What a way to spend a Friday night. We showed up to the Olin Arts Center, two unsuspecting students admittedly in attendance for the musical credit required alongside music lessons at Bates, but hoping to be pleasantly surprised. A setup of drums, saxophones, guitar, bass and an accordion lay on the stage, waiting for their musicians to play them. Nothing could have prepared us for the next two hours.
Soon, the five-person band walked onstage, all dressed like they were going to different events – they announced themselves as Bombay Rickey. Kamala Sankaram, the lead vocalist, picked up the accordion, exchanged a look with her bandmates and launched into a cover of Taki Rari.
Pulled at least sixty years into the past, a strong sense of anemoia washed over the scattered crowd — nostalgia for a time and place that we have never actually known or experienced ourselves. The dynamics and musicality of the group were electrifying. As Sankaram’s vibrato and impressively high whistle notes pierced and soared over each arrangement, our mouths were left agape.
As much as we love the Olin concert hall, a back table at some smoky, dimly-lit basement speakeasy, or at least the basement of FSU, seem like better venues for Bombay Rickey. They could easily be the score of the next Bond film, if the next Bond film were directed by Quentin Tarantino.
The band consisted of Kamala Sankaram (vocals, accordion), Drew Fleming (guitar, vocals), Jeff Hudgins (alto saxophone, vocals), Nick Cuahy (bass) and Bates’ very own Brian Shankar Adler (percussion). They have been performing together since 2014, making this their 10th year.
While Sankaram’s skill and control had been established from the first song in the set, witnessing her carry Gopher Mambo by Yma Sumac — a singer well-known for her impossible five-octave range — solidified how extraordinary Sankaram’s range truly was. She was a magnetic presence with vocals that punctuated and drove the songs forward, but we also enjoyed existing in the soundscapes of the instrumental breaks.
As the group slowly made their way through their set, we didn’t know whether to boogie or lay like starfishes on the ground and wonder why we exist. The unexpected twists and turns in its timbres and textures felt almost narrative in structure, altogether setting the scene for cinematic ruminations. Sure, some of the transitions within the songs gave us whiplash, but our neck muscles were happy to be strained. When we weren’t clapping or snapping along, we sat in meditative, trance-like states.
Our favorite was Beech Face, which took the polished power in Sankaram’s voice with which we had become familiar and gave it a raspy, soulful edge. The compelling hook, “So you think that you have seen all that there is to see but you don’t know what I have seen,” repeats and builds up to the song’s apex. With every repetition of this phrase ending in a different dissonant tone, the audience was left with a yearning for resolve.
Throughout the set list, we wondered how much of the music was improv. Many songs left ample room for solos, demonstrating the individual talent each band member possessed. We were particularly drawn to the innovation present in the kind of call-and-response conversations between Sankaram and the complementary melodic, vocal-esque timbre of Jeff Hudgins on the alto saxophone.
We may have come for the concert credit, but we left with much more. In the beginning of the program, there is a quote from Ennio Morricone: “Music should always challenge us, provoke us and make us reflect on our existence.” We walk away reflecting on our existence with a strong recommendation for you to join us.
Here is a list of activities for which Bombay Rickey could serve as a soundtrack:
- Cook something with a lot of smoke or steam that comes out of a pan, perhaps fajitas
- Visit an active volcano
- Go down a really long water slide that maybe has a loop de loop
- Float on your back in the ocean
- Orchestrate an overly elaborate game of hide and seek
- Tie all your clothes together and scale a tower using your clothing rope
- Befriend a mermaid
- Hug your mother
- Become a pirate and sail the seven seas
- Confront everyone who has ever wronged you
- Jump on a trampoline
- Think about higher powers and free will
