Music: Sur La Tabla

Sitting cross-legged opposite Jim Feist, watching him manipulating the tabla, I’m mesmerized by the array of sounds he charms from the instruments. When it’s my turn, the only noise I can coax from the drums sounds like hitting a cardboard box.

“Many students give up after one lesson,” Feist reassures.

By the time I’m finally able to produce a nice ringing tone now and then, it is obvious how precisely the heads must be struck to create the proper sounds, underscoring the dedication tabla players have to their craft.

Tabla are the traditional percussion accompaniment to North Indian classical music. One is wooden and one copper, covered in goatskin with a special coating in the center. Its sound is familiar, but you’re not going to find any tabla instructional manuals. The art of playing them is passed strictly by oral tradition. As Feist strikes the tabla in different places, he vocalizes the corresponding notes. “Na, Tin, Tita, Theri, Ghe … every note on here is a syllable.

It’s the drum language.”

Thanks to New Agers co-opting Indian music, the sound of the tabla is often associated with mysticism or Eastern religion. While the drums are used in Hindu and Islamic worship music, studying them does not require a profession of faith.

“Music itself is spiritual for me,” says Feist.

In the early ’90s, Feist became interested in the complex rhythms of Indian music to augment his Jazz-Fusion drumming. “When I first heard it, it was like trying to catch a greased pig … where’s the downbeat? But once I started getting into it, something in my head clicked: I had to learn this music.”

Learning posed a fundamental challenge to the Saylor Park native: Finding a teacher. “I wanted to learn so bad, I started calling Indian names in the phone book and asking, ‘Do you know anyone that plays tabla?’! Finally somebody gave me the number of a local player.”

Eager to expand his mastery, Feist visits India when he can. “I’m at a severe disadvantage because I didn’t grow up there. As much as I practice and play, it’s not in my blood. The more I’m around the music and the players there, the more of the vibe and feeling I can absorb.”

His first visit was in 1993 to Bombay, where he learned from Ustad Allah Rakkha. “I spent all my waking hours in doing ‘riyaz,’ an extreme meditation that includes practicing an instrument for long hours. I also provided accompaniment at a school that taught Kathak, a classical Indian dance.”

He went again in 1999 and continued his studies with another guru. “This was a bit intense … I can remember him sitting across from me scolding me not to move one muscle in my face as I was playing. He would grab my hands and stop me. This went on for a couple of hours until I could detach myself from the situation enough to just move my hands, which can be a tad difficult when you are dripping sweat and being eaten by mosquitoes.”

On his last trip to India in 2002, he studied with Yogesh Samsi, the foremost disciple of Rakkha. He also met his wife, Shubha, a civil engineer.

“A girl’s reputation can be spoiled if she is seen a lot with a man who is not her husband or fiancé, so the engagement happened after a month,” Feist says. “Imagine when I had to meet her father. Most people in India know about America the way we know about India, via the TV. Just for the record I have traveled to 10 major cities and many small towns in India, and I have never seen a cobra … but I digress. After convincing her father that I was OK, we had a beautiful three-day traditional Maharashtrian wedding.”

Feist plans to buy a flat in India in order to travel there more often. “Internally, I was swayed by the food, the people, the landscape, the culture, the chaos, the music … my god, the music. It touched me in a way that I will never try to put into words.”

While his focus on tabla to the exclusion of drumset distanced him from many of his old Jazz-Fusion partners, it set the stage for Mohenjo Daro, his collaboration with guitarist and Eastern instrumentalist Zach Mechlem. Along with flute player Johnny Ruzsa, they are World Music fixtures in Cincinnati and beyond. They have released a couple of albums on Canada’s Tandem Records and played the 2002 Montreal Jazz Festival.

Feist also has his own studio project, Indus Red. A combination of Indian influences and Western music, it is more groove-oriented and trance-inducing than Mohenjo’s material. He plays all of the percussion plus harmonium and the droning, stringed tanpura. Being a drummer, Feist focuses on rhythmic embellishments, resulting in a sound that is equal parts drum corps and opium den. The album is also enriched by guest appearances, including Mike Belperio’s flowing bass and a searing violin performance from Paul Patterson. There are even remixes of two of the songs by Bill Alletzhauser and Ric Hordinski.

“I’m lucky to have friends I can call and just have them cut loose,” says Feist.

Feist has a busy schedule teaching mostly Indian children in the Tristate whose parents want them to have a connection to their cultural heritage. But he admits there is much more even for him to learn.

“After 12 years, I have literally just scratched the surface of the art of tabla playing.”

This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2004.