When rosogolla and mishti doi is talked about, in broken Bengali, as a part of any celeb’s tried and tested ‘I love Kolkata’ itinerary, it’s difficult not to smirk and look away. However, when Ustad Amjad Ali Khan explains his association with the city, starting with all things sweet and musical, he leaves very few chances for doubt to take over. “It’s not too late yet to try some nolen gurer sondesh,” he tells David Murphy, conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, explaining the significance of the sweets. And you know right away, that Khan is a man of the world and of words too.

“I have problems with the term fusion. It has been used cheaply, to churn out preposterous music by several people,” says Khan on the eve of 100 Pipers’ Samagam, the sarod maestro’s ambitious ‘collaboration’ with the 37-member Scottish Chamber Orchestra. “I was schooled in a way to respect tradition and its purity. So, it took me a long time to be able to harmonise my music with a different genre,” says Khan.

Indian musicians are usually strongly individualistic in nature. Everybody, adds Khan, are very involved in their interpretation of music so it becomes very difficult to perform with a group unlike a cohesive orchestra. “Everybody is a pandit or an ustad here. Nobody wants to work under another,” he laughs.

But Murphy’s knowledge of Indian classical music encouraged him to go ahead and the first Samagam concert was organised in Scotland. “While playing with Murphy, I realised that when there is mutual appreciation between musicians of different genres, collaboration is not all that impossible. More so, when you can imbibe new lessons in music like I did in course of Samagam,” explains Khan.

Murphy, on his part, tried his best not to mess up the purity of any genre of music involved in Samagam. “There are times, while collaboration, you do have to make compromises. But in Samagam, we’ve seen to it, that we interact without infringing into the purity of each strain of music,” he added.