Badal Roy was a pioneering Indian tabla player who played with jazz legends Miles Davis and Ornette Coleman.
- Died: Tuesday, January 18, 2022. (Who else died on January 18?)
- Details of death: Died in Wilmington, Delaware of COVID-19 at the age of 82.
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Indian tabla jazz pioneer
Badal Roy (born Amarenda Roy Chowdhury) moved from East Pakistan to New York City in 1968 to work on a PhD program in statistics. He learned tabla from an uncle and had taken lessons from renowned tabla player Alla Rakha. He was playing tabla in a restaurant in New York when he was noticed by jazz fusion guitarist John McLaughlin. That meeting led to Roy playing tabla at the Village Gate in front of Miles Davis. Davis asked Roy to be a member of his band and he recorded three albums with the jazz legend. In 1988, he joined free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman’s group called Prime Time. Roy also worked with folk rock artist Richie Havens and appeared on Yoko Ono’s 1982 solo album.
Notable Quote
“Miles says, ‘You start.'” “If he liked one groove, he would say, ‘Keep that groove going. Don’t change it.’ He would want to keep it going, but after 30 seconds I wanted to change it. But with Ornette, he would always want me to change it. Completely different, but I had fun with both of them.” – He said to All About Jazz in 2009
Tributes to Badal Roy
Full Obituary: NPR
