Indian classical music in Mumbai

dover lane

musicmumbai — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:24:47 +0000

surprising there doesn’t seem to be anyone blogging on the dover lane conference, or is it just not coming up in google search? I had a look at the performing artist line-up. It is interesting. There is a predominance of Bengali artists and of instrumentalists. On the whole I think it is a good reflection of the top people, Venkatesh Kumar, Shahid Parvez, Rashid Khan, Girja devi, Pt. Jaisraj, and others. I might be skeptical of the choice of N. Rajam and Manjiri Asnare-Kelkar but that might only reflect my personal prejudices. As I have noticed with Saptak festival, not much is given to the Maharashtran female vocalists with the exception of Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande. If i were the organizer of a major festival like dover lane, I would do anything to get Kishori Amonkar or Parveen Sultana. After these divas Manjusha Kulkarni-Patil is the darling of the public this side of the country. I have already blogged about my other favorites, Padma Talwarkar, vijaya jadav-gatliwar, Asha Khadilkar, shubada Paradkar, Shubha Joshi and others. I really enjoyed the blogs from the Sawai Gandharva festival from Pune. Many thanks to whoever that was. By the way I am very keen to get the recording of Malini Rajurkar’s bihag tappa that she sang there this year. I have learned that tappa and I would like to hear how she sings it, especially if she uses the tal structure indicated by Ginde saheb in his transcription of Ratanjankars’ compositions. I prefer it in two avaartans rather than one.

sra seminar 2012

musicmumbai — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:50:56 +0000

It is that time of year, the sra, ims seminar at ncpa. I missed Ashok Ranade and especially Joep’s presence this year. Those 2 along with Pt Arvind Parikh were the coordinators since its inception. Ashok Ranade is gone and Joep, I do not know, but suspect there were some differences with Shri Parikh. I only attended the Saturday sessions; as usual I probably missed very good discussions. Shri Jayant Kastuar, board member of the sangit natak akademi, and an important person in the politics of art in Delhi was the keynote speaker. I found it odd that he began his address by explaining that he had been so busy the past month, he had only begun to write his speech at 1:00 a.m. the night before. To me it indicates a supercilious attitude and lack of respect. Shri Kastuar repeated the platitudes about cultural imperialism, globalization, standardization. In a revealing anecdote, he remembered an Asian UNESCO meeting in Delhi where he had chided the female delegates for wearing western instead of their native dress, inviting them to see the streets of Delhi where women are in saris etc. I wonder what he would have expected a Chinese delegate to wear. Chinese dress as such has long ago disappeared from the Mainland. His jibe was alluded to by a later speaker who in a light-hearted way felt uncomfortable in his western clothes. Mr. Murali, the former editor of the Hindu is an impressive speaker. Yesterday though he tended to waffle, especially when summarizing what a speaker had just said. Since it had been short and well said by Kalpana Sharma and Shri Ramnarayan the repetition was unnecessary. He did say that this is the 3d year he has come to the seminar discussing the role of media and it seemed to him to be the same re-hashing of the subject. Shri Arvind Parikh wanted his Indian musicians group (zakir, shiv kumar and a few other north and south stars) to interact with the major newspaper editors and asked Mr. Murali if he could arrange such a meeting to which he replied that to get the newspaper editors to cooperate together would be impossible. Admirable straight talking to someone who does not take “no” for an answer. Mr. Ramnarayan from Shruti magazine spoke very well about the difficulty in making his magazine with its geriatric readership interesting to the younger generation. Shruti has run for 28 years and has maintained an impressive high standard. He was skeptical of the financial viability of a new “glossy” venture on classical arts coming from Kolkatta called I believe, “Avantika”.

No doubt the star of the day was unexpectedly Ms. Subhasree, the creative director of Jaya tv in Chennai where a well presented program on classical music has been a huge success. There before us was a dynamic young woman giving us the history and blueprint of what can only be dreamed about in north India. Started in 2000 the prime-time program has resulted in a win-win situation for all involved. They have also had a reality program on classical music going for the past 3 years. She claims it is all in the packaging. Who can dispute it with the kind of results she has had? To a question whether the content has been diluted she replied that the traditional kutcheri formula was adhered to. A later speaker, the A.I.R. director Shri Mandloi perhaps in an oblique reference to her presentation said that content is all important (rather than packaging). When I think of some of the deathly dull music presentations I have seen on Doordarshan or even in concerts I cannot agree. Both are obviously important.

Shri Mandloi listed the impressive facts of A.I.R. and all the plans and sanctions for the future. Obviously everything had been taken care of! Nayan Ghosh had really thought about things that could improve with A.I.R. and had excellent ideas in my opinion. His suggestions and other audience responses were brusquely dismissed by Shri Mandloi who, as I said, has already taken care of everything.

Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan gave an interesting presentation on new media, social media and music. Their work with Underscore is interesting. They do not only talk and talk , they do! Bravo to them. It almost seems like different worlds meeting in the videos they have made- the English-speaking urban techies and the traditional artists and instrument makers. Will this world eventually meet in English cyberspace or Marathi, Hindi, Telegu etc.? Looking at population statistics and internet usage in China and Japan the inevitability of English is not certain.

traffic solutions?

musicmumbai — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:56:43 +0000

This is a letter I have posted to the newspapers. What is going to become of Haji Ali, Horniman Circle, Kalbadevi, Bhuleshwar, Peddar Road etc. etc.? bye bye I guess! I like the Bandra-Worli sealink. It is beautiful. I see it from my window. It hasn’t reduced the traffic on Cadell Road at all. The JJ flyover too is great fun. I love going over it. Have you been underneath it though? The noise is unbelievable and the traffic- the usual slow snarl. I think it is a shame how this city is run, no accountability, no common sense, no vision, and no one at the top. Dear Sir/Madam, Recent articles on new road projects linking south Mumbai beg the question: do we really want more cars cluttering up the space? Even old buildings in Kalbadevi are seen as impediments to road widening. Why not take a look at strategies developed in European cities with many more years of dealing with traffic? Traffic planning there has been developed to limit as much as possible vehicular movement in city centers. This is being accomplished by expensive inner city day passes, reduction of lane space for cars, promotion of bicycle, pedestrian, and public transportation. Contrary to what I hear many people say, Mumbai has one of the best public transport systems in the world. Unfortunately no importance is given to modernization and development. The suburban trains and buses have changed little over the past 30 years and the ticket queues have only grown longer. In Mumbai the automobile is destroying a beautiful city. The latest scheme, an expressway on reclaimed land along the coastline would permanently disfigure the city. Along with the expressway along the eastern that is planned to end somewhere around the Asiatic library, south Mumbai will see a huge increase in vehicular traffic. Like the hideous skywalks (useless), monorail project (going from where to where?), cluster developments, the Shivaji memorial or slum rehabilitation, very little thought is going into these projects. The huge waste of public money that was the Bandra-Worli Sealink and especially the fiasco of the Worli-Haji Ali part of that project should have given us some lessons. I suggest leave certain things alone, and instead develop the already existing infrastructure, increase the east-west connectivity, and develop the one really sensible project- the bridge from Sewri to Nava Sheva. James Stevenson

rajdulari

musicmumbai — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:11:26 +0000

Amie M. put this wonderful video on facebook: . Rajdulari was Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s wife. According to Batuk Deewanji they met in Jaipur when he would go from Jodhpur where he was living to record at the radio station. She was a student of the senior Dagar brothers, Aminuddin and Moinuddin. Deewanji had organized her program once in Bombay when his music circle was doing a series with guru and shagird. She sang before the Dagars, dhrupad, dhammar and thumri and according to Deewanji was very impressive. After marriage she gave up singing and had 8 children. Khansaheb never took her to America. Deewanji would visit their home in Colaba when Khansaheb was back from America- he never took her there- and witnessed many a row between two hot-headed individuals.

Parveen Sultana

musicmumbai — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:17:18 +0000

I have never met this grand lady but my friend Jon has. I think it was through Buddhadev DasGupta, the sarod player, the brother of Begum Sahiba’s husband. He was very impressed by her homely warmth and hospitality. I admired her loyalty to her husband for many years she would only give programs if they were along with him- and he was/is a very unlikable singer. Her career suffered. Some years ago though she started again singing solo to the relief of music lovers. Kishori Amonkar and Begum Sahiba, as different as could be, are the reigning divas of Hindustani vocal music, in my opinion.

Begum has always been known for her superb voice and technique. Her creativity is remarkable. Two comments she had made during concerts I had attended years ago I will always remember. Once during rag Madhuvanti she paused to remark that (perhaps contrary to the popular idea) Madhuvanti is a deceptively difficult raga. Another time during a stunning Megh, she remarked how the taans in this raga should be sung with power and demonstrated with impressive descending patterned taans.

More than anything I admire her charismatic stage presence. She does not throw tantrums, or have “off days” as far as I can tell, and she has the grace of a bygone era . She is of course the only female Muslim singer among the top singers. Isn’t that remarkable? Her emotional romantic connection with the audience is perfectly suited to thumri singing and she is a great, electrifying thumri singer. I believe it is a question of temperament. Many female khayal singers sing thumri in concerts but some fall flat- Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Shruti Sadolikar, Kishori Amonkar, Kesarbai Kerkar, for example, even though they may be great khayal singers. Among current singers i find Padma Talwarkar, Manjushri Kulkarni-Patil and Shubha Mudgal excellent thumri singers.

It is not so different with male singers. The greatest- Ustad Faiyaz Khan, and the late Pt. Mahadev Prasad Mishra. Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar sings bandish thumris very well but bol banao…… that is something else. According to Kalidas, the well-known music critic in Delhi the best thumri singers in India are Rajan and Sajan Mishra, relatives and from the same Benares gharana as the great Mahadev Prasad Mishra. I assume that living in Delhi Kalidas knows them and has heard them sing thumri. Alas, not the public. they do not sing thumris, even if requested. I have no idea why, but perhaps it has to do with the “mirasi” tawaif culture of their background and a desire to distance themselves from it.

kishori amonkar and padma talwarkar

musicmumbai — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:58:04 +0000

On different evenings I recently attended Padma Talwarkar’s malhar program at St. Xavier’s and the first public showing of Amol Palekar and Sandhya Gokhales’ documentary film on Kishori Amonkar. Both were magnificent! Padma’s musical creativity and emotional commitment are impressive. Her student accompanist in vocal was outstanding. I did not catch her name but she is certainly a young woman with great possibilities. Kishoritai was present at the screening of the documentary on her. In her brief comments she noted that she is a witness to classical music dying. She was though happy with the film. It was hagiography and beautifully done. It was not superficial. In fact it was densely packed with serious thoughts and ideas and I would like to see it again! I particularly liked the film clips of her mother giving talim and the clips of kishori giving a lecture-demonstration in Pune in 1986. It is hard to believe she is 80 years old. May she continue singing for many more years.

stories in a song

musicmumbai — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:14:27 +0000

Last night I attend the performance of “Stories in a Song”, a series of 7 vignettes highlighting aspects of Hindustani music. I loved it! I like the idea- to use theatre to tell the stories of the songs. The music and execution were impeccable. One wouldn’t expect anything else from Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan! The acting and singing were by the group “Arpana” and they were extraordinary. I particularly liked the full mujra thumri beautifully sung by Ketki Thatte, the hilarious nautanki, and the kajri akhada. I will add some criticism that I hope will not offend anyone. I think the first item about Buddhist nuns could be dispensed with altogether. Hindustani Airs about the interaction between and English memsaheb and a tawaif could be improved. Both characters seemed caricatural and the English lady very shrill- the story cliched despite the wonderful unexpected opera aria sung by the English lady. I would have liked a better story for the copyright, ownership segment, or even dispense with it altogether as it seems out-of-place with the other story lines and character development is weak. The story material, acting, singing, music and production were simply excellent. It does strike me that if these stories could somehow be woven together to make a whole, the effect could even be more impressive.( just an idea) Credit must go to Shubha Mudgal who conceived this project. She is an impressive singer, a remarkable speaker, and an active partner with Aneesh in various projects like this one. She is also a warm and generous human being. The performance was dedicated to the memory of Ashok Ranade who passed away in July.

Khansaheb’s Program at IIT Powai

musicmumbai — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:23:43 +0000

IIT did a fantastic job of organizing this program. Khansaheb sang superbly, lalita gouri, puriya dhanashri, megh malhar, surmalhar, bahar, sohini, and shahana malhar. This was one of the rare programs where the sound was excellent- very low reverb, not too loud, and the right mix of vocal, harmonium, and tabla. I do not know if they use that same mix for the video, but I understand that it will be available on the IIt’s youtube channel. I have saved the name of the outfit that did the sound for future reference- NJ’s sound machine (in Powai). Many thanks for the program and hospitality.

coke studio

musicmumbai — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:13:06 +0000

Thanks Devina for directing me to coke studio. And you are absolutely right, the Pakistani version is much better than the Indian. From what I understand the Pakistani v. was the original and its success spawned the Indian v. If any of you don’t know it, it is a fusion program, folk, rock, classical mixed together. It can be viewed on Youtube. What makes the Pakistani version so vibrant, and the Indian so dull? I have to admit to not having seen many of the Indian shows so am not really qualified to judge. Leslie Lewis though is in charge of the Indian show and I never liked his music with Colonial Cousins (with the wonderful Hariharan). Richa Sharma is not one of my favorite singers. I didn’t see Rashid Khan do anything outside of his box (except imitate that fantastic singer from Pakistan whose name I cannot remember). Could it be soul? Either you have it or you don’t and if you have to ask, you ain’t got it (paraphrasing a quote from some soulman).

listening session on Shobha Gurtu

musicmumbai — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:10:56 +0000

Tushar Bhatia gave a very nice presentation on the music of Shobha Gurtu. The clips were well-chosen. The panelists (3 students of S.G., including Shobha Joshi) were guided to give interesting comments. The old Doordarshan clips were really remarkable, especially an extraordinary duet with Nirmalla Devi. Some of the clips are available on youtube, but not that one. Shobha Gurtu was a unique singer and her genius was beautifully presented.