Gaud Sarang-Azam Bai

Let us not forget those great singers who chose to stay out of the race of name and fame .

Azam Bai of Kolhapur (1906-1986) was also known as Azambai Pisal. Very little is known about her but the recordings she left behind testifies that she was a classical vocalist of truly exceptional quality . It is known that she was trained in the Jaipur-Atrauli style of Ustad Alladiya Khan, by one of his sons -- either Manjhi Khan or Bhurji Khan during the 1930s. She also starred in a film named Naagaanand (1935) for which Vamanrao
Sadolikar composed the music. Azambai of Kolhapur cut at least 15 78 RPM records released by the Odeon Company in 1936-37 -- most of which are now only available in the collectors' archives.

Raag Mala -Goswamiji

A Rag mala is a garland of beautiful flowers . These flowers are verses composed in different Ragas . Though there are many flowers in a garland , that are all held together in a central strand of oneness . Similarly a Rag mala though comprising of several ragas has a central theme and a mood .

Padmashree Goswami Gokulotsavji Maharaj is undoubtedly a great living saint and an equally great musician .He belongs to the tradition of Indor gharana of Khan saheb .We don't get to listen to him often . But when we do , he takes us to a different world of devotion and melodic nectar.

Sharing with you this beautiful Rag Mala composed by Swamiji .

Mozart: Great mass in C minor, KV 427

In this world of loud music ,what a bliss it is to get to listen to musicians who can uncover , the softness , intensity and delicacy hidden in musical compositions . 
John Eliot Gardiner is one of the great modern day conductors .I love him for his calm ,mature disposition ,his scholarship and of course his humility Here he conducts a mass by Mozart . It is 59 minutes of absolute glory. The way such a huge band of musicians is synchronized in body ,mind ,heart and spirits and elevate the audience to a higher meditative state is amazing .
Masses are essentially spiritual compositions written by composers such as Bach and Mozart . Very soothing and pleasing indeed !! I am sure Mr Gardiner the Lord is extremely pleased every time you conduct smile emoticon smile emoticon

Where do we go from here?

We hear a lot of grievance statements in the field of Indian classical music. Some of them are.
1.Most of the Indian music lovers feel classical music is out of their reach .The Raagas , the Gharanas , the Alaaps , the rhythm ,take any of it , they can relate to none and hence classical music falls out of taste of masses .
2.Musicians that belong to the older generations or those who follow older generations feel that musical sensibilities of audience of the present day have degraded. People don’t want to listen to a long drawn elaborate development of Raaga. They want classical music to be wrapped up as soon as possible and light classical/light music to be sung. If possible a fast beat, high pitched song that they can tap their feet on.
3. Artists that belong to the new generation feel that we are dragging our feet too much on the old sands; we must look out for new kind of music, innovative, original and fresh. Nothing should stop creativity even it means creating fusion. Art forms change and change is the truth of life. We must embrace it with optimism and joy. They feel that audience should encourage their creativity and thirst for the new.
4.The young artists also feel that, they are blocked by the walls of the influential older generations who dominate the “Sangeet Samarohas”. Artists have to request, plead, use influence, to be included in the list of performers. It is much easier to get a program if you are a son or a daughter of an already established famous artist .
5.Audience whose taste is the old style Gharandaaz music, feel betrayed by the attempts (sometimes disoriented) of well-established musicians. They feel we are losing our great old heritage of Sur Pradhan and Bhava Pradhan Music.
6.Gurus feel that Shishyas of today are not good enough. They don’t have the dedication and desire to work hard, stay put and strive for a long period of their life .They either give up too soon or need quick success.
7.There are hundreds of young music aspirants, who want to give their life for music. They are prepared to work day in day out under the guidance of an able Guru .But either it is difficult to find a good Guru or he is out of reach .Gurus may simply not accept a deserving Shishya either because of their prevailing mood , impressions about the seeker , lack of influence ,lack of money or lack of time .

Whatever are the grievances, there is something uniquely Indian about all this confusion that we live in. Absence of a well defined, structure and process of learning, concert management, the dominance of influential artists , preference of personal choices and money over merit, unending jealousy for fellow artists, are some of our fine distinguishing characteristics. Waiting, requesting, pleading, soliciting at every step in the journey of music only to get rejected can be frustrating !! We all specialize in the uniquely Indian trait of making life difficult for each other unnecessarily.
And yet our music thrives and evolves in these very trying circumstances. It grows, creates new monuments and retains its past treasures. Artists suffer and get hurt, audience feel the heart burn, disciples shed tears secretly but the journey of musical evolution continues.

Are all these difficulties necessary evils for an artist to conquer and arise as true heroes? Or they are weeds that affect all of us and sap our spirits? As a true Indian I can only contemplate about them and express myself!!

Bhoopali Ras Surili

Any time in our creative life if we get tempted by smaller things, we can turn back and check the path that great artists followed ."Mahajano Yen Gatah Sa Panthah"(Follow the path that great people followed ).Pandit D.V. Paluskar churns our consciousness with his heart wrenching exposition of Raag Bhoopali .His Shuddha Aakar , Purity of tonal constructions in Raaga Bhava, Smooth silky mellifluous voice makes us wonder what kind of emotional intensity this great man had !!
If we close our eyes and listen ,we feel as if we are swimming in the vast expanse of sonorous music .
This is a rare big recording of Panditji.

Raag Saraswati

Raag Saraswati is a beautiful melody that comes to Hindustani music from Carnatak Music. The “Jati” is Audav –Shadav i.e. Five Swaras in the aroha (ascent) and six Swaras in the avaroh (decent).
Gandhar and Nishad are not taken in Aroh and Gandhar is not taken in Avroh .The dialogue between Pancham and Rishab is very pleasing. They are Vadi and Sanvadi swars respectively.
It is a sweet coincidence that an artist specially blessed by Saraswasti Maa is singing Raag Saraswati.

Deeply emotive artistic communication and profundity are signatures of

Sanhita Nandi's Raga development .As the aesthetic beauty of colourful flowers of notes in the garden of this raga are carefully caressed; a holistic feeling of the Raaga Bhava emerges. One tends to get lost in the ocean of divine musical experience .True to the Kairana legacy; the musical sonority is loved and protected beyond life. Raaga Saraswati becomes a medium to connect with Maa Saraswati.

Raag Yaman ..the evening ambrosia

Pandit K G Ginde used to say that Raag Yaman is the king of all Raagas . In Indian classical music one rarely finds a Raag like Yaman that lets a performer take so much liberty with it. In short, it maintains its identity even when it is being handled by amateur singers . If you are blessed with a good range of voice, and you have acquired sonority and control over rhythm, it’s difficult to go wrong with Yaman. If you know how to take Pa –Re coupling and have a good sense of movement across Ni and Ga the raga shows itself easily. Begin the Kalyan celebration by garlanding mandra nishad with beautiful colourful flowers of Mandra swaras. Enjoy the nectar of Yamanic Gandhar and Madhyam with a bit of rest on Pancham. Keep Dhaivat at bay and gently enter the antara after a leisurely development on Nishad . And lo! The edifice of Yaman is erected.
You may or may not want to cross the orbital of ordinariness, and you can still enjoy Yaman. Staying comfortably within our limitations, we can get to hear some brilliant performances that enchant us. All gharanas sing Yaman so sweetly. Even the doyens of some gharanas that specialize in rich rhythmic variations tend to give up their craze for rhythmic variations and indulge a little in the ambrosia of Yaman.
When this journey from the first lesson in classical music to listening to great artists come to an end, one gets ready to receive something extra ordinarily moving, .Divine! Touching the soft, tender chords in ones heart as if …our life as connoisseurs was made for this single moment, for this single artist and this single performance.
Khan Saheb Ustad Amir Khan sings Yaman .He sings the composition of Hazrat Amir Khusrow “Shahaje Karam… . A gayaki that is far beyond the Ragic grammar. That digests,transcends Merukhand and enters into the heaven of pristine Raga Bhava .The melodic mood ! Every expression, every intonation is so specially chosen. One wonders how much in love with Raaga bhav and Sur, Khan Sahib was! As I always felt each of his performances individually qualify for a universal prayer in any shrine .After all is that not what he did? Prayed through every concert?

Think from head ,sing from heart .

Ustad Amir Khan always stressed upon being a thinking musician. He was of the opinion that a musician must constantly reflect upon, and evaluate the wide world of possibilities through which he has to articulate his musical feelings. However he was not in favour of purely intellectual and mechanical development of Raagas. He shunned layakari of the pronounced nature that we see today. He said “Mere Gane mein Laykari bilkool Na ke barabar hoti hai .” One can do Layakaris, alankaras with amazing mathematical abilities but in what way can it convey the feelings embedded in the raga? Is it not merely a play of medium? Is it not acrobatics for which the best place to be is in a circus and not in a Baithak? In his performances and melody development, Khan Saheb went much beyond merely intellectual calculations. He was a master of “Merukhanda Paddati” but his aalaps never sound like permutations and combinations of 4, 5 or 6 swaras. They arrive loaded with his emotional intensity and ferver and transport us to a different world. He carefully crafted his music around expression of feelings, variations and phrases all so profound and heart wrenching. That is the pure, classy and elitist form of art music .And we are intelligent enough to understand its calibre and its effect.

Khan Saheb has left behind a huge collection of recordings that we can access any time. But as musicians and students, where do we look for a living maestro who can help us understand the process of “Rasotpatti”, the extremely specialised art of conducting ones music with the sole purpose of manifesting “Rasas” Musical moods?
I’m sharing a clip of Bageshree sung by Sanhitaji. This is not for a side listening. I urge you to study it with full attention. If we focus deep on each phrase that is developed, we realize how amazing is it to feel breath and experience Bageshree.

Beyond the world of notes and beats in the search of meaning .

The world of poetry is fortunate to have a basic expectation set from the readers clearly .Any poem that is written and read should make sense and should provide deeper meanings and insights into life .If this expectation was not set, poets with some mastery over words and grammar would have created a whole lot of tongue twisters and funny sounding phrases with rhymes.
The musical world is not so fortunate, since the messages given by musicians through their music cannot always be concretely interpreted; they can take the liberty of revelling in the play of elements and create an illusory structure that is devoid of any real emotive content.
For past couple of days, I have been listening to a beautiful series on Western classical music. “The Classical Classroom” In each of the episode a famous piece /composer is taken and a renowned musician explains it. The explanation is so detailed that every musical phrase is explained for its structure, composition and content. The messages conveyed through the phrases are explained to their minutest details. 
When I look back at our music I am troubled by this question. Are we in a position to state what we mean and what we want to say, when we sing a certain phrase or alap or taan? I know one may not always be able to explain these things in concrete terms , such as “let us enjoy the moonlight”, “it is so dark outside" or "I am feeling so lonely” .The feelings conveyed are subtle and are to be felt .But the point is do we really convey anything at all? For instance, this dancing, bumping, thumping, summersaults and a huge long jump on the Sam to the rejoice of all the audience. What does it all really mean? Let us assume it means something. Say the feelings of delight, happiness and joy? But how is it that we find the same routine in every raga? May it be Adana or Marwa? Does it mean we have got habituated to this superficial play of elements that we seem to have acquired some control on? Or is it that we are playing to the audience? Some practical factors at play such as I have to cater to the tastes of feet tapping audience so that they can call me again? Or is our state like that of a man who has a hammer in his hand and all he wants to do is to strike a nail in the wall?
Do we have the musical character to indulge in a leisurely 2 hour Vistar of a serious Raag like Darbari without any of these silly distractions? Can we sit together and get lost in the profound ocean of melodic bliss?
To say something, we need to have something to say .We need to be troubled by intensity of feelings as well as the need to say it with a certain sense of urgency. Mastery over Sur, Taal and Raag are just supposed to serve as a medium of communication. In the end it is just us and our world of feelings. How honest are we with ourselves is a question we need to constantly ask ourselves?
The transformation from a singer of ragas to a soul singer is not easy. You have to question yourself at every stage. What am I saying now? Why did I sing a certain thing in a certain way? What does it mean to me? Does it take me close to myself?
Perhaps pursuit of poetry can help us become more sensitive to this fundamental aspect of music. Ustad Amir Khan used to say “Every artist must have poetic sense. If an artist does not have poetic sense, he becomes emotionless and it gets clearly reflected in his presentation”. He used to often quote a sher of Jigar. “Nagma who Nagma hai jisse ruh sunaye aur ruh sune “How true it is that an artist may weave extremely complex structures and amaze us with his mind boggling jugglery but in the end we will feel empty.
Today I am sharing with you Raag Abhogi by Khan Saheb .It gives me my private moments with my Lord.