Montreal and the Rhythm Four
Bharath Rajakumar became known in the Montreal blues scene during the late 1990s, developing a band centered on the amplified harmonica sound associated with Little Walter. Performing as Bharath and His Rhythm Four, he combined singing and harmonica with a small ensemble suited to postwar Chicago blues. The group’s early recognition included winning the Toronto Blues Society’s New Talent Search in 2004.
Little Walter’s influence extended to tone, phrasing, and the way the harmonica interacted with the rest of the band. Rajakumar’s performances drew attention for their commitment to that musical language. His choice of players and repertoire also connected Montreal with musicians working in the American West Coast blues tradition, particularly guitarist Junior Watson and pianist Fred Kaplan.
Friday Night Fatty and Junior Watson
Friday Night Fatty, released in 2007, featured Junior Watson as a guest with the Rhythm Four. The album brought Rajakumar’s singing, harmonica, and original material into the foreground. ‘I Need a Change’ was among the songs that showed his interest in writing within the style. The fourteen-track record placed him alongside a guitarist already deeply experienced in accompanying harmonica-led bands.
In his 2008 Exclaim! review, David Barnard emphasized both the influence of Little Walter and the energy Rajakumar brought to it. The sound recalled 1950s Chicago recording while the performances carried a contemporary band’s intensity. That combination became an identifying feature of Rajakumar’s work: close attention to the older sound, coupled with room for the players to make a performance their own.
The album was recorded at Montreal’s Griffintown Café, where Rajakumar had a weekly engagement. A Toronto release appearance at the Silver Dollar was announced for January 5, 2008, as a tribute to Little Walter.
Regal Radio and Canadian recording connections
Rajakumar also developed a role in recording through Regal Radio Records. Bob Corritore’s 2012 newsletter identified him as the label’s owner and announced releases by Junior Watson and Fred Kaplan: Jumpin’ Wit Junior and Hold My Mule. The label activity extended the relationships behind his own band into projects led by other musicians. It also connected his work as a player to the choices involved in bringing traditional blues recordings to an audience.
Watson later described Rajakumar’s role in originating the Jumpin’ Wit Junior project. He praised the harmonica player’s attention to Little Walter’s subtleties, including the importance of playing quietly and understanding amplification. The observation offers a useful counterpoint to descriptions of a heavily amplified sound. Rajakumar’s interest involved control and detail as well as volume.
In Montreal in 2011, he recorded with fellow singer and harmonica player Sugar Brown on Sugar Brown’s Sad Day. Brown’s official biography places Rajakumar within the making of that record, while a later interview also names drummer Ben Caissie. The collaboration connected musicians working in different Canadian cities through a shared interest in the language of early electric blues.
Recording the room
Rajakumar’s studio work grows out of the same concern for ensemble sound as his harmonica playing. On Fred Kaplan’s Hold My Mule, the musicians recorded together using vintage microphones, outboard equipment and a quarter-inch mono tape machine. Kaplan described sessions in homes, warehouses, storefronts and a synagogue, with the availability of a good piano and a sympathetic room helping determine where they worked.
Kaplan credited Rajakumar with finding microphone positions quickly and making small adjustments before recording began. The players controlled much of the balance themselves: an acoustic bass, piano and drums worked alongside Junior Watson’s small guitar amplifier. Saxophonist Gordon Beadle could move toward a microphone for a solo. The resulting changes in volume came from the performers rather than from building each instrument separately in a multitrack mix.
That work made Rajakumar a collaborator behind the recording equipment as well as a musician in front of it. Kaplan’s project joined piano and organ with a band that included Watson, Richard Innes and Kedar Roy. Rajakumar helped provide the recording conditions for musicians whose arrangements depended on hearing and responding to one another in the room.
A Canadian blues partnership
Sugar Brown’s account of their work together gives another view of Rajakumar’s musical life. Beginning in the summer of 2011, Brown traveled between Toronto and Montreal to play and record with him. Both musicians were drawn to Little Walter, and Brown described that shared interest as a practical understanding of how they wanted a band to sound onstage and in the studio.
Their collaboration brought Brown into contact with the Rhythm Four’s Montreal players, including Ben Caissie, Costa Zafiropoulos and Colin Perry. Brown’s songs became the basis of Sugar Brown’s Sad Day. For Rajakumar, the project combined friendship, harmonica, singing and recording work rather than separating those activities into different careers.
Chicago sessions and a continuing live band
Rajakumar appeared as guest harmonica player on Willie Buck’s Cell Phone Man, released by Delmark in 2012. Johnny Burgin, then performing as Rockin’ Johnny, supplied the band. The session placed Rajakumar with a singer closely associated with Chicago’s older ensemble tradition and with players experienced in its repertoire.
The Rhythm Four continued performing well beyond its first album. A 2024 Sainte-Anne Blues Café announcement listed Rajakumar on vocals and harmonica, Colin Perry on guitar and vocals, Costa Zafiropoulos on upright bass, and Ben Caissie on drums. The same profile named work with Junior Watson, Fred Kaplan, Richard Innes, Larry Taylor, Johnny Dyer, Lazy Lester, and Pinetop Perkins. The group’s ongoing club appearances kept Rajakumar’s singing and harmonica within a regular ensemble, carrying the musical interests of his early Montreal years into a later working band.
Sharing the instrument
Rajakumar has also taken part in harmonica education. The Toronto Blues Society announced him alongside Carlos del Junco for a February 2016 harmonica workshop hosted by Jerome Godboo at Toronto’s Paintbox Bistro. The appearance placed his performance experience in a setting where listeners and players could examine the instrument more closely.
His work has continued across club stages, records and sessions for other artists. The Rhythm Four remained active in Montreal in 2024, while his earlier collaborations with Watson, Kaplan, Sugar Brown and Buck connected him with bands beyond his home city.