Students in the city were treated to the mind of a very talented and unique Jazz player, Biggi Vinkeloe. Based out of Sweden, the internationally acclaimed musician was in the city over the last two days, conducting workshops at schools. Brought in by the Goethe-Zentrum, the workshop titled ‘Dream Cities and City Dreams’ aimed at introducing children to the city sounds and giving them the opportunity to create music with it.Speaking at the workshop, Vinkeloe said, “It was an interesting experience for me. I was looking to see if there was anyway I could give the children the inspiration to do something different and unique with sounds they hear everyday. In our minds we register a lot of sounds, like the honking of vehicles or a plane passing by, traffic, crackling fire and so on. But there’s so much more that can be done.”Art and MusicVinkeloe who plays the alto saxophone and the flute is a quintessential musician. Common among her techniques is her collaboration with dancers and painters. “I believe that there is music in those art forms. Ultimately it all comes down to emotion. When I work with them, we’re reflecting off of each other. Its quite something.”Working on similar lines, children at the workshop collected sounds and pictures of their surroundings and made a collage of them, reflecting Biggi’s imagination with her work.“You try to tell a story no matter what you are working with. You share your memories in the process. You communicate. But all of that starts from a thought. Getting that though right was the point of the workshop. This is the time for these kids to get wildly imaginative and make mistakes.”The WorkshopChildren at the workshop had put together a presentation by the end of the two days, drawing a connect between the sounds, the pictures and the music. Singing a village folk song accompanied by a tambourine, the students sang to a visual collage of the pictures they had clicked over the two days of the sights around: the city traffic, their campus, children wandering hither-tither, eateries that spot the roads, street food and so on. Also a part of the musical journey was a band comprising of students playing the mridangam, an electric guitar, bass guitar, the drums and the keys. They performed a semi-classical-rock cover of the popular song ‘Sunshine’ from the movie 3 Idiots.“People here will identify with the sunshine song because its popular. But the twist in the sound was the experiment I wanted them to do. What we’ve done here will go up on a virtual library for everyone to hear. That way its open to a larger musical audience and might spark of another musical idea,” she explains.Sounds of BiggiMusical collaborations are an important part of Biggi’s musical experience, a fact very evident from the number of bands she’s collaborated with. In fact, despite this being her maiden trip to India, she discovered a band in Bengaluru she hopes things will work out with.“I’m really bad with names. For the life of me I can’t remember their name, but they are brilliant. They have a mix of Indian classical in their line-up and I myself am a fan of Indian classical. The first Indian instrument I heard was the sitar and the sound was beautiful.”It was her curiosity with sound that led her to pick up the flute. But she soon realised that in order to be heard, she needed something louder, something bigger. That’s when she picked up the sax. “I was 22 when I bought my first saxophone. And I haven’t stopped ever since.”World Music“Right now the reach of music around the world is very vast. We can listen to almost any form or style. That makes things quite interesting for a musician.” Biggi strongly believe in the power of communication through music. Given that fact, doesn’t she feel that the mix of genres of music by upcoming artists looking for that right sound might change the contours of classical music?“Anybody who wants to truly do music will have to learn music professionally. Any music school will teach you classical music. Thus the essence of music will never change because the basics always go back to classical music.”Commercial versus classicalSo what’s her take on the breed of self-taught music bands who pop out of nowhere, yet still do well?“Musically, these bands will not really last long unless they get their foundation right. Pop music is a huge commercial success. But they aren’t songs that will be remembered say 10 years down. You’ll find these artists will ultimately learn music in its proper structured form if they really want to make real music. People need to understand the difference between commercial success and music.”
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