coming soon to atlanta: ustad rashid khan

The details first.

Venue:
Berkmar High School
405 Pleasant Hill Rd NW,
Lilburn, GA 30047
Date: Saturday, July 9, 2005
Time: 7:30 pm

Tickets are $15 for students, $25, $35, $50 and VIP. And that price also gets you snacks.
He's accompanied by Ananda Gopal Bandhopadhay (Tabla) and Jyothi Goho (Harmonium).

Additional information may be found on the front page of ICMS, Atlanta, co-sponsors of this event. Some more background information about URK may be obtained on his official site.

The "who the hell is he" section: Mainstream audiences as well as people who follow news more avidly than Hindustani classical music might remember URK from his recent appearance on the soundtrack of the latest Subhash Ghai dung-fest Kisna. It goes without saying that URK's mastery was underused and stuck out like an elephant's sore thumb on the soundtrack (and merely appeared on the backing track while the events in the foreground forced audiences to retch into their popcorn bags). That parichay does not do URK justice at all. If you're a moderately serious afficionado of Hindustani Classical Music, you don't even need this introduction (in fact, you should probably have quit after reading the details at the opening of this post). 'Nuff said. After having missed a chance to see him in Pune in January, I can't miss this opportunity.

ICMS II

The details: Kushal Das on sitar accompanied by Abhijeet Banerjee on tabalaa; May 08, 2005; Emory White Hall.

The best ICMS venue hosted a wonderful improvement and a return to form (at least the form I cherished as a member) for the ICMS concerts (after what I -- as part of a minority of one, probably -- considered an unsatisfying opening this year). Abhijeet Banerjee is a familiar face now (and he continues, like all great tabalaa players, to make the most complicated improvisation look so effortless), but Kushal Das was a welcome surprise. With mii.nDs that would give blues guitarists nightmares he presented some wonderful vilambit explorations and offered some cherishable melodic fragments in the madhya and drut sections of his performance. And then there was the interplay between his offerings and Abhijeet Bannerjee's masterful fluent tabalaa improvisation.

The first half was comprised of a performance of raag maarawaa with the alaap followed by explorations in jhap taal and tiin taal. After the break ensued a lamentably short session beginning with a short alaap and a tiin taal (madhya lay) performance of raag baageshrii before the concluding dhuun in mishra pahaa.Dii (keharawaa taal). When it became evident that there was going to be no bhairavii (ASIDE: "Music from India" on WRFG 89.3 FM opened its classical section with a performance by Kushal Das of raag bhairavii, so I could take consolation in that!), I just hoped that the pahaa.Dii would make up for it. It almost did (Seriously, how can you make up for a bhairavii?) with some wonderful mixing in of other raags (too fleeting to make a guess -- unless you were a raag monster). All in all, a great antidote for that mainstream do last month. Next up is Padma Talwalkar who was responsible for the only morning concert I have attended in Atlanta (and that was in August 2003!). I could almost wager a fortune on a good time.

ICMS 2005: ustad zakir hussain and pandit shiv kumar sharma [april 10, 2005]

The big bang to begin the year for the Indian Classical Music Society of Greater Atlanta. The venue: Glenn Memorial Auditorium at Emory. Everything I feared came to pass. The audience (who clearly were drawn by the name "zakir hussain" than by "shiv kumar sharma") was chock-full of people who had nary a clue about hindustani classical music. And I don't mean formal knowledge. I mean a basic awareness as a fairly regular listener (check out a regular low-profile ICMS concert event and you'll know the rasiks I'm talking about). Which meant a lot of waah-waah and clapping at the wrong moments. Performers rely on audience reactions to fuel their improvisational urges and creativity and I saw nothing positive propagating to the stage. Add to that, an ineffectual sound system that made the place feel like the Echo Lounge on a break. Consequently, I came away knowing what I already knew: these were two great performers who deserved all the praise showered on them for talking their vocations to new heights. Aside from that, I was neither impressed with the performance (I could get much better from a CD at home) nor with the set-up. The goals of ICMS were probably served well (getting their name out to more people, gathering funds to support future concerts), but I don't think they attracted too many musically keen listeners. Only subsequent concerts will either confirm or refute the success of this endeavour. Unfortunately for me, I'd rather have higher-quality performances by talented people with a much lower profile (almost everything that I've been privileged to experience thanks to ICMS has been thus). Call me a snob, call me a critic of the mainstream. Here's my spin as a consumer: I paid my $$s too, and I didn't get my money's worth.

a tsunami relief concert at Georgia Tech

Aarohi, a recently-conceived Georgia Tech student organisation to promote interest in Indian classical music hosted a Tsunami Relief Concert in association with Vibha's Atlanta chapter and the Atlanta chapter of UNA. The affiliation with ICMS meant that I was around to help and attend. Statistically, all the performers were Bengalis. And but for Kakali Bandhopadhyaya (Sitar) and Krishnakali Bakshi (harmonium), they were/have been faculty members at the Pandit Jasraj School of Music (Sougata Banerjee -- vocal, Prithviraj Bhattacharjee -- tabla). It was a pity that the tabla remained in a supporting role all evening. The vocal performances of raag jaijaiva.nti, aadii (aka havelii) basan.t [thanks to PB for that piece of information], and the (regrettably brief) final bhairavii were my favourite picks. The turnout was high (a good thing for the relief effort), but I couldn't help wondering "why does it take a natural disaster to get such a huge turnout for a hindustani classical music concert? where are all the rasiks?"

ICMS 2004 ends

* when: Saturday, October 30, 2004

* where: The Georgia Tech Student Centre Theatre

* who: pt suresh talwalkar (tabalaa: tuned in the lower register giving us the effect of a pakhaawaj), ramdas palsule (tabalaa), sameer dubley (vocal), pt sudhir phadke (sitar)

miscellaneous highlights

* sameer dubley, the speaker for the group, noted that the introductions were the shortest that they had had on this tour

* he also introduced the pieces presented (the best I have seen since I started attending the ICMS concerts), and also provided explanations about the different improvisations attempted

* he also noted the uniqueness of using vocal (instead of saara.ngii) to accompany tabalaa performances


the programme

1. excursions in diipacha.ndii taal with vocal/sitaar melody in raag yaman, which included anaaghaats, and taal improvisations by dividing the beat cycle into 8 and then later into 6 {while the spinal melody and rhythm maintain the 14-beat cycle}

2. improvisations in drut ek taal with the melody in raag shyaam kalyaan

INTERMISSION: wherein CDs by the artists (including Pt Talwalkar's Taal Kalpana produced at Shivaranjani Studios in Pune, and Dubley's 2-disc instruction to raags)

2. [sudhir phadke on sitaar; ramdas palsule on tabalaa] Short and light exercises in improvisation: the first in raag maa.Nj khamaaj {alaap; gat in diip cha.ndii} and the second in raag rasiyaa {madhya and drut in tiin taal}. During the end of the presentation, sudhir phadke (who almost inhumanly remained as a paradigm of time during all the crazy temporal percussive adventures during the show) recovered seamlessly from several pitfalls including a string breaking off and a string going ever-so out-of-tune during a furious pre-coda riff-o-rama (he effortlessly switched to another riff)

4. all the performers returned to the stage to present two compositions in raag bhairavii {where the vocalist was denied room to improvise}. The first composition (bhavaanii) was in jhap taal (10 beats) and the second (jaa jaa re jaa) in drut tiin taal.

Both Pt Talwalkar and Ramdas Palsule participated vocally with counts, bols, and even singing along with the vocalist on occasion. It was evident that everyone on stage was enjoying the improvisations and Pt Suresh Talwalkar's exhuberant frenzies on stage were a sight -- he was all pumped up like a dancer restricted by the need to sit cross-legged. This performance ranks right up there with (and might even supersede) splendid percussive coda last year.

sanjeev chimmalgi


* when: august 20, 2004

* where: holiday inn select, Decatur, GA

* who: sanjeev chimmalgi (vocal) accompanied by milind pote (tabalaa) and krishnakali bakshi (harmonium)

the programme

1 dhanakonii kalyaan (aka dha nako -- omit dha --, komal nii se kalyaan): created by his guru the late great Pt. C R Vyas: vilambit and madhya in ek taal; drut in tiin taal

2 le jaa re jaa patikawaa in raag bihaag (aadhaa tiin taal; drut in ek taal)

3 ba.ndish by Pt C R Vyas in raag jog (madhya ruupak). as he was kind to point out, this taal-centred incorporated elements of the agra gaayakii style.

INTERMISSION

4 another agra-style taraanaa in maalakau.ns ... a bhe.NDii baazaar ba.ndish followed by another one by kumar ga.ndharv

5 a nirguNii kabiir bhajan by kumar ga.ndharv {kauno Thagavaa}

6 the bhairavii presentation was a bhajan in kannada

As SC himself noted later, his voice took a while warming up and seemed to have made it just as things were about to close. That said, I was glad to finally hear the bhairavii after the last concert I attended (a not-too-pleasant experience in itself) skipped this wonderful raag.

long friday night with music

Come Friday evening, and we had a private concert hosted at the residence of an ICMS committee member. The performers were faculty at the Pandit Jasraj School of Music. And there was even a brief tabalaa exposition (and another display of the Zakir Hussain style percolating into his students). There was a santoor recital too ... and the hour was late. But the icing on the cake (in a weak manner of speaking) was some late late dinner (late into the wee hours of the morning) courtesy Cafe Bombay.

fusion?

Saturday marked my first concert at the Hindu Temple of Atlanta in Riverdale, GA. The performers: Pt Ajay Pohankar (vocal), his son Abhijit Pohankar (keyboards, harmonium), Aditya Kalyanpur (tabla). The programme began with Abhijit performing three fragments on keyboard (yep, you heard that right) accompanied by vigorous tabla executions by Aditya Kalyanpur (given that he has received tutelage from both the Late Ustad Allah Rakha and Zakir Hussain, it was not surprising to see him execute crisp runs of percussive delight). The keyboard was set to a tone approximating a santoor, and this was the first time I had heard someone play the keyboard as if it were a santoor (not surprising again given that Abhijit has received training from Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma). Starting off with raag jhinjhoTii, Abhijit proceeded to a dhun in pahaa.Dii before ending with a composition in raag bihaag (related RDB song plug: zi.ndagii ke saphar me.n from AAP KI KASAM) dedicated to his mother.

Pt Ajay Pohankar came on for the second half of the programme with a swarama.nDal, but thanks to some unfortunately constrained miking, the sounds barely carried over to the audience. (shocking trivia break: Pt Pohankar delivered his first public performance at the age of 9!). There was no mistaking Pt Ajay Pohankar's mastery and experience as he began with a ba.ndish in raag jaijaiwa.ntii. (plug again: in the ICMS concerts -- this was merely an affiliation, not part of their concert schedule for the year -- I have noticed that the majority of the rasik audience has a Maharashtrian background. When the performers are non-Maharashtrian -- Bengali, for example -- the audience gets a boost from the appropriate regional clique, which vanishes for subsequent non-regional performers. The Maharashtrian audience, however, remains faithful!). Thanks to the Zee Heritage Festival and an overlapping Maharashtra Mandal meeting, there were many empty seats (and these were uncomfortable hard chairs more suited for wedding receptions and less for events of this nature), but Pt Ajay Pohankar did his best to establish a rapport with the audience (something that the rasiks didn't need to be prodded on anyways). Abhijit had to retire from the keyboard owing to a backache, leaving Pt Ajay Pohankar stranded until someone from the audience volunteered to "hold the swar" as it were on the harmonium. The next rendition, a Thumarii (kaise kaTe din rain) had Abhijit return, but on the keyboard. This is the first time I've seen the keyboard accompany the vocalist in the ICMS concerts I have attended, and despite my relative lack of depth in this matter, it definitely classified as unorthodox. Pt Pohankar had to only joke about it being "fusion", when someone in the audience screamed out that they didn't want fusion! Gah, as if just adding a keyboard (that it was being played by an exponent, who, despite his age, had garnered respect in the musical community) was going to transform the song into a remix! Pooh. Regardless, the performance was not captured on video (on Pt Ajay Pohankar's request), but it was nothing short of entrancing (as S tells me, it's on Piya Bawari, which makes that another addition to my acquisition list). And then the event closed with the hypnotic bhairavii. An evening well spent.

ICMS II: in the morning

Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar accompanied by Pt Suresh Talwalkar on tabla and Vishwanath Kanhere on Harmonium present a grim unsmiling picture as they sat on stage ready to begin the second ICMS concert for 2004 -- a Saturday morning concert. However, once they segued into their renditions for the day, the faces were smiling, the chemistry wonderful and the musical virtuosity unparalleled and mindblowing. Adventurous taans and mii.nDs were the order of the day. From the haunting dawn of miyaa kii toDii to the familiar phrases of jaunapuri to the patient buildup to an improvisational jamboree built on bri.ndaawanii saara.Ng to an astounding exploration of hi.nDol-bahaar culminating in a roopak-taal-backed evocation in bhairavii, this was quality music with high-quality music. Hope it lasts till the next event in October.

ICMS 2004 begins

with a vocal concert by Santanu Bandhopadhyay at the Swanton Amphitheater at the Holiday Inn in Decatur, Georgia. He was accompanied on the tabla by Sujit Saha (the section of "has accompanied" in his bio reads like a virtual who's who!). The last concert I attended here (which was also my first ICMS concert) wasn't as satisfactory (plagued by delays, and a singer who couldn't find the pocket). Atlanta Dunia has a IE-friendly every_other_browser-unwelcome page dedicated to the event (TRIVIA: the audience photograph features a chopped-off yours truly). I had to miss a dinner with friends at Madras Sarvana Bhavan, and as ironic justice would have it, the dinner for the committee and volunteers after the concert had food catered from MSB. To top it all, there was stuff to scavenge for later meals.

hindustani classical music as an appetizer

Had the chance to see the Schwartz Centre at Emory last Saturday. Specifically the Emerson Concert Hall, which is a joy to be in. The back of the stage is comprised of a set of steps and the artistes were generously and precisely lit from ceiling lights. Good acoustics. The evening belonged to Kakoli Bandhopadhyay accompanied by Prasunpani Bhattacharya on tabalaa. The programme opened up with an exploration of puryaa dhaanashrii. This was to be followed by one of chaarukeshii. However, a minor change gave us kalaavatii instead. Then came the intermission by which time several things came to light: (a) the tabalaa was badly miked: all we heard was the daggaa and that gave the accompaniment the general air of superficial talcum powder (b) each rendition was too brief to merit a rewarding experience. The 2 hour format fit the ASO recitals, but after all my recent ICMS attendances, I could see its inability to address indian classical music. This perfunctory packaging was a minor betrayal. The turnout was quite large and seemed to comprise mostly of members of the regular Schwartz series, who were curious about Indian music. Clearly, their interests were better served than ours. That minor quibble aside, more rewards came from the second half of the performance: first from a rendition in baageshrii followed by a raagamaala centred around mishra piiluu (after making piiluu mishraa, you can't really get more generic can you?). The tabalaa problem persisted and another interesting thing came to light: a decorative deceptive version of the vilambit phase. This phase is usually dominated by melodic exploration (unless it's an instrumental jugalbandii in which case both percussionist and instrumentalist exploit the opportunity to shine) and the accompanist has the responsibility of maintaining order. What we got was beat patterns interpolated within the regular counts of the taal, leaving the sitar as the only indication that we weren't in dhrut yet. These strange reactions aside, it was a good opening for the year. The ICMS concerts are a couple of months away, so I'll grab what I can get in the mean time.

tarang: the spectacular end to the ICMS proceedings of 2003

Abhijit Banerjee on tabalaa and pakhwaaj; Snehashish Majumdar on mandolin, banjo, double-necked mandolin; Somnath flexing around myriad gems of percussion like the ghatam (mostly), the kanjira, a bamboo tarang, maadals, shaker, tambourine, cymbals, TunaTunaa, ghungruu, and taashaa; B Rajasekhar on morsing. This percussion ensemble (taal-vaadya kacherii) was presented by the ICMS under the umbrella of an event called Tarang. A delight in every sense. A very useful introduction to the efforts toward adopting instruments more common in carnatic music in hindustani classical.

vedaa: an invocation of the gaayatrii mantra preceded a splash of fervent mandolin playing accompanied by tabalaa/pakhwaaj, cymbals and vocal chanting

swaas: Exploiting the des raag and the diip cha.ndii taal, this one featured the tabalaa, banjo (with a capo)/mandolin, tambourine, ghatam, claps and open-mouth pops

dusk: Based on raag shrii and set in the matta taal (9 beats), this one had the banjo, ghatam, tabalaa and the morsing duelling it out

return to home: A taanya vartanam featuring claps, the morsing, ghatam, tabalaa/pakhwaaj

There was a post-intermission slot where Snehashish explored the range of his mandolin in isolation, without any accompanying percussion.

Pancham: This one will remain special for me. Abhijit Banerjee announced the name of the piece and then proceeded the explain the name. The piece used a pentatonic raag (ha.nsadhwanii) and a 5-beat cycle. I was so sure he was going to mention R D Burman at this point, and was smiling like a jackass when he actually did. This piece was also a tribute to the late great Pancham. The fervent improvisations and jugal ba.ndii that followed featured the mandolin, tabalaa, morsing, and taashaa.

dancing daffodils: A play on Wordsworth's poem, this one featured a laggi (the percussion improvisation that accompanies the end of a thumrii) with melody. The mandolin, ghatam, shaker, tabla, and morsing featured along with the maadals who made their first appearance on this track

naughty laalaa: A playful piece that switched occasionally to diip cha.ndii dedicated to Abhijit Banerjee's son that employed the dholak, cymbals, tambourine, TunaTunaa, morsing, bamboo tarang, maadals, the mandolin, and two tabalaas.

varshaa: The final piece of the evening in raag megh started off in ek taal and moved later to tiin taal in the drut. The 2-necked mandolin (the upper neck of this work-in-progress experimental mandolin currently had only 4 strings) made its appearance finally, along with ghungruu, pakhwaj, tabalaa and tambourine.

Was also lucky to join the artistes for dinner at Maharaja restaurant in Tucker.

An evening with Pt Sanjeev Abhyankar

ICMS concluded their official 2003 season with a vocal performance by the young and amazingly talented Pandit Sanjeev Abhyankar accompanied by Harshad Kanetkar on Tabla and Ajay Joglekar on Harmonium (whose incessantly fluid runs and followons reminded me of Jon Lord). The performance started off at 2:30pm, adding an afternoon flavour to the choice of raags, which, thanks to some audience feedback, stayed far away from stuff usually performed and already heard (in previous concerts this year): an informal warmup in Chhaayaa Nat, Madhuva.ntii, Kalaavatii, Baageshrii, Megh, a bhajan each by Kabiir and Raamadaas Samarth, and finally an Eknaath gavLaN, before ending with Bhairavii.

A post-concert dinner allowed me to chat with PSA, and it was as casual as a typical kaTTaa conversation. I asked him about his work with Vishal and got a lot back: How his image as an established "prodigy" in Hindustani classical music prevented a lot of work coming his way (simply because most people would ask "kyaa ye gaa_e.Nge?"). How Vishal approached him for the brief alaap in Maachis, and how the more elaborate contribution on Godmother garnered him the National Award (which incidentally had more merit than the other awards being dished out to popular mainstream cinema simply because he was close to being a nobody in the film playback circuit). He even talked about his work with Vishal on a commercial for mineral water (I was lost here; being away from India means zero information about the latest in TV ads!). And then we got to Maqbool. Yes, he has a song on the album (as do Daler Mehndi -- who last collaborated with Vishal on Chupke Se and Sadhana Sargam). He was very very satisfied with his work, and there's hope for another National Award. The film and its soundtrack are on my list, but I have to wait till next month for anything more to come out.

While on the subject of Maqbool, JR unearths an interesting angle from the connection-monger's POV.

sarod and tabla madness: another great ICMS concert

When and where: Saturday, September 6, 2003 | 1930 | Emory University, White Hall Room 208
Who: Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (sarod), Subhankar Banerjee (tabla) {with Kakali Bandyopadhyay on tanpura}
Courtesy: ICMS

A rather formal performance -- at least in terms of a playlist. TNM was kind enough to attempt to announce and explain the piece before actually beginning to play it. That did not help to recover from the complex web of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic interplay that ensued. For the completely-blown away, the reaction would have been "awesome". For those (like myself) who tried to keep track of the 'sam' in the face of off-beat off-kilter taal patterns and sarod runs, it was a moment of "aha" every time the musicians converged from rather diverse tracks of improvisation. Here's what we got to hear: (a) alaap, jo.D and jhaalaa in raag lalitaa-gaurii (b) compositions in Raag puuryaa dhaanashrii in vilambit teen taal and madhya/dhrut jhap taal (I must add that this was the fastest jhap taal I had ever heard -- of course, it made it easier to count, but was still numbingly fast!) (c) intermission (d) a composition in raag gu.njii kaana.Daa in vilambit tiin taal (e) alaap and expositions in chaacho.D (14-beat-cycle) and tiin taals in raag mishra shivaranjanii (again I must note, as the performance approached the rock-solo-chaos crescendo aka find-the-'sam', TNM seemed to deviate more towards the 'mishra' aspect of things, which meant that we heard strains of piilu and maa.nD.

ICMS: Dr. Alaka Deo Marulkar

A wonderful evening-to-night of music courtesy ICMS. Dr Marulkar was accompanied by Milind Pote on tabla and Haresh Bakshi on harmonium. Since neither was part of her regular entourage, they had to adjust and accomodate, which is usually a good way to weed out the incapables. Pote made the transition admirably, but Bakshi left a lot to be desired in the speed and innovation departments. Such minor quibbles aside (including the fact that the programme took off 45 minutes late, pursuant to the needs of Indian Stretchable Time and a late and overlong intermission), I got a good introduction to Raag PaTa Bihaag (a confluence of PaTadiip and Bihaag).