Gregg Ellis jams with Bickram Ghosh at the latter’s studio. Picture by Aranya Sen

Greg Ellis is no stranger to this city, making quiet trips to Calcutta for more than five years now. The drummer and percussionist who drums, jams and hangs around with Bickram Ghosh on his trips to India is no stranger to Hollywood, either, working on soundtracks for blockbusters like The Matrix Trilogy, Iron Man, 300 and the recently released Wolfman.

The Los Angeles-based drummer, composer and producer is currently busy working on Bickram’s project with Sonu Nigam, apart from a duo album called Rhythm Voyage with the tabla player. “It was in 1995 when I read a book by Mickey Hart (of the Grateful Dead) called Drumming At The Edge Of Music that made me more aware about the history of drumming and music from around the world. I started concentrating on world music and founded a band called VAS, creating alternative sounds,” says Greg, who has performed and recorded with Zakir Hussain, Billy Idol and Hart.

The 45-year-old, with a home in the Hollywood hills, owns more than a hundred different drums from across the world. “I have tried picking up the tabla and Middle-Eastern drums but felt inadequate while doing it. I knew I had an accent. So I collect recordings of all the instruments I pick up, I try to recreate a similar essence but in a manner that comes naturally to me,” he says.

Greg blends sounds from a Senegalese sabar, a Moroccan tareja or an Oregonian ashiko with the ghatam, nigara, dholak, ankle bells, mridangam and madol to create his unique brand of rhythm. “I stay away from drum machines that take away from our music. Instead, I use pure rhythm that employs no loops or synthesised tones. It’s about creating sounds that have never co-habited together,” explains the multi-instrumentalist, capable of drumming on more than 20 instruments at a go in his music room at home.

“Composers for films want me to design a rhythm bed that can transport them into any part of the world and sometimes I do that even without having seen the film,” adds Greg.

Greg also believes that sound can heal. He and his wife Aparna, a Gujarati from Mumbai, have another venture called RhythmPharm, a “sound farm” where “time is compounded as rhythm to create 100 per cent organic audio-pharmaceuticals”, called RhythmTonics. They have released a set of seven discs, called RhythmTonics, for an “organic rhythm experience with healing powers”.

Mohua Das