Badal Roy (Bangla pronunciation: baadl-raay’), born Amarendra Roy Chowdhury, Comilla (eastern Bengal, British India in 1945), is a tabla player and percussionist. He is also a recording artist who is known for his contributions to jazz, world music and experimental music. Biography Roy was born to a Hindu family in the predominantly Muslim eastern Bengal region, British India (which became East Pakistan and then Bangladesh). He can speak Bengali, English and Hindi as well as Urdu. His father was a government official and held the distinguished post of Joint Secretary. After he started crying in the rain as an infant, his grandfather gave him the nickname Badal. Roy was influenced by American pop music early on. He particularly liked the music of Nat King Cole, Pat Boone and Elvis Presley. He was first exposed to jazz when he attended a concert of Duke Ellington’s 60-member orchestra at Karachi’s Metropole Hotel in Karachi in 1959. His brother and he were the only Pakistanis present (the rest of his audience was white). Roy earned a master’s in statistics. In 1968, Roy arrived in New York City to pursue a Ph.D. He had only eight dollars and began working as a waiter and busboy in several Indian restaurants including Taste of India, Raga, and Raga. He eventually settled in East Brunswick Township (New Jersey)[2]. His musical career Roy started playing the tabla when he was 10 or 11. He studied with his uncle. He moved to New York and began performing at Raga in Manhattan with Steve Gorn. This eventually brought him into the sights of Miles Davis. Davis invited Roy to join him in his band, and he recorded the albums On the Corner (1972), Big Fun (69-72; 1974), and Get Up with It (70-74). Roy recorded and performed with many jazz greats, including Davis and Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin and Herbie Mann. Roy started performing with the Brazilian guitarist duo Duofel in the 1990s. He also worked with Stomu Takeishi and Ken Wessel in the fusion band named Alankar. Their current album is Daybreak. Roy has given workshops at RhythmFest and the Starwood Festival and at the SpiritDrum Festival[3], a tribute to the late Babatunde Olatunji, co-sponsored by ACE, Musart, Muruga Booker and Jim Donovan, Rusted Root, HalimEl-Dabh and Jeff Rosenbaum, among others[4]. He frequently plays with Muruga Bucher in the Global Village Ceremonial Band and with Michael Wolff.
