You know him best, perhaps, for his background scores for Ram Gopal Varma from 'Satya' to 'Not A Love Story' most recently. Like many others who’ve enjoyed his uncommon signature style, you too may have wondered why Sandeep Chowta doesn’t do more films.
You may get an inkling when you hear the latest news from the US Billboard charts for jazz albums, where international jazz-pop-fusion major Spyro Gyra’s album A Foreign Affair debuted last week at No. 2.
Chowta is not only credited as a co-producer on the album, 'A Foreign Affair' also features his composition 'Khuda' with Hindi lyrics by Shabbir Ahmed and vocals by Arijit Singh.
While this is an important breakthrough for an Indian musician on the global scene (the Billboard charts are a measure of sales), it’s also a dream come true for this self-confessed “Spyro junkie” from Bangalore who now works out of Mumbai but has for long aimed at a trans-national presence.
Says Chowta: “I’ve been a fan of Spyro from the time I was in Class 6. Ever since I got in touch with them for my own (as yet unreleased) album 'Matters of the Heart', they knew that I know their music very well, that I’m a producer here and that I have a balance of both sounds. So one day they asked me to contribute as a producer for their record.”
The proudest part of this collaboration for Chowta is that No. 2 is the topmost Spyro Gyra has ever been on the Billboard charts (their highest before this was No. 24 in 1979).
For those who came in late on this one, Spyro Gyra has been widely acknowledged as one of the most commercially successful pop-jazz bands since their formation in the 1970s. Chowta’s association with them opens new doors for him to market his own album abroad when it’s released this November. Matters of the Heart, incidentally, features 45 global heavyweights, including Spyro Gyra’s Jay Beckenstein and Tom Schuman.
But for now, there’s just one thing on Chowta’s mind: 'A Foreign Affair' with Spyro Gyra. He is not the only one celebrating his achievement.
Guitarist Ehsaan Noorani, one-third of the Bollywood music director trio Shankar Ehsaan Loy, says: “It’s fantastic that someone like Sandeep is co-writing with a band like Spyro Gyra abroad because this is really the serious international future for a lot of musicians from India. We too are trying to do some collaborations. Unless the copyright laws change for the film market out here and we start getting royalties, songwriting in collaboration abroad is a really good way for a serious musician to work.”
Adds Chowta: “My roots are very strong. I’ve always tried to find synergy, without destroying or forcing something into the other side. My aim is to keep both sides pure. Nobody likes to use the word fusion, I guess synergy would be the right word.”
And “synergy” these days goes by the name 'A Foreign Affair'.
The writer is on Twitter as @annavetticad