Showing posts with label Kumar Gandharva. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kumar Gandharva. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

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