I had heard this incident from Pandit Ajay Sinha Roy, whom I used to call Ajay Kaka and he was also my second Guru. Ajay Sinha Roy had told me that once a musician from the western part of India had come to the recording studio of Megaphone Records to record a Raga. Among the people present in Megaphone Records during the recording, there was also Kaji Nazrul Islam; he used to work at the studio at that time. But he failed to recognize the Raga that the Western singer had performed. So he had said, “You couldn’t recognize this Raga? This is an Indian Raga after all… it is the Bangal Bilawal.
Kazi Nazrul Islam
Kaji Saheb couldn’t shrug off the fact that a Western singer had challenged him. So he had said, “No no. Who said that we couldn’t recognize the Raga? It is a very common one, and we all know it here. It is so popular that we even have Bengali songs on it.” Saying this, Kaji Nazrul had at that very moment composed a Bengali song based on the Raga, and sung it to the Western singer, to show that the Raga was known to him. This proved that we Indians are in no ways lacking behind Western singers.
This incident was narrated to me by my Guru Pandit Ajay Sinha Roy, whom I used to call Ajay Kaka.
Kaji Najrul Islam Beganleft HMV for megaphone Company during 1932-33. Therefore the time period has been tagged between 1921- 1947 in this anecdote –Editor
Reference:
“Islam, Kazi Nazrul – Banglapedia.” Accessed April 19, 2017. http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Islam,_Kazi_Nazrul.
Edited & Designed: Dr. Suranjita Paul
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University
Amlan Das Gupta is a Professor of English, Jadavpur University, He has built an archive of North Indian classical music at the School of Cultural Texts and Records at Jadavpur University. He has also offered a course on the history of North Indian Classical Music. Education – University of Oxford.
Tags
Abdul Karim Khan, Live Recording, Karachi, 1930’S, Seth Narayan, Bal Gandharva
Language
English
Dr. Amlan Dasgupta Speaks :
Verbatim:
There is something which is for me, might be a great experience which I have had for the last five years, is listening to live recordings of Sahib, which was recorded by in the early 1930s by a Karachi or Lahore business man called Narayan on some equipment which I have not been able to indentify. He was recorded in ten mini clips. So what recorded in ten minutes at that time I have no idea. Books don’t say anything about it. History of technology is silent on this till date, what thing it is, because it was interwar period or and clearly what they were, for instances, transcription discs. But they weren’t here at India.
Ustad Abdul Karim Khan
It is possible that Seth Narayan got it from somewhere. He was a rich man, he used to fly aeroplanes. At that very early time, he was very fond of Bal Gandharva. He likes the recordings of Bal Gandharva. But he has three or four recordings of Abdul Karim Khan Sahab. This the only thing only time I have been able to hear.
When Gurujifirst came to Kolkata, he stayed in a house as a paying guest which was in 20C, NilmaniMitra Street, close to Darjipara. He was there for few days. It was on his initial days in Kolkata,probably during 1944-45. Then he moved from that place to someone’s house in Bowbazar. The landlord of that house was a lover of music and dance and often visited at classical concerts. So when that man had a discussion about keeping Guruji as paying guest, the man did not like the fact of having an atmosphere of music in his own house, the fact that someone will sing and he will be seen, though the owner himself visited concerts. So, Gurujiknew that the man did not like to have an atmosphere of music in his house.
The gentleman had asked Guruji if he was into music. Then Guruji had replied “No, no I don’t do all that” otherwise the man would not had let him stay. So finally the man had let Guruji stay. Now, Guruji had to practice or he atleast need to something, how to do that now? So, when the gentleman used to go out of the house, in that house there was water pump, so when the pump used to start then a musical sound used to come out of it, at that time Guruji used to practice a bit. He used to practice completely in a naked voice. Other than that he could not practice at all. In the meantime when it was going on like that, one fine day the gentleman told Guruji that there was a whole night concert, “Would you like to go with me?” Guruji said, “Yes”. Then he took him to the concert.
That was Pathuriaghata Street, house of ManmathaNathGhosh. The concert was held there. First was Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Sahab, then was Ravi Shankarji. Both of them did it half-half, whole. At first was Bade Ghulam Ali’s vocal. Everybody was sitting in the hall room wearing Punjabi and dhoti, on those days mug dhoti, and all were lover of music. Guruji was sitting beside the gentleman. When Ghulam Ali Khansahab’s performance was over suddenly Guruji was saying to the gentleman, and before that he noticed that ManmathNathBabu, who happens to be the owner of that place was coming and talking to the gentleman few times. Guruji thought that Manmath nath Babu must be a friend of the gentleman.
Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan
(Guruji asked) – “Well, will you please let me sing here? He is a great friend of yours. Could you please kindly request him to let me sing here?” The gentleman said – “You will sing here. What are you saying? Shut up! .Ghulam Ali Khansahab has sung here and you will sing after that. Yes, don’t speak at all. You have come with me so just quietly be seated.” The gentleman got angry and was shouting. In the meantime Manmatha Nath babu was passing that place. Manmatha Nath babu stood and enquired “What’s the matter? What happened?” Meanwhile, some interview was going on and few people from the audience had gone out to have some tea. The gentleman said “Look! This boy is just desperate. He is constantly saying that he will sing. He has never listened to songs, nothing, now he is saying that he will sing”. ManmathaNathbabu said “Does he want to sing? Alright, he can sing but only 10 minutes. People are having tea now. Let him sing for 10 minutes. What’s the problem? But not more than 10 minutes, Ravi Shankarji will sit after that. Guruji said, “ Yes, 10 minutes will be enough”. He agreed. Now, the accompanists who played with Ghulam Ali Khansahab, all of them denied. They said that they don’t know him and what they would play. They said “ Nahi, nahi, hum log nahi bajayenge”. All of them were denying. So a tabla player from the same para who came to see the concert and well known to the gentleman was being told to accompany with him. He was told, “Play with him, he is saying he will sing and all” . Only a tanpura was put in sync, there was no other instrument, a tanpura and a tabla. He sang the Malkauns which he had heard from Abdul Karim Khan sahab. He completed it within 10 minutes. As soon as he finished, all people were extremely, not only when he finished rather when he had begun then only within 2- 1 minute people started coming in with their tea cups and sat quietly. And audience of those days were quite socialist. They were sitting and quietly listening. And after listening they started developing a curiosity “Where did he come from? What is the matter? Such a great voice”. People started going in front of the stage and started asking him, “What is your father’s name?.Guruji’s father ‘s name was quite known to the people on those days. Audience said, “Oh, you are his son!” Ghulam Ali Khan sahab was on backstage . Ghulam Ali Khan asked the organizer to bring the person in front of him whoever was singing. He did not see Guruji then. Then Guruji went in front of him. Ghulam Ali Khan praised Guruji and said “Your voice is very nice and your taans are very clean. You will do well.” He said all that.
This is wonderful incident that he showed the courge to sing after Ghulam Ali Khansab’s performance. And after Guruji’s performance the gentleman was quite proud. The gentleman said “Yes. He lives in my house.” Actually, everybody was enquiring “Who brought him? From where?”. The gentleman felt very proud.
Jyoti Goho is a well-known Harmonium player of Indian Classical Music. He is a Musician Faculty in ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata.
Tags
A.T.Kanan, Girija Shankar Chakraborty, Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Jamini Ganguly, Class, Tanpura, Student, 1947, 1948, Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan, Kolkata, Benaras, Public Performance
Sri Rantideb Maitra’s Residence, Madur Daho, Kolkata
About the speaker
Renowned Music Collector and Music Connoisseur
Tags
1921, Prince of Wales, Eden Garden, Principal Raaga, Musician, Majid Khan, Binkar, Indore, Fida Hussain Khan, Sarod, Hafiz Ali Khan, Sur Sringar, Radhika pRasad Goswami, Gopeswar Bandopadhyay, Sur Bahar, Satya Kinkar Bandopadhyay, Nyas Taranag, Dhrupad, Kheyal, Sitar, Megh, Bishnupur, Nizam , Maharaja of Gwalior, Maharaja of Baroda
Language
English
Sri Rantideb Maitra speaks :
Text Version:
Prince of Wales during a tour in India 1921
In 1921, when Prince of Wales visited Calcutta, a presentation was made to him in Eden Gardens where the six principal Ragas were to be presented by six principle musicians at that point of time. So musicians were chosen from all over India. I think I can give you the names of the musicians from my memory. Mostly Majid Khan, Veenkar from Indore, Fida Hussain Khan, the Sarodiya, then Hafiz Ali Khan who played the Sur Sringar. Radhika Prasad Goswami sang Dhrupad, Gopeswar Bandyopadhyay, strangely he played Sur Bahar and Satya Kinkar Bandopadhyay again strangely he played Nyas Tarang.
You know what is Nyas Tarang?
Naak diye jeta…. Kali Prasanna Bandopadhyay…he was the last Nyas Tarang Player. (Played through Nose and Kali Prasanna Bandopadhyay was the last one to play Nyas Tarang).
Pt. Satya Kinkar Bandopadhyay
Satya Kinkar was Dhrupad singer, Khyal singer, Sitariya but he played Nyas Tarang. He played the raga Megh in Nyas Tarang. So these six Principal ragas, I don’t remember who played which raga but I know he played Megh in Nyas Tarang.
So amazing that out of these six musicians, six best musicians in India, three were from Bengal and from the same gharana that is Vishnupur. We Bengalis forgotten about this but this is on record, this book is available somewhere. This book was published in honour of Prince of Wales. Lot of Rajas I mean Nijam was there, Gwalior Maharaja was there, Baroda Maharaja was there and everybody of note was there at the point of time….1921.
The next day he went to play a cricket match and played all day. In the evening all the colleagues who had gone to play were on their way back together in a bus. When the bus was crossing AkashvaniBhavan, he noticed that Akashvani Bombay was written in large letters. The moment he noticed that, he asked his colleagues to stop the bus and accompany him inside where he wanted to do a voice test. His colleagues were astonished and said “What! You! Gurujiwas very calm. He asked his friends “Yes, I want to do. Why don’t you come with me? I want to do a voice test.”
However his friends were little bit puzzled. They anxiously said “We didn’t know that you sing. And if you go inside you’ll get beaten up, and you’ll get us beaten up too. We can’t go.” So Guruji said, “Okay, let me off the bus.” Guruji had always been a brave man, he was a sportsman. He was brave, but he was also curious to find out how his voice would sound. They let him off the bus and drove off.
Ustad Allarakha Khan
He went straight inside. In those days, there wouldn’t be many recordings, so it used to be empty in the evening. AllaRakha Khan sahib, who was a staff of Akashvani Bombay, along with the sarengi player Hamid Hussaid, and the Station Director were sitting together in a room and drinking tea. When he appeared at the doorway, the Station Director asked, “What do you want?” And Guruji gave him the same answer. He said, “I want to do a voice test.” AllaRakha Khan sahib and Hamid Hussain laughed, because it was an unusual occurrence. But the Station Director was very enthusiastic about it and he said, “Okay, Okay, I’ll see what can be done.” He went to the next room and asked the technicians to set everything up. In those days microphones were needed to be fixed before the recording, it couldn’t be used straightaway as it can be now. The technicians came and set everything up. Then he asked Guruji to sit in front of the microphone and sing. The sarengi player asked for his scale. Guruji replied, “I don’t know.” So he said, “Then how will I play? I have to choose the right scale.” Then Guruji said, “I’ll sing the tune, you can figure it out from that.” At that time, Abdul Karim Khan used to sing in F#. If he sang without any accompaniments in F#, the pitch wouldn’t be correct. But when he sang, it sounded like he was singing in F#. So Hamid Hussain Khan sahib said, “Oh! You will sing in such a high pitch? But this is the pitch that Abdul Karim Khan sings in.” To this, Guruji said, “Yes, this is me.” That is all he said.
When AllaRakha Khan was about to start playing the tabla, Guruji said, “No, no, I won’t be able to sing with that.” He had no sense of rhythm. But Khan sahib said in Hindi, “No, no, you sing. I’ll keep pace with you.” That is, he would adjust. Anyway, Maalkosh was the first song he had heard, so he sang as much of the bandish as he could remember. He sang for one and a half minutes or so. He was never been in a classical music before the first concert that he had heard with his father. He said, “I won’t be able to sing any more. I’m done.” They didn’t say anything either.
The Station Director said, “You sit here, I’ll be back.” When he returned, he had a contract form with him. He said, “Take this contract form home. After three months, you’ll have to sing three times for the radio in one day.” In those days there would be live broadcast of three ragas, each for half an hour.” Guruji was frightened. He said, “No no, I didn’t come here to sing, I don’t want to sing, I don’t want to sing, it was just my voice….” And they were saying, “No, you must sing.” AllaRakha sahib and Hamid Hussain sahib said, “You go home and tell your father that we have said that you have to sing.” They thought that since he had such a great voice, he would sing. Guruji couldn’t understand anything, and they were very insistent.
He came and told his father about the contract form and his father was very surprised because he wasn’t aware of the fact that his son could sing. So he said, “Is that so? Did you sing for them?” And he said, “Yes, a little bit.” So he took him to the music room and said, “Sing me what you sang for them.” So he repeated the performance. That was the first time his father felt that he had music in him. But in three months’ time he would have to sing three ragas for half an hour each. He needed to prepare. It would be very difficult. He would have to sing three ragas for morning, noon, and night. Then his father had a brainwave. He appointed three teachers for the three different ragas so that the student wouldn’t confuse one raga with the other, because he had shortage of time to manage all the three ragas. Then he did sing for the radio after three months.
So this is something we have heard from him, we had asked him, “Guruji, how did you feel during your first recording?” He had replied, “Twenty minutes after I sang, I felt like I had nothing left. Like everything was over. Then it felt like e repetition, because how much could one do in so little time.” Anyway, he did sing, that is how he began to learn, or maybe it was the beginning of his desire to learn, and then he recorded his first song for the radio.
The well-known sitar player Sanjoy Guha is now serving as a faculty member at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London. He learnt music from a number of highly reputed musicians including Pt. Radhika Mohan Moitra, Pt. Deepak Chaudhury and Vidwan M. Balamurali Krishna.
Tags
1940, Uma Shankarji, Jasrajji, Kashim Bazar Rajbari, Balaram Pathak, Bhavanipur, Abhiram Mishra
In 1940s, Balaram Pathakji used to come to our Bhawanipore residence , where we used to stay then. He had taken up residence at Cossimbazar Rajbari, having come from Gaya recently. He used to come to our place at around 10 pm at night. Umashankarji was here too, as well as his brother Abhinav Mishraji, Jasrajji too. There was a big room in our house, which is a shop now. One day each week these stalwarts – Balaramji, Umashankarji, Jasrajji, my uncle and a few others – made music till 1:00 or 1;30 in the morning. This was something important to happen at my home, only regret is I wasn’t born then.
This was in 1940-41. By that time Baba (Pandit Jamini nath Ganguly) had made quite a name for himself as a vocalist and pedagogue in musical circles. He performed at many places and on the radio too. Let me tell you an amusing incident relating to radio. At that time sometimes it so happened that someone had known or heard a man ( or a woman, rarely ) sing well and made him sit in front of the microphone and sing. No recording, a direct broadcast.
Shailendra nath Chattopadhyay, a Gurubhai of my father, was to sing on the radio. Father and Girijababu (Pt.Girija Shankar Chakraborty ) were present too. Two minutes before the programme went on air, Shailenbabu was seated before the mike. He was singing Malkauns. Father remembered that for some unknown reason, he had confused the “Ma” with the ‘Sa’.
Pt. Girija Shankar Chakraborty
He took the madhyam as the Shadaj and began singing Malkauns. Girijababu was standing beside him, father some distance away. Girijababu was pretty much annoyed at this – “How can he go to the higher notes, to the ‘Tara’?” He noticed that Shailenbabu was singing everything between the Mandra Saptak and Madhya Saptak. He had difficulty in reaching the Tar Saptak, naturally. So Girijababu told Baba gently – “Go and fix the problem.” Baba reminisced, “I ran to him, moved him away holding him by his shoulder and put my mouth before the microphone and continued the song by taking the Shadaj at the right scale.”
Incidents like these seem unimaginable and fantastic to us now.
