Louis Banks to belt out unheard Pancham tunes

Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN | Jun 23, 2013, KOLKATA: When you listen to immortal RD Burman creations like 'Bachna Ae Hasino' or 'Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Torenge' do you ever think that beyond those tuneful lines, forever etched in the hearts of zillions, there were several musical interludes that were originally created but finally had to be dropped? 

How will your favourite songs sound if those musical lines could be added? Sounds interesting? Then don't miss the special show to be organized on June 27 as a tribute to RD on his birthday, where none less than Louis Banks will update you on the RD you didn't know. 

The programme, christened 'Jazz and RD', is being organized by Euphony, an RD Burman fan foundation. 

At least six members of RD's core team of musicians will perform at the show that will showcase only instrumental music based on RD's original filmi and non-filmi creations. Apart from the Grammy awardee Louis Banks, also known as the wizard on the keyboard, the two other popular names from the core team of Burman who will perform at the show are Franco Vaz, who plays the acoustic drums, and Shyam Raj, a virtuoso of the tenor saxophone. 

In an e-mail to TOI, Banks, who started his career from the Blue Fox, said: "I am excited at the prospect of performing in my favourite city. It was from here that one fine evening, Burman picked me up after hearing me play at Blue Fox and asked me to join his team. That was my first tryst with Bollywood." Banks says in the e-mail. 

Banks started playing the piano and keyboard for RD in 1974 and debuted with the film 'Mukti' and the duo became famous for films like 'Agar Tum Na Hote', 'Bade Dilwale', 'Kasme Vaade', 'Phir wohi Raat, Basera' etc. "Till RD picked me up, I was only into jazz and had no idea about Bollywood music, but that one brush with him changed everything," Banks says. 

The programme has been divided into three parts - the first part will deal with old creations as we know them, the second one with the "unknown" pieces of music that were composed as part of the songs that are now famous but had to be edited out and the third an impromptu jazz session where the team of musicians will show what technological improvements available today would have done to the age old favourites. 

"The musicians have prepared a special session where they will play popular songs in their original unedited form. You will see how different the songs sound. Several compositions that were originally created for these songs had to be dropped finally but these have all been preserved by Panchamda's team and many will be played here," promised Jayanta Sur, the spokesperson of Euphony. During RD's time, technological support available today like the advanced synthesiser, digital recording and mixing and multi track recording, were not available and hence his songs sound the way they are. 

"However, in the third part of the programme, the musicians will display how the same songs would sound when today's technological upgrade is implemented," Sur explained. 

Banks will also share with the audience anecdotes from his days with Burman as they would often visit Kolkata only to check the spiciest food here, play chess and attend never-ending adda sessions with friends.