Friday Night Original Presenting Stories from a Room with The Big Family: Blues for the Soul
While watching American movies, we’ve all, at least once, have fantasized of being at a shabby bar, in Chicago or St. Louis, where in a cramped up space, Blues music plays. It has a sort of an appeal, that is very distinct, and the mere mood of it, makes us swing a bit. Many of us have had imagined about being at a bar like that, after a tiring day, chugging on beer or sipping on some whiskey, as a blues tune washes into your ears and seeps into a lonely heart.
The Doodle Room, on the 3rd of September, was home to Friday Night Originals, who in turn, presented, The Big Family, a Blues Band. Here band belted out some classic blues songs written and composed by Blues Legends like Robben Ford, and Buddy Guy, and Otis Rush’s “I Can’t Quit You Baby”. And boy was it good!
The line up for the night consisted of Rohan Ganguli on Guitar, Arinjoy Sarkar on Guitar and Vocal, Aakash Ganguly and Bijit Bhattacharya, who took turns on the Bass Guitar, and Ritoban Das, on drums.
The evening was electric, the evening was moody, and the evening was a multitude of emotions as The Big Family played in a jam packed Doodle Room.
Post show, I got to be the Family for a quick chat, and discovered how a lot of thought and effort went into making a Blues Band in Calcutta.
Though they know that Blues and Jazz as music Genres are not quite common to the Calcuttans of early 20s in age, as much as they would like, but they believe that Blues music in Calcutta has a steady and strong audience. The initiation of several Blues collaborations and bands in recent times promises an even stronger Blues Music Scene is coming days.
As we talked, we went on to talk about the musicians like BB King who have encouraged these practicing musicians to be a part of Blues Music too. Back tracing, we went back to discover the roots of Blues music, with names like Robert Johnson cropping up.
These Blues Musicians are open to other form of music too, as they believe, a Blues listener can be an EDM fan too. However, they also feel, current popularity is based mostly on casual hearing, but not concentrated listening to music. The Big Family does not believe in superficial music. They believe in any kind of music that has the capability to touch the soul. There is no questioning their belief, as the audience left the performance room, still swaying a little from the stirring music presented.
The Family is ready to embrace the past. But citing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Blues Music Style of the 80s, they elucidate how every generation rediscovers and reinvents Blues music. They aim to do so as well. And they are confident.
We will see more of The Big Family now. They will be on YouTube, where they have already shared material from their projects. Finally, they aim to create and release an album.
Burger You and their delicious food kept the hungry tides at bay, while, Nitin Mani’s doodle art exhibition garnered a fair deal of attention, bringing further festive feelings in.
Being quite new to the Blues Genre, Stories from a Room was not only entertaining to me, it was also enriching. As I said, we will see more of The Big Family. No, we have to see more of The Big Family! I will be in the front row!
The initiative by Friday Night Originals is commendable. Such events are always welcome, and events like these are the little moments of respite in our mundane lives.
- Event Covered by Anurag Mazumder.
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