Badal Roy

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Badal Roy with tabla

Badal Roy (Bangla: বাদল রায়) (born Amarendra Roy Chowdhury in eastern Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh), 1945) is a tabla player and percussionist known for his work in jazz, cross-cultural music, and experimental music.

Roy emigrated to New York City in 1968, working as a busboy and waiter in various Indian restaurants. Soon, however, he began performing with Steve Gorn at a restaurant called Raga, eventually attracting the attention of Miles Davis. Davis invited Roy to join his group, and Roy's playing is documented on Davis's albums On the Corner (1972), Big Fun (1969-72; released 1974), and Get Up with It (1970-74). Roy subsequently performed and recorded with many leading jazz musicians, including Davis, Dave Liebman, and Ornette Coleman. In the 1990s Roy began performing with the Brazilian guitar duo Duofel.

Roy is essentially self-taught, and consequently his playing is freer than that of many other tabla players, who adhere more strictly to the tala system of Indian rhythm. He often plays a set of up to five tabla (tuned to different pitches) at a time, which he plays melodically as well as rhythmically.

Badal Roy has also collaborated with Ken Wessel and Stomu Takeishi in a fusion trio named Alankar. They currently have one album entitled "Daybreak".

He has appeared and offered workshops at the Starwood Festival (run by the Association for Consciousness Exploration), and at the SpiritDrum Festival, a special tribute to the late Babatunde Olatunji (co-sponsored by ACE and Musart), with Muruga Booker, Jim Donovan of Rusted Root, Halim El-Dabh, and Sikiru Adepoju, among others. He often plays with Muruga Booker in the Global Village Ceremonial Band, and with Michael Woolf (Impure Thoughts).

In the first half of 2006, Roy traveled to Japan in order to appear in a tribute for David Baker, his recently deceased recording engineer and friend.

External links

• "Badal Roy: Funky Tabla" (Artist Profile from Music of the World site)