Alan Simon: pioneer of body percussions in Pakistan

April 28, 2010

By Rafay Mahmood

[Original Post]

Alan Simon (Taal Karisma)As a three-year-old, he spent most of his time in kitchen, concerned more with the utensils than the food — after all, the latter could not make percussive sounds. The habit continued, but the thought of playing percussion instruments professionally did not occur to Alan Simon; he wanted to be a GD pilot.

All of that changed, however, when he enrolled at the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA).Thirty-year-old Simon is now a percussionist and music graduate from NAPA, a Tabla player, and the pioneer of body percussions in Pakistan. Rhythm and percussions, he believes, were always a part of him and by deciding to take it up professionally, he has simply “formalised the craft”.

“Back in Kuwait, where I spent my childhood, I once went into a music store with my brother. While he shopped for music, I started to hit the cash counter in rhythm, and he cashier started to compete with me by tapping the counter as well. He eventually stopped, but I kept going. When my brother returned, the cashier told him that I will be ‘Zakaria Hussain’ one day. He meant Zakir Hussain,” Simon told The News.

A number of talented musicians in Pakistan come from the Christian community, because music is part of the communal prayers and church proceedings. For Simon too, the church was the next step. “The first time I played percussions was on a powdered milk can in church,” he said. “Life, for me, is a rhythm. As part of the entertainment industry, my job is to amuse people — why not do it by hitting your own body and making sounds out of it?”

He first experimented with body percussions for the first time at the second Friends of NAPA celebration, and got an overwhelming response. Later, at the first NAPA convocation, Simon performed body percussions with a couple of friends in front of former president Pervez Musharraf, who appreciated his efforts as well.

Alan Simon (Taal Karisma)Body percussions, Simon believes, are all about knowing the rhythm, the count and your anatomy — “random smacking does not create the desired sound.” The chest, for instance, has the ribcage beneath it. If hit in rhythm, it creates a crisp sound, which is similar to the sound of a snare in a drum kit, he explained. “Cupping your hand around your stomach creates a good vacuum, which can create a low-intensity version of the sound of a bass drum. You need to use your mouth as a hollow device and change the pitch accordingly by opening the mouth in different circumferences. Simultaneously hitting the mouth in the hollow area — near to where dimples are created — gives you more bass; sounds from near the jaw line are high-pitched,” he said. “Thighs act as drum rolls and produce a Djembe-like sound.”

Moreover, physical fitness has little to do with body percussions, Simon said. “Technique is all that matters; the individual needs to discover his or her own sound,” he explained. “It all a matter of slapping yourself in rhythm. It may sound weird, but that is how it works. You need to do a lot of research and hit yourself a number of time to produce the desired sound.”

Simon formed a band, Taal Karisma, before graduating from NAPA. The band, whose primary aim is to create tunes out of unique percussion beats, has, for the first time in Pakistan, recorded an entire soundtrack, c’est la vie, based on the concept. The track will be part of their first album.

Simon idolises US-based body percussionist, Terry Keith, and is optimistic about the future of Taal Karisma. Meanwhile, he teaches mathematics at a school.