Bageshree and Char-taal-ki-sawari

At the Salt Lake Music Festival, I played Bageshree with compositions set to Char-taal-ki-sawari in the vilambit laya and Teentaal (one in madhyalaya and another in drut).
Bageshree is such a majestic raga and I am absolutely in love with the raga.
Some believe, it has it's roots in folk music of the north-west and at the hands of the Ustads it has received the final shape of the raga that it is today.
Once, Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan and me were going somewhere by taxi in Kolkata. Kolkata is noted for slow traffic movements in the evenings. While inside the taxi, Ustadji showed me so many compositions on Bageshree that the sluggish traffic movement was more welcomed than hated for a change. In fact, to be honest, I wanted the traffic to stand still for the whole evening!
Out of those compositions, very interestingly, was one which had it's Sam on Pancham.
Incredible isn't it!
The Gat from the shared clip is a composition of Ustadji and the Gat starts from a very difficult but beautiful point on the time-cycle. It is very important for the amad and upaj, taans, todas and tihais, to end just before that point to bring out the true colours of this composition.
My Ustadji keeps on saying that a musician should be at ease with all the other taals as he/she is with Teentaal. And from the very beginning he has introduced me to compositions based on all kinds of taals and that has made me appreciate and enjoy laya and taal even more. I have learnt and heard quite a few beautiful compositions in Tisra-rupak, 5and1/2, Asta-rupak and other not-so-popular time-cycles. At the hands of Ustadji they sound as grand and beautiful.

Here is an excerpt from my concert -

I wrote about this concert in a previous Blog post -
http://subhranil.blogspot.in/2014/12/evening-enjoyed.html

Different colours of Hari Om Tatsat

who better than Khansahab to say Om.. Om is for that being who utters it from his/her very core..
it's not a property of a specific group of people..
in Khansahab's voice it does sound Maha-Mantra

....Spontaneous creativity, technical virtuosity, soul-touching voice...
so many years after his death, it's still so full of life.
one gets transported instantly to a by-gone era

Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan - Hari Om

Excerpt from a concert held at Pandit Sankha Chatterjee's house

It was an honour to perform at tabla maestro Pandit Sankha Chatterjee's house with him in the audience. And he showered me with much love by sitting through my performance, although he was not keeping well. For the rest of the evening and night he listened from his room. His words of appreciation still ring in my ears. Surely it was his love, as I am not worthy of such appreciation.
On the tabla was one of Panditji's foremost students Sri Subhajyoti Guha. He is a wonderful tabla player and a gentleman! It was an enjoyable evening with him on the tabla and many brilliant musicians in the audience.

I had played a traditional Gat-Toda of the Etawah Gharana. My Ustadji had told me that it was composed by his grandfather Ustad Wahid Khan sahab. Beautiful matching Todas are played with this Gat.
This excerpt contains one of my favourite gats in Shyam Kalyan. It is a madhyalaya-drut gat composed in Ektaal. This is Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan's composition! I had played a Drut Gat after this, which has been made famous by Ustad Vilayat Khan on Sitar.

Could not resist myself from sharing this historic photo of Pandit Sankha Chatterjee performing with Ustad Vilayat Khan in 1968. This has been 'lifted' from Panditji's Facebook Cover photo album.

And here is Pandit Sankha Chatterjee accompanying the great Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan as he sings Raga Yaman with Ustad Munawar Ali Khan giving him vocal support.

To get in touch with Pandit Sankha Chatterjee you can visit - http://www.tabla-berlin.com/
To get in touch with Sri Subhajyoti Guha you can visit - http://www.subhajyoti.com/home.htm

Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan - Laya aur Sur ke Pujari - The worshiper of Laya and Sur

Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sahab before starting to sing Chhayanat -
[at Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh's conference] --

''डर लगता हैं.…
लय और सूर से ... ये बहोत बड़ी चीज़ है.…
हम इसके पुजारी है ... लय और सूर के पुजारी है …
अगर ये मंज़ूर करले हमारी पूजा ... तो मेहेरबानी है अल्लाह की....
और नहीं तो ये हवा के साथ खेलना ... हवा किसीके काबू में नहीं रहती है
बस अल्लाह की मेहेरबानी हो जाती है तो हो जाता है ... ये हमारे बस की बात नहीं..... "

"Dar lagta hain...
laya aur sur se...
yeh bohut bari cheez hai..
hum iske pujari hai... laya aur sur ke pujari hai...
agar yeh manzoor kar le humari puja.. toh meherbani hai Allah ki... .
aur nahi toh yeh hawa ke saath khelna.. hawa kisike kabu mein nahi rehti hai..
bas Allah ki meherbani ho jati hai toh ho jata hai... yeh hamari bas ki baat nahi..."

I had posted this on my Facebook Timeline.

Here is an interesting conversation with my friends on this. A friend of mine, Prof. Ashok Mohapatra has translated the above mentioned observation by Khansahab -

You can listen to the above mentioned concert below. Year 1954
Ustad Inayat Khan on Tabla
Ustad Barkat Ali Khan sahab on Harmonium
Ustad Munawar Ali Khan on vocal support.