Purbayan Chatterjee on Musical Collaboration

“The beauty of raga music is that every time an artist performs a raga, it is a reimagining of sorts,” he says thoughtfully. “What usually happens is Gurmukhi Vidya. Guru Shishya is taught in Parampara. The guru tells you that these are sentences. But the right guru, the Sadguru, will tell you to find your own sentences within the parameters of the raga.”

He uses a simple analogy to explain his idea. “It’s a bit like the story of Hansel and Gretel. Everyone tells this story. The story doesn’t change, but everyone tells the same story differently.”

This search for individuality within tradition shaped his musical journey. Even after performing with Rakesh Chaurasia for nearly three decades, he says familiarity never translates into repetition. “We can approach the same Yaman or the same Bihag, but on a different day his voice will sound different. As a musician, this freshness is what I admire about him.”

The chemistry he speaks of extends to collaborations beyond the classical realm. ‘Feathered Creatures’, his latest collaboration with guitarist Mark Lettieri, began not in a studio but during a casual backstage interaction after appearing on stage in Mumbai with Grammy-winning band Snarky Puppy.

“He was sitting in the vanity van and asked me to show him some things on the sitar,” Chatterjee recalls with a laugh. “Then I asked him to show me something about the guitar. We became good friends immediately.”

According to Chatterjee, this friendship is not an incidental aspect of the collaboration. This is its basis. “To create good music together, you need to have good chemistry together as people. How else can you have an effective dialogue about what you want to create?”

At that time, he was already composing ‘Feathered Creatures’ with Nakul, but it was Snarky Puppy’s frontman Michael League who pushed the project in a new direction. “Michael said to me, ‘I think your album needs some guitar.’ he said. So I thought, cool, let me ask Mark. That’s how one event led to another.”

Chatterjee remains deeply committed to his classical training even as he experiments. He speaks of his first training under his father Parthapratim Chatterjee, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty as something that continues to simmer inside him. “All this learning is churning inside you all the time,” he says. “At the same time, I live in today’s world. I hear guitar players, I see their techniques. It makes me unconsciously synthesize somewhere and think differently.”

This intersection between tradition and technology is also reflected in the use of the electric sitar. Although he used the instrument sparingly on ‘Furry Creatures,’ it helped him connect with young listeners in surprising ways.

“The electric sitar is just another sound. Another way to express the same raga through something electric,” he explains.

He points to ‘Garage Garage’ from Bandish Bandits as an example of how sound can bridge generations. “The over-the-top rock sitar sound made it relatable to young people. The song was also present in the first season, but it really went viral in the second season because the younger generation connected with that sound.”

At the same time, he is careful not to romanticize either the past or the present. When asked about the current music landscape shaped by social media, artificial intelligence and short content, Chatterjee avoids snide criticism.

“People often ask me if musicians who play one-minute reels can’t play for an hour. It’s not that they’re untalented. It’s just a different skill set.”

He likens it to condensing an epic. “You can explain the entire Rayana in detail, or you can explain it in two lines. It depends on your ability to do something precisely and clearly.”

Beyond performance and composition, Chatterjee also nurtures young talents through his foundation. Recently, this role took an interesting turn when Farhan Akhtar approached him while he was preparing for an upcoming Hollywood project that required him to learn the sitar.

“He is an incredibly talented man,” says Chatterjee warmly. “He’s learning very fast because he already plays the guitar. But he’s also a beginner on the sitar.”

While Chatterjee guides him through calls and messages, his disciple Rithvik regularly watches Akhtar’s workouts. “We treat him like any other student but of course Farhan bhai is a very special man with special talent.”

For now, most of Chatterjee’s attention is focused on ‘Furry Creatures’ and his upcoming Saath Saath India tour with Rakesh Chaurasia. The duo’s album unexpectedly found a second life on the internet, as young listeners, in particular, created reels around Yaman’s tracks.

“We realized that India now has a viable gig economy. There are professional tour agencies that help standardize production, sound and visuals across cities, so audiences everywhere get the same experience.”

But perhaps the most illuminating part of the speech comes when he talks about collaboration. He recalls a lesson from the late Master Zakir Hussain, who continues to guide him.

“Zakir saab used to say, if we are going to make music together, we should be friends. If you always address me as Ustadji, there will be distance between us.”

Chatterjee smiles when he remembers this. “You need to be comfortable, calm and friendly first. Then you can really communicate musically and create a common language together.”

Watch: Purbayan Chatterjee Explains Why Classical Music Must Continue to Thrive | DC Talks