Talking music with The Seesaw Quartet

Photo: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed

Comprised of tenor saxophonist Rahin Haider, guitarist Jishnu Haider, bassist Alistair Sarkar Raj and drummer Samiul Wahid, The Seesaw Quartet is an emerging instrumental ensemble on the block that started off its journey this year. Siblings Rahin and Jishnu composed their own music as a duo called The Seesaw. 

Eventually, they decided to extend their band to a quartet with Samiul and Raj so as to give a wider sound to their compositions and enrich the rhythmic texture of their music, which is rooted in jazz, funk and blues.

All members of The Seesaw Quartet are experienced musicians. Rahin and Jishnu came across Samiul and Raj during different musical performances. Their first show together as a quartet, which met with widely encouraging reactions, was held at Jatra Biroti in July this year. “Usually, people zone out during instrumental performances, scrolling through their phones or just getting distracted by other things, but at our first show, people were really intrigued and actually listening,” says Rahin.

The quartet has built a relationship with one another as friends, which places importance on the art and keeps things in perspective. They opened up about how they approach their collaborative compositions. “I don't believe that we can newly compose anything during rehearsals or in practice pads,” asserts Rahin. “Composing is not a democratic process. The structure and skeleton of a musical piece should come from one mind – others can flesh it out and add elements to it afterwards.” Since the nature of their music calls for improvisation, whenever they are in a studio, everything the quartet works on is recorded live.

The talented quartet also shed light on the many aspects involved in making it as a musician. “When a musician is totally into his work, he cannot afford to stagnate because that would eventually culminate his music career,” says Samiul. “Successful musicians make practicing a vital factor like breathing.” In the coming days, The Seesaw Quartet plans to put out two originals and one rendition, develop the content on their YouTube Channel and do more live performances.

They will be performing some of their fresh originals and some jazz numbers today at 7:30pm at Alliance Francaise de Dhaka.