Sound of Music

Nithya's blog reminded me of my experience with musical performances et al. seems to have broken some dam in my otherwise hazy childhood memory.

My romance with music and cultural programmes started at a very young age. Considering a seriously musically inclined & educated parents it must have started much before.

My earliest memory of a musical performance is an IAP [invited audience program]recording of a ghazal nite for All India Radio. The performer was Manhar Udhas. In today's date I cannot say I like his singing anymore. But I distinctly remember thinking I liked him better than Mr.pankaj udhas though.

Anyway, these program’s are conducted regularly by AIR and usually start at 7 or later in the evening and go on till 10 or more. Depending on the weather you are seated on chairs or "gadda" under the open skies. [I have to mention here that ladies from Delhi have an excellent dress sense.]

Usually such ghazal program’s have a few standard pieces to start with and then are more or less taken over by the audience. There are requests galore from the die hard fans. The innumerable "arz hai" 's and "irshaad" 's set the mood for a very different kinda evening.

A coupla other events that stand out in my earliest memory are a "Hasya Kavi Sammelan" and a "Shayri Baithak". Both terrific experiences no one should miss if given the chance. Although I am not sure stuff like this happens in Southern India a lot. These are all from my days away from the south. These events are full of people who are real fans of shayri and quality jokes, who follow these particular artists and know what to request for at which point. I can say my education of urdu began there.

Usually the sammelan/baithak consist of a group of artists who are versatile in different styles of the same art. like there maybe shayars/hasya-kalakaar from lucknow or banaras or punjab or gujrat or delhi and each one will have different style of sher or joke. the rendition itself is half the fun of listening to stuff like this.

The camaraderie shared by the artists on stage is a pleasure to watch, one enticing the other to respond with a better sher/joke. A very jovial 'let's see whoz better' kinda thing. Everyone taking pot shots at the political/legal systems. The usual romantic ones give way to those who poke fun at the perpetual majnu's. The creativity at such a congregation is simply electric.

Sitting in accumulating dew at a late nite of such performances is worth all the pain and disconfort you might have [try sitting on a gadda all nite long]. The collective "wah wah" and "bahut khoob" of an appreciating audience makes one aspire to be creative.

kewwl stuff!! They provide a real insight into what our culture and arts are like. [How can I forget these examples when in the midst of imp. arguments!!]

More recently I had the opportunity to attend a few performances in Bangalore of a more classical nature. There are no words left unused to sing the praises of Shashank's flute. As a part of Bangalore Habba - the city fest, he gave a performance at Ambedkar Bhavan. He started off with a few thyagaraja kriti's, which had everyone keeping time with the taala. A performance is made better by an enlightened audience. And number of people who appreciate Carnatic classical in Bangalore is pretty high. Considering the crowd was pretty mixed in age group I was wondering how much they would appreciate such music. But they proved me wrong when Shashank asked the audience what they wanted him to play next. He gave us a choice between "hamsadhwani" and "megh malhar" [I think]. But although the hamsadhwani camp [including urs truly] was more vociferous, he chose to play the other raaga since it is more difficult to play I think. Throughout the concert he kept asking what we wanted him to play and he even played an extra bit of "sindhu bhairavi" in the end for all those die hard fans of that beautiful raaga.

This ethereal music was preceded by another memorable performance by an exponent of Hindustani Classical vocal Aditi Kaikini Upadhya. What a voice!! Gosh! It is simply a divine pleasure to listen to a beautifully rendered aalaap or thumri. Makes we wanna break into kathak on the spot. I had such a hard time controlling my bobbing head and hands and legs also actually from keeping time to the beat. I felt like a new person after listening to both of these gifted artists.

The good part was that several such well known persona's were performing for Bangalore Habba for free - just so that the diverse population could get a chance to hear, learn and appreciate good classical music. I missed a few good ones due to other commitments, but we did make it to the finale at Palace Grounds. The organization wasn't as good and the crowd had a mind of its own. Ganesh and Kumaresh performed there also with an orchestra group. Some kinda fusion music. I was soo distracted by the chaos and was unable to enjoy it at all. So we left and ended up taking pictures of the Palace and eating some fundu "chur-muri".

To conclude this expose on concerts I would have to mention the Yanni concert I went to recently at Radio City Hall. I had heard one of his CD's once upon a time and am not really a fan of his music. Somehow happened upon the tickets so went to check it out. And boy I wasn't disappointed. He had this 20 or so piece orchestra going with him and a set of 12 keyboards or something - wow! With the light effects and screens showing some video clippings to go with some of the music made up an amazing show. A few of the compositions we simply wonderful. Though honestly I heard more of his accompaniments than him. There were people from various parts of the world playing these exotic instruments. Each one a master of his game so to speak. Some aussie playing the 'dook' [not very sure abt the name - sounded like that] - a long hollow wooden tube played by leaning it against the floor at an angle. One fundu guy playing the Chinese Flute [I love that sound]. One mean drummer!! [Regular] another mean drummer playing african/latin kinda drums. The violinists were simply outta this world! There was a jugalbandi kinda setup between various instruments and coupla vocals. Very interesting effect. I guess it is Yanni's show since it is his composition and mixing. Although I inherently expect the lead name to be doing more than holding a finger down on a coupla keyboards. [Uneducated as I am about this stuff - that is what it looked to me like]. The sound effect was awesome! The music literally passed through your system.

In a way it always will. I think I was born with music in my blood, at least to appreciate if not to perform. So I will keep adding more reviews when ever I get around to seeing something new.