Sandip Burman is a
tabla player from
Durgapur, West Bengal
Durgapur () is a planned tier-II urban agglomeration and a major industrial city in Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the fourth largest urban agglomeration after Kolkata, Asansol and Siliguri in West Bengal ...
,
India.
After his initial training with Shri Sudhir Roy, he began a long discipleship with Pandit Shymal Bose. Sandip's performances are marked with spontaneous innovation and tonal purity even when he is delivering complex rhythmic patterns at high speed. His initial trip to the USA was sponsored by the founder of
Transcendental Meditation and Beatles guru
.
Sandip Burman either performs for shows across the world or attends school-sponsored performances. In these lessons he is known to take the same care of warming up and playing as if it were a real performance. He tunes his 20 string sitar and tabla for around an hour prior to his lesson. Once all the students surround him he begins to play - a wide display of improvisation that seems to come from his soul. After he performs on sitar he leaves a portion of the clinic open for questions to get to know him and learn from him. Then he moves to his expertise, the tabla. His hands fly through the drums at lightning speed and precision filling the area with a melody rather than a beat.
Sandip has played with
Ravi Shankar and countless jazz greats, including
Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette (born August 9, 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer.
Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie, ...
,
Al Di Meola
Albert Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) is an American guitarist. Known for his works in jazz fusion and world music, he began his career as a guitarist of the group Return to Forever in 1974. Between the 1970s and 1980s, albums such as ' ...
,
Randy Brecker,
Howard Levy,
Paul McCandless,
Andy Narell,
Victor Wooten,
Bela Fleck
Bela may refer to:
Places Asia
*Bela Pratapgarh, a town in Pratapgarh District, Uttar Pradesh, India
*Bela, a small village near Bhandara, Maharashtra, India
*Bela, another name for the biblical city Zoara
* Bela, Dang, in Nepal
* Bela, Janakpur, ...
and many others.
Sandip worked with
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Since the 1990s, Elfman has garnered internation ...
and contributed to the soundtrack of
Tim Burton's film, ''
Mars Attacks!'', and an IBM commercial. Sandip has recorded with Dr.
L. Subramaniam
Lakshminarayana Subramaniam (born 23 July 1947) is an Indian violinist, composer and conductor, trained in the classical Carnatic music tradition and Western classical music.
Early years
Subramaniam was born in Madras, Madras Presidency, Br ...
and is showcased on the album ''Global Fusion'' from Warner Brothers.
In 2001, Sandip lead an all-star tour titled "East Meets Jazz" with
Victor Bailey (Weather Report),
Randy Brecker (Brecker Brothers),
Steve Smith (
Journey),
Howard Levy (Flecktones),
Jerry Goodman (Mahavishnu Orchestra), and
Paul Bollenback
Paul Norris Bollenback (born June 6, 1959) is a jazz guitarist who has appeared on ''Entertainment Tonight'', ''The Tonight Show'', ''The Today Show'', ''Joan Rivers'', and ''Good Morning America''. He has performed with Scott Ambush, Charlie B ...
.
Dave Pietro
Dave Pietro (born February 10, 1964) is a saxophonist, woodwind artist, bandleader, sideman, composer and educator. A native of Southboro, Massachusetts, he has been on the New York City music scene since 1987.
From 1994–2003 Dave played le ...
also joined the group for one show. The tour ended suddenly and early due to the 9/11 attack but closed at The Lyric with a standing room only show the night of 9/11 that is still talked about years later. The band's Producer & Manager (Chuck Hawks) was noted as saying despite the stresses of the day, it turned out to be one of the band's best performances of the entire tour.
Currently, Sandip tours 170 days out of the year, with such dates as solo performances at the
Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.),
Street Scene (San Diego), First Night Providence (Rhode Island),
House of Blues Chicago
House of Blues is an American chain of live music concert halls and restaurants. It was founded by Isaac Tigrett, the co-founder of Hard Rock Cafe, and Dan Aykroyd, co-star of the 1980 film ''The Blues Brothers''. The first location opened at Ha ...
,
Nelson Atkins Museum (Kansas City), Wolftrap (Washington, D.C.),
Ravinia Festival (Chicago), Skirball Cultural Center (Los Angeles),
Telluride Bluegrass Festival (Colorado), and the
Stern Grove Festival (San Francisco). Before concerts, Sandip often takes the time to conduct music clinics at the local high schools and universities.
He has been a visiting faculty member at the
Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands and has toured and taught in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Singapore, North Africa, Israel, and Canada.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burman, Sandip
American people of Bengali descent
American male musicians of Indian descent
American musicians of Indian descent
American Hindus
Living people
Indian emigrants to the United States
Indian drummers
People from Durgapur, West Bengal
1969 births