The richness of American music comes from the mixing of cultures and traditions of people from all over the world.

In the 19th century, as America was growing, the single thing that brought people into contact with each other like never before, was the transcontinental railroad.

I've been working with the amazing musicians of Silk Road Ensemble to shine a light on the laborers, especially Irish, African-American, and Chinese, who did the backbreaking work of building America's railroad.

Their traditional music accompanied them as they made their way across the continent.

We also wanted to recognize the indigenous people whose ways of life were forever changed by the laying of tracks through their lands.

The result is our American Railroad project, the focus in this season of “My Music”.

Sandeep Das is a longtime member of Silk Road and a master of the tabla, a set of drums central to northern Indian classical music and he's been playing them since he was a child.

His unbeatable skill as a player is only surpassed by his irrepressible light as a performer.

♪ [Accelerating gradually to upbeat American fiddle tune accompanied by upbeat tabla] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪Steel drivin' man, don't ya see Steel drivin' man, don't ya see♪ ♪He died with a hammer in his hand, lord lord♪ ♪He died with a hammer in his hand♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Silent celebration] [muffled laughter from Rhiannon] RG- That was so awesome!

Sandeep- Oh my god!

RG- She [meaning the director] is waiting.

-I was like “She's waiting!” -Oh!

-[Aside to crew] We're not doing that again!

I'm so, so happy to be here with you and we get to talk a little bit about you and your music because since coming to Silkroad, I have just beenso overwhelmed in, like, the best way, of all the different music cultures and approaches to music, and I'm learning so much from you -Likewise The tabla is just such a unique instrument and the tradition you're representing is one that is not really— I think could be better known, I'll say, in the States— in terms of the intricacies and the history of it, you know.

So I'd love it if you could, for our viewers, just give them a little primer on how you got into the tabla and a little bit about the instrument.

Sure.

My journey actually started by a complaint from school that I had been disturbing the class by tapping on the desk and when asked to stop, I tapped my feet so my father was actually called to school and told that I should be taken to a doctor.

I was six years old, and I was in the room.

I thought I would go back home, and doctors, injections, my father will be mad I got back home, and there were two somethings on the coffee table So I looked at those, and I looked at my father, and I said “Daddy, what's those?” and he said “That's a tabla, and your lessons start tonight.” So I'm very thankful I had a very smart father So he took me to my furst guru (guru is the term for teacher, as you know,) “gu” means darkness “ru” is light.

So anyone who takes you away from darkness in any way is your guru.

So I learned from my first guru for about a year then both my first guru and my father realized that I had the potential to be good at it.

That's when my father started chasing my real guru You know for almost six months he chased him around because he was a superstar, playing everywhere, and finally we got the time, he gave us an appointment, I went to the city called Benares, or Varanasi, I think the third it's the third oldest city in the world, and probably the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world -Wow He... took a test: he said “So, you play, you've learned the tabla?” I said yes, so he says “Play.” So I played something for him He gave me a small tip, and... then he asked me to play something else, I played that, and and he tweaked it.

Then he completely ignored me for like an hour.

There was a very famous vocalist visiting him that day, and he ignored me and kept talking to her.

Almost after an hour, he turned towards me and he said “Play those two compositions again.” I started playing, and he said “No no no, the way you used to play.” And somehow, I couldn't play the way I used to play That's when he turned towards my father and he said “He has tabla in his blood.

Leave him here.” Why I'm saying “leave him here” with such emphasis?

Because we also have schools of music, we have colleges of music we have universities of music.

But to date, every single Indian classical musician that has made it anywhere they all come from this tradition, which is called the guru shisa varvara where you actually go and live with the guru.

So I actually went and lived with my guru for twelve years in his house -From the age of...?

- Six.

There were no timetables, there were no schedules, there were no lessons “Oh, this is your improvisation class—” “This is your ‘how to take a solo' class—” Tabla was taught to me as a way of life and it's something that grows inside me and, as you walk, as you talk, that's how natural it is.

So, you know, like lessons on a horse: once he was— he loved horses, so we went riding— and he said “What is that horse telling you?” As a fifteen-year-old at that time, the horse was not telling me anything.

So I was like [shrugs] and he got very mad at me and he said “Isn't it going taka-taka-takita, taka-taka-takita?” Suddenly I could hear that sound, you know?

He said “Improvise!” Now, how do you improvise with a horse?

So I started, you know, [illustrates on drum] So anytime I'm playing seven— I actually didn't know it was called “seven in four” until I came to the West.

For us, it's called Jhoolna Laya It's a kind of a tempo Anytime I'm playing seven, I'm running like a horse.

I'm as free as a horse, because that's how I was trained.

Many such lessons, you know?

Where...

I'm in the garden and he's telling me to pick weeds.

a lot of the lessons, I would wonder “Have I come here to become a gardener?” Have I come here to be the best car-washing guy?

But believe me, everything he taught me has turned into diamonds in my pocket.

It has taught me life, first, and through life, music.

That's kind of a glimpse of how I was taught.

You know, practice was brutal, eight to ten hours a day, But then one day he says “You know why you didn't play well in that concert?” Because you practice too much, my son.

So, those kind of practical experiences.

He said “You practiced so much that there was nothing new for you onstage.

If I ever see you practicing before a concert, I'm going to break your hand.” So that kind of extremes.

My debut concert was with a very famous Indian sitar maestro, Ravi Shankar I was sixteen years old, I was told thirty minutes before showtime “You are playing.” and the only tip I was given, he pointed at his shoe and he said “Do you see these?” And I said yes.

He said “If I see fear in your eyes, that's what's going to come flying at you, my son.” So that kind of gives the background of how I was trained how I was pushed to play with the biggest maestros that, you know, I grew up adoring as my idols at the slightest notice.

But then, that took the fear away from me and when I'm on stage, I'm like that free horse who's ready to have fun.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Scats in Hindustani] ♪ ♪ ♪ I started traveling; first came to the U.S. in 1990 that's when I played my first-ever concert in New York Then, I say, I met the greatest and nicest human being, in my life, Yo-Yo Ma and here I am, playing with you and having the funnest moment of my life let me tell you that.

- Oh my gosh.

Remember, we had a conversation that was so... it made me happy because it's what I wanted: I wanted the conversation to go here You know, we start with talking about the transcontinental railroad and the people who built it, and the lands that it went through and the cultures that it affected but then, you know, you brought up the idea of the railroad in India and the connections within colonialism— same countries involved, oddly enough— The rail tracks went through Adivasi land We, the native Indian people, are called the “Adivasis” It went through because that was the most mineral-rich and for people who might not know, India has almost every kind of mineral in one country that the world can imagine.

And some minerals that happen are only in India.

So it was mainly for the cotton, for the silk, and for all the mineral wealth that the tracks were laid.

And of course, exploitation.

But you know also... a good that happened— let's talk about the good, too— that in a way it connected the country because if you think of India, I would want you to think of it as larger than Europe because we are that diverse.

We have 22 languages spoken and not even talking about dialects.

Right.

Languages.

Just languages.

You and I could be equally foreign in 80 percent of India I wouldn't know their language So, you know, the good that happened: before the British came, we were kingdoms.

but kind of, the train track helped the Indian independence struggle because it connected the country like never before It also connected the country musically.

Because they also tried to suppress Indian classical music.

But the lady, the wife of the British whoever-it-was, who was charged with converting Indians to western classical music, ended up becoming the biggest student of Indian classical music!

-I love it!

-She fell in love with Indian classical music and became a student So, yeah.

Partly, of course, bad; but partly it helped music, it helped people come together in a way never seen before and there's a composition, you know?

I can play it for you briefly.

It's called “The Rela” and it mimics the sound of a train.

[Scats in Hindustani] So this sound is a train.

♪ Then comes the express train.

The thing about Silkroad... what's happening onstage, particularly with this project, and I'm just, I'm so delighted, I'm so glad I'm not playing on “Milimo” because I can just sit and watch is the conversations that are happening in live time you know, on stage, within the confines of a piece that we've sort of figured out a structure right?

Which, for me, is my favorite is this kind of combination.

And, you know, you... there's a very nice showcase for you vocally and with your tabla then there's all these other conversations between you and some of the other...

So would you just kind of dig into that?

-You know, what you have brought with you is not only new ideas but what I'm enjoying the most is you have brought in new amazing musicians new amazing people.

And, and... people that play music from their heart.

So Niwel, who has brought that composition and Francesco, and what these two people specially and of course you know there's Shawn on the bass there's Kaoru on the taiko drum It's... the crazy rhythms Niwel is playing on the guitar?

Sometimes, actually— I'm telling this on camera— I sometimes forget that there are other musicians on the stage and there's a concert to play, and we have to behave a certain way because it unleashes the musical animals inside us This is a moment, I would say, in the entire program that we are unchained.

We can be the musical animals that we are, that hey, listen, if I miss something Francesco is covering for me it's like a good team.

You know, if Lionel Messi passes the ball it doesn't matter, you know, even if someone misses it; somebody else will still go and score.

So it's an amazing teamwork that's happening There is tremendous trust; there's tremendous love; and I think the bottom line is “What the heck; let's have fun!” The thing that I love about it is that you have that and then the other part of Silkroad is that you have Shawn the bassist, Shawn Conley, listens to Niwel's composition, notates it, for the strings!

-Oh, I didn't know that!

Yeah, they're playing his notes.

-Oh my god.

So that's the collaboration, right?

So you have these different— and everybody is working together in this incredible organism, and I'm sitting there just going “Oh my god!” You know, and it's just really beautiful.

So you guys have that party going on You know, and then Niwel does the thing, and then it gets thrown and then Mazz and Michi are just [mimes fast violin playing] It's just— it's incredible.

I didn't even know that, that he would put notes there for the strings.

Oh my god.

Yeah, it's... it's natural.

What you are seeing is actually, I think, how music should be.

-Yeah.

-Pure joy, fond love, respect, messing up every night, but it's like “Okay, it's yesterday.

Let's see how much more messy it can be tonight!

That's it.

-And the audience feels it.

they love it!

They love the feel— All they hear is amazing music making, but they feel that everybody is really talking to each other and I think that's beautiful.

-It's very important.

[Sandeep scats in Hindustani while ensemble plays] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪