Birth of an unforgettable Bhajan

In 1999, Pt Kumar Gandharva said about a deep process by which he selected a Kabir Bhajan to sing:

“ The choice of some poems also depends on the tempo. At a certain moment it comes before me as a song…how the vowels and consonants fall, what it is saying, and how what it says come forth through the tempo. To sing a bhajan with a good voice is one thing, but to really express it is something totally different. There is one bhajan, ‘Maya mahaa thagani ham jaani’ ( Maya’s the great swindler- now I know), and a similar one, ‘Ramaiah ki dulhan luta bazaar’ ( Ram’s bride has looted the market). Both of these bhajans, Kabir express the same idea, but the meters are different. I took up ‘Maaya mahaa thagani’. From a musical point of view, what is being said comes across better in that one. A couple of years passed, and it was still sitting there. It did not click. After about two-and –a- half years, it took shape. It was beautiful” (Ashok Vajpeyi, 1999)

And here is the Bhajan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwLeBfwQJpM

A rare Thaniyavarthanam from C.S.Murugabhoopathi

Here is a 1967 Mridangam solo (Thaniyavarthanam) by one of the all-time great Mridangam players in Carnatic music. Ramanathapuram C.S.Murugabhoopathi (1914-1998) and his elder brother C.S. Shankarasivam Bhagavathar had influenced the course of classical music in the south considerably. K.S.Kalidas in his obituary on Murugabhoopathi titled ‘The last of the Titans’ mentioned how CSM had ‘improvised the left hand playing technique with innovative movements of split fingers’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtFXE4aVMT8&feature=related

Some references of C.S. Murugabhoopathi:

1. Ramanathapuram C S Murugabhoopathy: The Last of the Titans, an Obituary by K S Kalidas, May 1998. Shruti, 164: 15-16.

2. N. Scott Robinson. "South Indian Percussionist Page". http://www.nscottrobinson.com/. http://www.nscottrobinson.com/southindiaperc.php. Retrieved march 16, 2011.

3. Publication of the Percussive Arts Centre, Bangalore

4. An interview of Ramathapuram C S Murugabhoopathy published in the music magazine Shruti, July 1985 (issue 17 S, page 6)

5. A radio interview of Ramanathapuram C S Murugabhoopathy conducted by Mr Subramanya Deshikar (AIR Madras)

6. "Padma Awards Directory (1954-2009)". Ministry of Home Affairs. http://www.mha.nic.in/pdfs/LST-PDAWD.pdf.

7. "Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar (Akademi Awards) list of Awardees". Sangeet Natak Akademi, http://www.sangeetnatak.org/. http://www.sangeetnatak.org/sna/awardeeslist.htm. Retrieved March 16, 2011.

8. A radio interview of Trichy Sankaran, speaking on Palani Subramania Pillai

9. Carnatic Summer by Shri V. Sriram

Ektara/Iktara : It's one string and Sain Marna's mystic wonder

While remembering Ustad Sultan Khan's sweet Sarangi, my ears wandered like a maverick searching for many stringed instruments in Indian music and landed up on this ektara, if true, unbelievable. The writing on the artiste goes like this "Sain Marna was legendry Iktara player from central Punjab in Pakistan. He was a wandering sufi mystic mostly seen at truck stops on highways. He was discovered and introduced by Radio Pakistan in 1950's. Sain died around mid sixties while wandering in Punjab"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3vvkPjeF-U

Tributes to Ustad Sultan Khan

By the demise of Ustad Sultan Khan at the age of 71, the world of music has lost one of its most talented modern minds and one of the few remaining outstanding Sarangi players of Hindustani music tradition. Sultan Khan who mastered the art of Sarangi from his father Gulab Khan and later openly acknowledged the great influences on him by three stalwarts of Hindustani music representing three different streams, Ustad Faiyaz Khan of Agra Gharana, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan of Patiala Gharana and Ustad Amir Khan of Indore Gharana. However, as his music undoubtedly explains, Ustad Sultan Khan was mainly journeying through the meditative passages of music that Ustad Amir Khan had walked through.

Here are four amazing tracks from Ustad Sultan Khan and I humbly request you to find time to listen to them as a tribute the late Maestro

1. London 2006: Ustad Sultan Khan and son Sabir Khan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yJDPayazZo
2. Rag Desh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tc7xUEiisE
3. Nat Bhairav Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLJwQ7J-ZWE&feature=relmfu
4. Ustad Sultan Khan sings a Rajastani folk song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6WIoHEuOj4&feature=relmfu

A rare Jugalbandi and one 1834 thought:

Painting: Boatmen by Jamini Ray

This morning I was listening to a Jugalbandi. This time it is not only two artistes, but two ragas too. Ashwnini Bhide is singing Rag Lalit and Sanjeev Abhayankar, Rag Puria Dhanashree on one stage. Both of them are singing same swaras but in different scales and expressing the souls of both ragas. Let me quote a short paragraph from William Jones/ Augustus Willard’s celebrated treatise “Music of India”, first published in 1834:

“The melody of the East has always been admired, and I believe very justly. The Europeans, however, are at present so much accustomed to harmony, that to their ear this melody will sound less attracting than it would otherwise have been. Indeed, so wide is the difference between the natures of European and Indian music that I conceive a great many of the latter would baffle the attempts of the most expert contrapuntist to set a harmony to them, by the existing rules of that science” (Page:35)

Let me place first the drut part and later the vilambit laya part for a change (I give part 2 first and then part 1. Forgive me, if I have committed something wrong.

1. Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=7rszGSATskw
2. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUpTvND3ff8

Two Definitive Heights in Shehnai and Nagaswaram

Here is an article on the origins of Shehnai/ Kurnkuzhal or Nagaswaram in Indian sub-continent written by Shri Dileep Karanth of department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The article had appeared in E-As Pac, an electronic journal for Asian Studies.Dr. Karanth deals with the debates on the appearance of 'Oboe' in India.
I request interested enthusiasts to go through it.

http://mcel.pacificu.edu/easpac/2005/karanth.php3

However, before reading the article I hope you will listen to two refined renderings on Shehnai and Nagaswaram, the first a very early recording of Ustad Bismillah Khan and the second , a celestial rendering of Raga Takka on Nagaswaram by the legendary Karukurichi Arunachalam. Both are fabulous and show the heights of refinement that these instruments can attain. Please don't miss them.

1. Ustad Bismillah Khan :Raga Gunkali: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE78CWP65rg
2. Karukurichi Arunachalam- Raka Sasivadana- Takka: http://www.raaga.com/player4/?id=149904&mode=100&rand=0.8444107941841745