In a Music Academy concert, when T.M. Krishna did alapana in one raga and sang a kriti in another, a rasika asked me, “Is this a new kind of fusion?” The Gillette razor model Mach 3 with five blades is advertised as a fusion razor. Restaurants organise Fusion Food Festivals. Pandit Ravi Shankar, L. Shankar and Zakir Hussain started collaborating with George Harrison, Yehudi Menuhin, Bud Shank and John McLaughlin in the 1960s and 1970s ‘fusing’ Indian music with rock‘n’roll. Since then many such bands have been formed and such collaborations continue even now. As top Carnatic musicians join the fusion bandwagon, the subject warrants a discussion.

What is fusion?

“All music is fusion – of seven notes, of the vocal with the instrumental, of the melodic with the rhythmic and so on.”

“Modern fusion music meanders smoothly and cohesively from one genre to another.”

“It is striking new notes and creating new colours.”

“Not a cut–and–paste patchwork but a combination of guitar, sarangi, vocal, keyboard, cello, etc. taking you on a trippy, soul-soothing journey of jazz, blues, funk, trance and jamming in perfect harmony with groovy Carnatic melodies.” (Wonder what Tyagaraja would feel on hearing his kritis described as ‘groovy’!).