Badal Roy (Bengali: বাদল রায়; born Amarendra Roy Chowdhury; 16 October 1939 – 18 January 2022) was an Indian tabla player, percussionist, and recording artist known for his work in jazz, world music, and experimental music.
Biography
Roy was born Amarendra Roy Chowdhury on 16 October 1939, into a Hindu family in a predominantly Muslim eastern Bengal region in Comilla, British India (which later became East Pakistan, then Bangladesh).[1][2] His mother, Sova Rani Roy Chowdhury, was a homemaker, while his father, Satyenda Nath Roy Chowdhury was a government official in Eastern Pakistan.[2] The name Badal (meaning "rain," "cloud", or "thunder" in the Bengali language), was given to him by his grandfather after he began crying in the rain as a toddler.[1] He spoke the Bengali, English, Hindi, and Urdu languages.[1]
Roy received a master's degree in statistics. He came to New York City in 1968 to work on a PhD with only eight dollars in his pocket, he began working as a busboy and waiter in various Indian restaurants in the New York area, including Pak Indian Curry House, Taste of India and Raga. He later settled in East Brunswick Township, New Jersey.[4][5] He later received lessons from Alla Rakha, a tabla player who performed with the sitar player Ravi Shankar and was Zakir Hussain's father.[2]
Roy married Geeta Vashi in 1974. The couple had a son and lived in Wilmington, Delaware. Roy died from COVID-19 in Wilmington, on 18 January 2022, at the age of 82.[2]
Career
When Roy moved to New York, he worked as a waiter in Indian restaurants in the region. In the weekends, he performed as a tabla artist accompanying a sitar player at A Taste of India, an Indian restaurant in Greenwich Village in New York. Here, he was spotted by John McLaughlin and was asked for accompanying him in jamming sessions and later partnered to record an album My Goal's Beyond (1971). The album was considered a landmark one in Indian-themed jazz.[2]
In addition to tabla, Roy also played a variety of percussion instruments including shakers, bells, rain stick, and flexatone. His notable students include Geoffrey Gordon.
In 2008, the album Miles From India, a tribute to Miles Davis on which Roy appeared, received a Grammy nomination.[8]
Helix, his final recording as a member of Michael Moss's Accidental Orchestra, was in 2016.[9]
Musical style
Unlike many tabla players, Roy does not come from a family of professional musicians and is essentially self-taught, although he studied with his late maternal uncle Dwijendra Chandra Chakraborty as a child, and also studied briefly with Alla Rakha.[1] Consequently, his playing is freer than that of many other tabla players, who adhere more strictly to the tala system of Indian rhythm. He often played a set of up to eight tabla (tuned to different pitches) and two baya at a time, which he played melodically as well as rhythmically.
^"Play it Again, Badal Roy", India Abroad, 10 September 2004. Accessed 26 June 2008. "But last week, Roy, an East Brunswick, New Jersey-based tabla player, who has performed with the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Yoko Ono, was part of the tournament's opening night act."