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Sandyman
was born in London, a disciple of
tabla guru
Pandit Govind Chatterjee
- Farukhabad Gharana.
Starting
at the age of five, Sandyman was
fascinated by a tabla performance
by Ustaad
Zakhir Hussain. He was intrigued
by the performance and decided that
was it, THAT’s what he wanted
to play!
Sandyman's father, Nihar Ranjan
Chakravarty (from Bangladesh) who
was a government employee in the
UK, managed to find a used pair
of tablas. Sandyman was ecstatic
and thought it was the best Christmas
gift he had ever received. He couldn’t
get enough of the tablas and practising
from morning 'till night still wasn’t
enough! Although he didn’t know
any syllables, he used to hit the
tablas and make some kind of noise
and Sandyman’s mother, Gouri Chakravarty,
felt that he had a good sense of
rhythm.
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She decided to take
Sandyman to Calcutta (a city well
known for Indian classical music)
in order for Sandyman to specialise
in Indian music. His sister Nandita
also accompanied him and their mother
to gain some classical vocal training.
So, at the tender age of seven,
Sandyman made his journey into classical
music. He successfully completed
theory and practical exams on tablas.
Nothing too fancy for the first
or second year, but it gradually
became tough!
At the age of 14 Sandyman had to
come back to London as his father
fell seriously ill. Sandyman completed
his GCSEs in Rokeby school, Stratford,
however, whilst preparing to start
college, he experienced the tragedy
of his father's death. Despite this,
Sandyman completed his diploma in
Computer Science and went on to
university. |
At
the age of 16 Sandyman made his
major public debut appearing at
the Royal
Albert Hall, London. He
was representing the Asian section
of Newham Borough. Since then
he has never looked back. Sandyman
begun getting well known in the
Bangladeshi community where he
started his music career. He started
touring UK, Europe and the United
States.
His performance made a powerful
impression wherever he played.
Sandyman had a enormous amount
of support from many UK artists
to whom he will be forever indebted.
His accompaniment experience includes
major artists from India and Bangladesh.
To name a few of them: Vocalists
Anup Jalota, Saikot Mitra, Fareeda
Parvin, Manohar Udhas and Nirmal
Udhas, (Bollywood Blockbuster
movie Dil Se), Sitarist Subroto
Roy Chowdhury, Santoor Pandit
Tarun Bhattacharya and Ustaad
Fida Hussain. He also performed
for BBC4
at the Breckon Jazz Festival.
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Sandyman has worked
with Legendary Bollywood music director
Bappi Lahiri and has performed numerous
concerts and recordings with him.
Sandyman was involved with one of
the UK’s most prestigious
Jazz bands - the John
Mayers Indo Jazz Fusions.
He toured with them and performed
at various live concerts.
In 2003, Sandyman was invited by
Sir
Paul McCartney
and his wife Heather
McCartney
for
a private performance at their residence.
Over the years Sandyman has cultivated
an unprecedented reputation as a
musician who can easily move between
traditional and popular music styles
from all cultures.
Sandyman…
I’d just like to play with
good musicians, have a great time
doing it, and potentially be able
to make a nice living doing something
I love. |
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