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!

Gat-Toda and traditional Todas

A few days ago, I had shared this video of mine on Facebook.

After listening to it, a few of my Facebook friends had wanted to know more about this type of composition and it's provenance.

Well, this is a type of composition which we call Gat-Toda.
Gat-Toda is a purely instrumental baaj where matching Todas come with the Gat like a bouquet. They are often composed with phrases from the Gat itself.

To explain, let me quote a passage from an article at the ITC SRA website (since it is nicely written)-
"During the formative period of sitar music, techniques were borrowed from the 'been' and 'dhrupad',
and 'gat-toda' emerged as the first instrumental music style as opposed to vocal music. From this evolved the Masitkhani baaz.."

Now, I came across a photo of Ustad Enayat Khan on my friend Adrian Mcneil's FB Timeline. Adrian is a noted scholar of instrumental music history and a sarod player himself. It is a rare photo of Ustad Enayat Khan from the proceedings of the All India Music Conference - Lucknow 1925 published in a book. The caption says 'Inayat Khan (son of Imdad Khan; Sitar-player; Gat-Jora, Jor Alap Style; Indore State)'. Here, I suspect there has been a typographical error. I feel it's Gat-Toda and not Gat-Jora. One thing we have to keep in mind is that the people at the printing press are not musicians in general.

I have learnt from Prof. Amlan Dasgupta that there was a time when connoisseurs waited eagerly to listen to those Todas which were synonymous with an Ustad's music and if the Ustad chose not to play those, often requests were made to play those specific Todas in Mehfils.

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

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

Romancing raga Jhinjhoti

Sharing two small clips from two concerts of mine.
Venue 1: Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark.
Venue 2: the famous Nat Mandir of Beadon Street Deb House in North Kolkata

I am fortunate to have listened to an hour long recording of Jhinjhoti played by the legendary Sitar and Surbahar maestro Ustad Wahid Khan, my Ustad's grandfather.
I express my gratitude to Mr J. Stevenson who had recorded that in the 70s. Needless to say it's one of the rarest of recordings of the great Ustad.
In our Gharana, raga Jhinjhoti used to be peformed with 'dou (2) Nikhad'.
I was overjoyed when my Guru Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan taught me the same Gat Ustad Wahid Khan had played on the Sitar after finishing the Alap, Jod Alap and Jhala.
I have heard the same Gat from Ustad Imrat Khan as well.

However, here I have performed Jhinjhoti in it's present form.
Raga Jhinjhoti (excerpt from Alap)


Sitar - Subhranil Sarkar - Jhinjhoti (Alap) from Subhranil Sarkar (Sitar spieler) on Myspace.

I am sharing an excerpt from the Beadon Street Nat Mandir concert.

Here is a write-up on the Beadon Street Deb House
http://www.bangalinet.com/traditional_inside_chatubabulatubabu.htm

This Deb House Nat Mandir has been witness to several great performances by great Maestros such as Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Amir Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Rais Khan, Ustad Imrat Khan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee and several others,
Whenever, one hears recordings from those concerts, one is instantly struck by the impact of the sheer amount of love and hard work musicians had put into their art in that era. That honesty stands out and has always remained an example for the generations that followed..

On the personal front, it was an honour to perform at the Deb House at their invitation.
The clip contains signature patterns of intricate Layakari that my Ustadji does with so much ease.
Mine is a student's offering. Please pardon me if there are mistakes.

Apologies for the distorted sound.
The one doing the recording must have sat too close to the Speakers with a handheld camera. Also, it is a partially open courtyard where they do the concerts. Hence the resultant sound.
Raga Jhinjhoti (excerpt - Gat in Jhaptaal)

Here is a video clip, I found on YouTube which is about the above mentioned evening!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j-Uu_P66Dw