Sandip Chakravorty, aka Sandyman will be the accompanying tabla artist at the three-hours long prestigious show of "The Bootleg Beatles" at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, The Royal Albert Hall on 1 June 2017.
As a part of the 50 years of SGT Pepper celebration, the performance will have songs with Indian elements, and having performed for Sir Paul McCartney and HM The Queen on earlier occassions, the master percussionist was the preferred choice for the performance.
Sandyman told the Asian Voice: “India and Beatles always had a strong connection. Between 1966 and 1968 the group wrote three songs written by George Harrison in the Indian style. So the Sitar and Tabla was very much used with the Beatles Music."
Born and raised in London, Sandyman moved to Kolkata, India at the age of 8 to learn the Tabla. He trained for up to eight hours everyday under the able guidance of well-known pundits in percussions and came back before apprearing for his GCSE.
“My first performance was at Royal Albert Hall, and I have performed with global artists Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Bappi Lahiri, Anup Jalota, Kumar Sanu, Malkit Singh, Arjun, Runa Laila, Mumtaz, Andrew Kishore, Alaur Rahman and many more.”
Sandyman is the proprietor of the Guru Soundz music store, http://www.gurusoundz.com and has been an avid contributor to the Asian Music circles in the UK.
“Actually tabla today is slowly fading away from South Asia, as electronics has taken over. Tradition tabla has to learnt through the Guru Shishya parampara with a lot of patience and practice.
“I would really like the younger generations to be interested in Tabla, learn and dedicate themselves, i can see them taking it to the mainstream junta in Mass quantity. Hopefully one day all top of the charts will have some elements of Tabla," hoped Sandyman.
Sandyman has been Programme Directing at various Asian Melas, including being the Music Director of London Baishaki Mela in the Tower hamlets and in community get-togethers and has anchored for music-based programmes out of London for television channels like Bengali channels like NTV, ATN and Star Jalsha.
