Pop and jazz, rock and classical... NY-based Shubh Saran’s music fuses them all

New Delhi: Growing up in various global cities, the world was his oyster. Only fitting perhaps that Shubh Saran’s music reflects a certain eclecticism with strains of pop, Indian fusion, rock and jazz.

The New York-based guitarist and composer, who has released two albums, amalgamates his various influences in his work.

"I'm genuinely drawn to music that is a combination of many different things. Sometimes it's difficult that I don't come from one particular tradition,” Saran, the son of diplomat parents, told PTI.

“ I don't come from the Hindustani classical tradition or the Western classical tradition. I come from a hybrid mix of many different things,” the 31-year-old added. He said he was "exposed to a lot of different people and lots of different kinds of music" from a very young age.

With his parents posted in various countries, Saran grew up and studied in India, Egypt, Switzerland, and Canada before moving to the US.

An alumnus of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Saran often touches on themes of identity and ethnicity in his music.

"I grew up listening to pop music, rock music, and then found Indian fusion music, and then kind of got into jazz and all the associated styles that come out of that. So I think my world-moving upbringing resulted in me liking many different things at the same time and trying to fuse it together," Saran said during a recent visit to India.

Saran has released two albums - “Hmayra” (2017) and “Inglish” (2021) -- both reflecting his experiences as a musician trying to make a mark in a foreign country.

" 'Hmayra' was released in 2017 and that was very much influenced by a lot of the reading that I'd been doing. But really, a lot of it has just come out of trying to be a musician in a new city -- a very competitive, very expensive city called New York.

"It was just the struggle of figuring out how I'm going to do this. And more importantly, why I am doing it. I'd released two EPs in between that were sort of just experimentations." His second album came four years later.

" 'Inglish' was heavily inspired by my Indian identity and questioning what it meant to be Indian for me and what Indian tradition means to me.

"... there is a little bit of disconnect that you feel living in a different part of the world. But also being Indian, you inhabit both these worlds. You never feel like you fit in really in either of them. That album was basically an exploration of that feeling." Saran, whose music fuses Hindustani classical, progressive rock and jazz, said he doesn't want his work to be “too inaccessible” to people.

"I'd like my music to feel accessible even though traditionally instrumental music that exists in a modern and contemporary jazz context seems to feel inaccessible.” Jazz music, he said, started as an answer to elitism in India and elsewhere in the world. Now, however, it has come to be associated with "fine wine and dining".

He said the art form had nothing to do with elitism when it started.

Jazz music finds its roots in New Orleans in the US where African American musicians in the early twentieth century developed the style from ragtime and blues with heavy emphasis on improvisation.

"The story of jazz in India but also everywhere in the world, especially in the US, doesn't come from a place of elitism at all. In fact, jazz was the answer to elitism. It was a kind of music for the people, especially the African American diaspora in the US in the early 20th century,” Saran said.

The spirit of jazz, he said, lies in storytelling, especially in the US.

"It's Black individuals who are telling their stories. I think that's an important part of the tradition that we cannot forget.

"In India, it was brought to India by visiting artists from America, but they were Black artists telling their stories. And then they resonated deeply with the struggles of Indian folks as well." A lot of Bollywood music in the mid-20th century was heavily inspired by, written and arranged by jazz musicians, Saran added.

"Now it's gotten to this point where it's considered elite... It is truly a beautiful art form and has a lot of resonance with Indian classical and folk music, especially because it's based on improvisation, expression and creativity.

"Those are the tenets of jazz that I think we should hold onto for sure. And the elitism of it is an unfortunate consequence," Saran said.