Like his illustrious father Louiz Banks, drummer Gino Banks also thrives on reinvention. For a while, he has been thinking of revisiting his father’s lesser-known compositions with younger musicians. This has taken shape as Gino Banks’ Legacy project, which was recently presented in Studio Theatre at Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai.

The idea was to present an Indo-fusion set and Gino was accompanied by S. Akash on the bansuri, sarodist Pratik Srivastava, keyboardist Deivat Tapodhan, bassist Aditya Ahir and Ganesh Murali Iyer on Carnatic percussion and konnakol and vocalist Jyothishri Raghuram.

At the Mumbai concert, the set list included the Louiz Banks compositions — ‘Raga of The heart’, ‘Benaras’, ‘Leap of faith’ and ’11 pieces of silver’. “Some of these have not been played live often.” As a tribute to Ustad Zakir Hussain, they also presented the fusion-group Shakti’s ‘Bending the rules’.

Says Gino: “With a different line-up compared to what the compositions were originally written for, the basic melody was retained, and the musicians added their own flavour in the improvised solos.

The 43-year-old drummer reveals that he plans to record the Legacy album. My father will also play on a couple of tracks, and though the record will have the same musicians as the recent show, we will have some guests to add variety,” says Gino, who first accompanied his father as a nine-year-old, playing percussion on some tracks with the fusion band — Sangam — during their Australia and China tours. Nine years later (in 2001), he played a full-set as a drummer for the first time with the group, Nexus, at Jazz By The Bay.

Right from his early days, he played alongside bassist Sheldon D’Silva. “We did our apprenticeship together with my father. As a drum and bass combo, we practised together and had similar influences.”

From his Nexus line-up, Gino has been collaborating with guitarist Chandresh Kudwa. “That’s the rock side of my musical personality. Chandresh reconnected with me some years ago when he wanted to do the album Free Spirit with bassist Mohini Dey. We also did some shows together. This year, I performed on tour with Chandresh and his daughter, Eva, and it’s been great.”

Gino has also been curating the Mumbai Drum Day every year, besides organising a monthly-show at Prithvi Theatre in Juhu. He says, “Drum Day uses a mix of established artistes and younger drummers who many people haven’t heard and provides a platform to promising young drummers. I try to invite people from across India. Though our focus is the western drum set, we sometimes change things around for variety. This year, we had a mix of drum set and taal.”

Jazz@Prithvi was the idea of Kunal Kapoor, says Gino, who adds that Prithvi has been hosting the Udayswar Indian classical music series, and this seemed like a good place for jazz too. He adds, “They have a no-mic policy, so it can be challenging for vocalists. But it helps them use their voice differently, and many musicians look forward to play there because it gives them a different experience.”

Over the past year, Gino has also played on keyboardist-pianist Rahul Wadhwani’s album Time Travel, guitarist Rhythm Shaw’s record Nothing To Lose and done shows with saxophonist Mark Hartsuch. He also went on a three-city tour with the Overdrive project, featuring vocalist Sunny D’Souza, guitarist Kush Upadhyay and bassist Shashank Das. “Overdrive is a blues hard-rock outfit. The new single ‘Tragedy’ is out,” he states.

While his focus is on jazz and fusion, Gino also has worked in Bollywood, having recorded drums for songs by Shreyas Puranik, Sachin-Jigar and Vishal-Shekhar, besides ‘Ishq Mastana’ from A.R. Rahman’s new soundtrack Main Vaapas Aaunga.

One piece of advice he would like to give young Indian drummers is to familiarise themselves with Indian percussion styles. “The drum kit basically comes from the U.S. and has been used in jazz, rock and blues. But it always helps to learn Indian drumming techniques, as one can then interact better with other percussionists and also add an Indian touch to one’s style,” shares Gino.

But the biggest takeaway, says Gino, is performing with his father. He adds, “He’s open-minded, encouraging others to do well, even if it means taking on a lesser role himself. For him, if everyone does well collectively, the music automatically succeeds.” That’s a legacy Gino is happy to carry forward.