed hiiu kannel— a centuries old instrument that they have revived. It went from pulsating dance vibes to dark, cinematic and ancient soundscapes reminiscent of the talharpists of yore. It might not be easy to believe that a near ancient instrument can make an audience head bang, dance and sway as they would if they were in a heavy metal concert, but Puuluup makes this possible. After a magnificent interlude featuring young khartal players from the Langa community, led by Zakir Khan Langa, the next act brought on stage a master and pioneering figure in Carnatic music: Sukanya Ramgopal, the first woman ghatam player in Carnatic music. Accompanied by her student (another master) Giridhar Udupa and Udupa’s student Shreeharsha. Three generations of ghatam players wowed the audience with a performance which was as much about showmanship as it was about mastery.

As is custom, the ‘RIFF Rustle’, Jodhpur RIFF’s vast impromptu collaboration, concluded revelries on the festival’s last night. Giridhar Udupa and Elli Miller-Maboungou, an ace Congolese percussionist and composer, took on the role of ‘rustlers’. They gathered a diverse gamut of musicians from the festival to jam together in various formations, including pairs and quartets. Performers at this finale came from various sections of the roots music spectrum— from Sumitra Devi to Gray by Silver, from the Manganiyars of Marwar and Langa musicians to Norwegian award winning band Gabba and SAZ, from Giridhar Udupa to Rajasthan’s dhol, khartal and dholak maestros. The music went on till the wee hours of the morning, as did the dancing of audience members.

But Jodhpur RIFF 2024 ended not with this wild night, but with a reflective dawn. Kaluram Bamaniya spoke and sang to a packed house at Jaswant Thada his own interpretations and compositions of the great Indian humanist poet Kabir. A Padma Shri, Bamaniya, from Malwa in Madhya Pradesh, is a specialist in Kabir Gayan, having begun his journey into this genre of music at the tender age of nine. His words and song, bringing to people not just roots music, but also roots philosophy, in the most easy-to-understand manner, was representative of the ethos Jodhpur RIFF lives by.