Reviews - Marwa Thaat Baithaki

Raga music and the better Raga musicians truly flourish in a Baithak/Jalsa/Mehfil setup. All the greats of yore whom we look up to, for inspiration, came out of that setup. Stories from such Baithakis are still mentioned by our seniors (who had been part of such Baithakis as listeners when they were kids or teenagers). Musicians and scholars used to be in the audience along with the music lovers and their appreciation guided the musicians to outperform themselves. 

However in recent times, such Baithaki setups have dried up. Public concerts in auditoriums and corporate events are the ways now. The era of the knowledgeable organizers is almost gone. Musicians have been forced to become organizers and most of the concerts that musicians host are exchange concerts (that could benefit themselves). The times have changed and frankly, musicians cannot be blamed for this. Patronage is a key factor for the survival of tradition. I feel, as a musician it is our duty to give back to the music scene that feeds us. Selflessly at times. This Baithaki Series is one such attempt of mine to revive that tradition. Hopefully this movement will create awareness, enthusiasm and discerning capabilities within the audience.

Check out the Baithaki FB Page -

The Baithaki Movement With Subhranil Sarkar 

The Reviews -

 Thanks to music scholar and critic Smt. Meena Banerjee and Smt. Shilpi Ravi for the media coverages.  

Back to the roots - Misra Khamaj

Recently I recorded for a British documentary on Rabindranath Tagore.

I had put up at a cosy two-storeyed mud-hut at the border of a forest. In a way, one will see a fusion of traditional and modern ideas in the hut's making. For example, although the mud-hut had a thatched roof, it also had electricity and a very modern bathroom.

The property is surrounded by paddy fields.

It's in a rural place near Shantiniketan, Rabindranath's Abode of Peace. However rampant urbanization has raised it's evil head here as well. Concrete is replacing mud bricks in the surrounding tribal villages and corrugated steel sheets are replacing the thatched roofs that kept the houses cool all round the year. Looking at this, one would be forced to wonder if Tagore's abode of peace will live up to it's name in the coming decade. As a matter of fact, we got interrupted a couple of times by the noise of motorbikes and Toto-vans passing by and we had to re-take.

Since this was an outdoor shoot during the monsoons, the drastic difference in temperature and humidity was of some concern. Hence keeping the instrument in tune was tricky. Sitting on the verandah, I played Alap in a few ragas, an interpretation of Jana Gana Mana (the Indian National Anthem composed by Tagore) and an interpretation of a Baul song made famous by Tagore and made famous on the sitar by Ustad Vilayat Khan as Bhatiyali Dhun.

Both Tom (the filmmaker) and I are quite satisfied with the way the recordings for the documentary have taken shape. I am sure it would be well appreciated both in India and in the west.

More details will follow soon.

Here is a sample from one of the takes for the project.

Unfortunately, I was very sick (runny nose) and later we had to re-take this piece.

This is a portion of the first take (with sniffles in it that is)

Alap in Misra Khamaj (behind the scenes)

Hope you would enjoy listening to it!

Open air baithaki of Kirwani

Kirwani hasn't traditionally been in the standard repertoire of Hindustani Classical music performers.

As a matter of fact, in our Gharana I can't remember hearing any maestro except my Ustadji performing Kirwani in public concerts as a Khayal Raga.

For me, Kirwani is about the pain arising out of separation and the longing to get united with the loved one for one more time. 

The following recording is from a recent open-air Baithaki style concert of mine.

Open-air concerts are always tricky to handle when it's Hindustani Classical instrumental music. The sustain of meend often gets overshadowed by unavoidable outside noise. Also the lack of feedback makes it very important to get monitor speakers (which in most cases can't give an exact idea of sound in the listening area). So one has to alter the method of execution of meend and has to depend to a large extent on the sound engineer's idea of Sitar's sound (which in many cases differ from one's own idea of one's own instrument). I prefer to have my students listening to the output to give me feedback during sound-check, as they are more familiar with my Sitar's voice. 

Enjoy!

[Please take a look at the file description for complete artist info]

While writing this post, a memory of an evening came to my mind.
It was about my Ustadji performing Kirwani in an open-air setup.

Fortunately, it was uploaded on YouTube by Simon Gill who had recorded the whole concert.

I was on stage with Ustadji on the tanpura. And, I remember everything vividly even now.

You will find the odd intervention of car and rickshaw horns if you listen to the whole recording.
But if you can overlook that, it was a great rendition of Kirwani.

The great tabla maestro Pandit Anindo Chatterjee was on tabla.

Vilambit Rupak Taal based Gat in raga Charukeshi

I love this sublime composition by my Ustadji.

There is so much scope for elaboration yet it expresses the mood of the raga Charukeshi so well in only 4 lines.

I have seen that mostly instrumentalists end their taans (when accompanied by tihais) at the sam.

But you will see that Ustadji's way is to end at the mukhra.

Which is indeed very difficult to execute when the mukhra of the gat falls in a space between two beats and not on a beat (like in the traditional way). Spontaneous taans, tihais and vistar become even more difficult in such a setup.

But when and if you make them arrive in the right manner, they sound even more beautiful I feel!

On the tabla is Hindole Majumdar, a senior disciple of Pandit Sankha Chatterjee.

Please enjoy my recital. 

You can also take a look at my previous blog entry about this evening. -
http://subhranil.blogspot.in/2015/03/full-house-concert-on-3rd-of-march.html