Despite being one of few female players worldwide, the Indian-American musician effortlessly combines electronic melodies with her beloved Indian drum.
Brought up in Minneapolis USA by her Indian parents, Suphala Patankar (also known as Suphala) was introduced at age four to Western classical music in the form of the piano. While she showed an early gift for music – already performing by the following year – as a teenager she quickly fell in love with the rhythms and taps of the tabla, a classical North Indian goatskin drum.
Based in New York City, the 37-year-old had the golden opportunity to study with the father and son team of tabla players, Ustad Alla Rakha Qureshi and Ustad Zakir Hussain, in Mumbai over a period of several years.
As a female tabla player, Suphala is already uncommon. In 2005, she became rather exceptional in Kabul, where she was the first female musician to play in public since the fall of the Taliban. Her fourth and latest album, ‘Alien Ancestry’ (2013) is an exploration of her tabla language against engineered electronic sounds.
Suphala will be performing at this year’s MOCAfest, part of the 11th World Islamic Economic Forum held in Kuala Lumpur from Nov 3-5, 2015.
Aquila Style: If tabla is a language, what is the significance of the tabla to you?
Suphala: Music allows me to communicate on another plane and tabla is an amazing vehicle to do so. The language of tabla is mathematical yet poetic and there are infinite combinations and possibilities in which to express myself.
You have an impressive résumé of cross-cultural collaborations: from Yoko Ono to singer Norah Jones on your 2005 album ‘The Now’. What value do you see in these collaborations?
Playing with different people expands my mind and each time I learn something new. The way I respond and interact musically with a hip-hop artist for example, would be different from how I would approach playing with a classical violinist.
What do you hope to learn from other artists at this year’s MOCAfest?
New interactions and exchanging ideas through music, and interacting and communicating with a new audience in Malaysia as it’s my first time there.
I’m looking forward to hearing the other artists and it’s only when I sit and play with someone that we find out what kind of musical chemistry we have.
The tabla has usually been relegated to men in South Asian communities. What challenges do you face as being one of few female tabla players?
I’ve been fortunate in that my gurus whom I learnt from were not concerned about the gender of their students but rather, if they have what it takes to play. If the talent and dedication was there, that was what was looked at.
As far as going out in the world to perform, I think it’s similar. If you have what it takes, people recognise it and enjoy it. There are always those who will be set in their ideas but those numbers are small.
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