News & Notes

Swara Samrat Festival

Swara Samrat Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was one of the most iconic instrumentalists of the 20th century. In his memory, his disciple sarodist Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar has been holding an annual music and dance festival—Swara Samrat Festival(festival)—in Kolkata and other cities. In its 12th edition, the two-day festival in Kolkata was cut short due to the illness of Zakir Hussain. It was planned that the third day including the maestro would be held later in 2025. Sadly, with the untimely death of the tabla maestro, this was not to be.

The festival opened with a vocal recital by Dhananjay Hegde. Disciple of the Gwalior and Kirana gharana vocalist Vinayak Torvi, Dhananjay has received additional musical inputs from Venkatesh Kumar. A seasoned performer, Dhananjay never fails to satisfy—his well-modulated voice and non-gimmicky treatment of ragas is true pleasure. His opening traditional composition was in vilambit Ek taal, the madhya laya and drut in Teen taal. He sang raga Shuddha Sarang, impressively, for nearly an hour. The raga is usually presented as a shorter, second piece, as it can veer into sounding like raga Sham Kalyan. The last composition was by his guru Vinayak Torvi. It is so heartening to witness how music is transferred from generation to generation. Dhananjay’s voice in the kharaj (bass) notes was impressive; his play with swaras seasoned; his bol baant pure Gwalior gayaki. The next composition was in raga Patdeep; here the concluding tarana was self-composed. Again, this was a reminder of how true musical training, which included the creative element is passed on from guru to sishya. Both the accompanyists were Kolkata-based—Soumen Sarkar (tabla) and Jyotirmoy Bannerjee (harmonium).

The next item was the most enjoyable one for this writer; sarodist Debashish Bhattacharya of the Senia Shahjahanpur gharana. A senior disciple of   Buddhadev Dasgupta, this rarely heard musician, sticks to his training, truly sounding like his guru. His impressive control of the instrument, immense practise, and melodious content was matched by raga purity and musical integrity. He played raga Bhimpalasi—from the confident, opening strokes, one was aware that the raga was totally under the performer’s command. In the methodical, but brief aalap, Debashish went to the deep Sa with a sudden authority that impressed; too often musicians feel the need to prolong the note build-up to reach this concluding note. The jor with the impressive dhrupad ang gamakas and Rudra veena-style note play, spoke of an authentic style passed down through the centuries, was thrilling. After a brief, but very exciting jhala, Debashish moved onto a traditional maseetkhani gat accompanied by Abhijeet Bannerji. The second composition had an unusual pick up of the mukhra from the 14th beat. The second raga on request, was Barwa, rarely played on the instrument nowadays. Debashish, with admirable humility, said that he had not internalised this raga much; so while he honoured the request, he showcased it briefly, before he switched to another sister raga, Pilu. Here, he brilliantly wove in snatches of popular Rabindra sangeet songs. The unusual simplicity, humility, and straight-forward playing was laudable like his undoubted skill.

The third item was performed by the father-son duo Sriniwas Joshi and Viraj (son and grandson of Bhimsen Joshi). It was unusual to see this item marked as a ‘jugalbandi’ instead of the conventional ‘accompanied by’; in the Indian tradition, the disciple is never seen as being  qual to the guru. The accompanyists were from Kolkata—Emon Sarkar (tabla) and Gourab Chatterji (harmonium). The opening raga was Multani.

Undoubtedly, the most resounding flashy item of the evening was the percussion trio of maestro Yogesh Samsi (tabla), vidwan Patri Satish (mridangam) and vidwan Girdhar Udupa (ghatam). Indeed, each of the musicians have made the instrument their own, and each is arguably the finest exponents of their respective instruments in their generation. They have collaborated on stage as a trio often, and their very evident chemistry and mutual respect on stage was perceptible. Accompanying them was the young maestro Tanmay Deochake. Sticking to the most widely played ‘taal, Teen taal’ or Adi tala, the trio initially played solos without the accompanying lehra on the harmonium. Then each one slowly built-up the tempo, with the harmonium, eventually being joined by the others in a thrilling crescendo of a perfectly matched korvai. The recitation of the percussion bols by each of the maestros, who then executed them perfectly was beautiful; the syncretic presentation a reminder that Indian music, whether Hindustani or Carnatic has a common origin.

The evening concluded with a vocal concert by Sajan Mishra, accompanied by his son Swaransh; and accompanied by Banaras gharana maestro Kumar Bose (tabla), and Kolkata’s Debashish Adhikary (harmonium). Again, this performance was termed a ‘jugalbandi!’ The opening raga was the very commonly rendered Bagesree, and it took some time for it to arrest. The second composition Eri ai mein kaise ghar jaaoon was soulful and redolent of the Banaras gharana’s evocative singing. The concluding composition was a tarana in Rupak taal.  Sajan Mishra is a seasoned and polished singer—he never fails to impress; his son Swaransh held his own. The next raga on request was Jaijaiwanti, the vilambit composition Aiso nawal ladli Radha was by (late) Rajan Mishra. The second composition was a Banaras gharana’s adaptation of a similar composition More mandirawa. This raga was presented with beauty, soul, and exquisite finesse. They concluded with a bhajan Chalo mann Vrindavan ki orr. As expected, there was a standing ovation.

Malavika Sarukkai was supposedly the last performer for the evening, but she was unwell and had to cancel.

The concluding day of the festival again started dot on time at 1.00 pm, with a never-before attempted duet by seasoned Maihar gharana violinist Indradeep Ghosh, and young, US-based santoor exponent Vinay Desai. Despite the age difference, the duo performed well together. Surprisingly, they both chose raga Shuddha Sarang again. In an earlier age, artists would never repeat a raga performed in a festival. Nowadays, sadly, ragas are repeated even by the successive artist! After a brief auchar, they went straight to the composition in Rupak taal. Initially, Vinay played laya-dominated phrases, while the mature Indradeep focussed on slower, swara-driven movements. Later, both their playing matched as the speed progressed. Indradeep had learnt from (late) vidushi Shishirkona Dhar, and also the great V.G. Jog, whose style was totally ‘tantrakaari’; as such his playing reflected the styles of both gurus. He has added a 5th string to his instrument; and also, tarab strings. His simulation of bols was truly impressive, as was the jhala.  The brilliant young tabla exponent Aarchik Bannerji, son of the great (late) Subhankar Bannerji, held his own with ease; and matched each player’s solo presentation effortlessly. The drut composition had been created by both players, based on the structure of Vinay’s guru (late) Shiv Kumar Sharma’s compositions.  

Kolkata’s Indrani Mukherji has trained in the khayal idiom extensively, but it is for her thumri that she is very popular. She sang raga Bhimpalasi, the popular Akhiyan mori laagi, the drut was a Sadarang composition. Her thumri in raga Pilu, Bhawara re hum pardesi log was very special; her voice conveyed the emotions effortlessly. Somehow, Arup Chatterji (tabla) was unable to match her mood; sometimes, a doyen is not the best accompanyist unless there is chemistry between artists. Anirban Chattopadhyay (harmonium) was excellent.  

Ravi Shankar came alive through the music of his senior disciple Shubhendra Rao. Effortlessly bringing in both gravitas and lyricism into the afternoon raga Madhuwanti, Shubhendra recreated his guru’s magic. The concert was enlivened by Shubhendra’s memories of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. His father had apparently missed the latter’s concert in Bombay decades ago. Consequently, when his father had verbalised his disappointment to the Ustad, who immediately said: “Come home, I will play for you!” and rendered an unforgettable raga Lalita Gauri! Shubhendra’s expansive aalap jor and jhala moved straight on to a madhya laya rupak gat; eliminating a vilambit gat was suitable as his aalap had been so comprehensive and a slow composition may have sounded repetitive. The concluding drut ek taal gat was impressive as musicians today are rarely able to maintain the speed and clarity in jhala bols on any taal other than Teen taal. Accompanyist Akram Khan, doyen of the Ajrara gharana, quipped after the concert: “I was put into a difficult position having to play Ek taal in that speed!” The concluding item was a very lyrical Khamas.

Sarodist Indrayudh Majumder had put together an instrumental ensemble of his father Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar’s students. From the youngest seven-year- old Purab Chaudhury to the most senior disciple Anjan Saha (aged 50), the ensemble included two sitariyas too—Anjan Saha and Shubhayen Ganguly. The sarodiyas included Indrayudh Majumder, Rudrashish Ghosh, Saswata Choudhury, and the sole female—Anoushka Bandopadhyay. They played compositions in ragas Yaman Kalyan, Hemant; and eventually a composition of Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar and his vocalist wife, Manasi Mazumdar, in Khamas. The display of harmony, best shown in an orchestra, was pleasing; each of the solos showed the youngsters have a bright future ahead, musically. Sohan Ghosh (tabla) accompanied them brilliantly.

Umakant Gundecha accompanied by his nephew, Anant, sang raga Puriya. It was interesting to hear from someone in the audience that for many Kolkatans, vocal dhrupad implied the Gundechas! As usual, the serene ambience they created was soothing. As always, they sang new compositions: the main piece being Dharaa dharti dharani avani in the 10-beat Sadra taal. On the pakhawaj was Akhilesh Gundecha. They concluded with their highly popular Kabir composition in raga Charukeshi.

The grand finale concert of the festival, Amjad Ali Khan accompanied after 40 long years by Swapan Chaudhury, was preceded by an elaborate award giving ceremony to Amjad Ali Khan. In fact, even after he had sat down to play, the sponsors of the festival, tried to honour both him and Swapan Chaudhury, that caused the Ustad to quip with a laugh: “Ok now, if the honours have finished, should we start??” 

Showing his mastery of the instrument Amjad Ali Khan attempted something never done before. He announced: “I will play raga Durga, but a ‘crying’ Durga because of the atrocities heaped on women.” So, on the Re, Ma, and Dha notes, he prolonged the note, showed the srutis, and did not stop on the next note; thus, he created a different pathos-filled sound. This was not the usual raga Durga, but literally, his raga Durga’s notes cried in pain. He skilfully avoided dissonant music and thus, Amjad Ali Khan proved that his creativity has not lessened with the passing years. Then, he moved on to playing the compositions he has created in a career spanning nearly 60 decades. Sadly, the chemistry between him and Swapan Chaudhury was not apparent; the latter was confining himself to making magic only when prompted by the Ustad. Slowly, as he was getting into the groove, Amjad Ali Khan next played raga Shahana on request; his iconic composition in Mian Malhar, Khamas, and eventually Rabindranath Tagore’s Ekla chalo re. This was vintage Amjad Ali Khan, on his mettle, playing a tribute in memory of a more senior sarodiya, in Kolkata, a city that he always said: “was the first to shower him with fame.”

(The author writes on music, musicians and matters of music)

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