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.
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
Archive, Singers, Collectors, 1980,s, Anjan Sen, Biman Sinha, Rantidev Moitro, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury, You Tube, 2004, Jadavpur University, 2003, Sukanta Chowdhury, School of Cultural Texts and Records, Instruments, Raaga, Gharana, Classical Music, Mallikarjun Mansoor, Anindyo Banerjee, John Barlow, British Library, UGC, Records, Wire Recordings, Spool Recorder, Cylinder Records, Private Collector
Language
English
Prof. Amlan Dasgupta Speaks :
File- 1
File – 2
Text version:
The idea of having music archive is something we have thought about, we thought about for a long time ever since we are listening to music, a lot of us, it was a kind of community activity.
Spool Recorder
Many of my friends were learning music, others were interested in music, so there was lot of lot of talk about music, and you there was these things, oh only if there was some place where we could listen to these things, and the more that we heard about great singers of the past that you thought that whether it will be possible ever to go and listen to these songs. At that point of time it did not seem possible. It’s much later infact that we came to know about these great 78RPM record collectors but we had no access to them, as music, young, extremely young music, very frankly we would not get much you know much of their time or they would not really allow us listen to the music, unless we have some kind of connection.
Cylinder Recorder
So it’s somewhat later only I think after, in the early 80’s that there were these music collectors like Anjan Sen, Biman Sinha, later Rantideb Maitra who gave us access to their collection and we heard a lot, somewhat around this time I got acquainted with Sarbari Da, we also listen to music there, its then we started understanding there is a great den of music in private hands. So the idea of having an archive where people could just come and listen to music as people reads book in the library, something that we, Now to tell the truth I wouldn’t do it anymore because today you can listen to most of these on YouTube. Only thing I can say that distinguishes The archive from a collection like You Tube which is ultimately probably even larger totally even than the archive and much more but much less organized is that a, The archive is organized on a different principle, even the largest collection is not organized in the same principle. The principle of the archive is that the archive pays attention both to connect and the metadata. That is what makes it valuable, makes easier recourse for research. So there are other things too without the archive.
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
Amalendu Dasgupta, Delhi, Radio, Akashvani, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ludhiana, Ali Baksh Khan, Kale Khan, Sarengi, Pancham
Language
English, Hindi
Dr. Amlan Dasgupta Speaks :
Text version:
I heard this story from my father. My father worked for the Radio as a news, news editor in Delhi in early years of Akashvani, and even though this is a story from Delhi, it is worth thinking about because it involves a figure who was very close to the Calcutta music scene, that’s Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sahab. Now my father who was you know, who’s musical taste was entirely built when he was a student in Kolkata then he had gone to work in Delhi, He found a way of visiting Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Sahab when he was staying at somebody’s house, some rich person’s house at Delhi. I think this was that ill fated visit when he was fed on various kinds of vegetables and so he was very very depressed and then he organised, he did not eat at the house, he organised a kind of kitchen outside in the lawn and personally supervised it, and he got his ‘Ghee’ from Ludhiana or somewhere like that. That how this stories are. My father went to see him and there were lots of stories. He sat and waited for him, and he even looked at him, hours past, whatever, so at one point they got talking at least Ghulam Ali Khan he Sahab started talking. The story is of the variant stories about cow and Dog and Bird and the waves all these things. It was really beautiful stories that went like this and this amazing this amazing connection that Ghiulam Ali Khan Sahab’s music had with nature, there were various kind of expressing the basic relationship with nature I think that is in story for me. But this story is something different. This story is about, when he was very young and he was lying in the lap of his father Ali Baksh Khan Sahab and there was concert going on in his house, the house of Ali Baksh Khan Sahab in which Kale Khan Sahab was singing and there was somebody else I forget the name, the name is not clear. So both the ustad were singing and when dono ustad pancham pe khari, and stopped and the sarengiya was about to play the Pancham this child started crying in Pancham. Then dono ustads stopped singing and said ‘Yeh Baccha Kaun Hay’? ‘Yeh Aapka Ghulam Hai’ That’s why he was called Ghulam Ali Khan Sahab. That’s the story.
Verbatim by Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee
Note: Although this anecdote describes about an event in Delhi, this is of immense significance. This is connected to Ustd. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan as a baby and the event that was responsible for his naming as Ghulam Ali is portrayed here. BGK was born in 1902. So, the incident may have happened when he was between 1 to 3 years old. Khansahib had a very intimate connection with the city of Calcutta. – Editor
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.
Malikarjun Mansoor sang, I think, for the last time in Kolkata in January of 19–, I think 1992, the year he died. He died later that year, and this programme was at Ramkrishna Mission. There was Tabla performance after his, morning concert, and there was a tabla performance after his singing. There was lot of people who wanted to listen to the Tabla, lot of people coming into the greenroom, and filling up the corridors, very difficult. So, he was sitting in the greenroom and singing. There was Kanan Sahab, who was there. He was always there when Mansoorji sang, and he was very–, he was not well, because later we knew, that we learnt, that already you know that the disease has started, — he had cancer,– the disease could have been there. He was not well, he was tired, little tired. (The) day before he had sang at, I think at, Netaji, the open air , open air theatre next to, no next to the Eden Gardens, yes, (in) the stadium. So there he had sung, then there was some problem also, because the audience didn’t like his singing, so he had some problem, I wasn’t there, there was something that I didn’t listen to. So he came here and he was singing and he was told that he had forty minutes, perhaps little more than that, fifty minutes to sing a song, that was really sad. So he started with something,
Pt. Mallikarjun Mansur
I think he started with ‘Shukla Bilawal’ and went on to sing ‘Jaunpuri’. Now it was not his best. — Whatever he sang was immensely tuneful and even the music that he sang four five months after this , which I have heard later, was his last radio concert made in ‘Dharwar’ months before he died, perhaps weeks before he died, even that was so tuneful, — was so tuneful. But it was clearly not very developed, he was trying to keep things over, he had time for fifteen minutes, at the end I think he sang ‘Bhairavi’ or something. But the thing is that he, we were all sitting there, bunch of, we were young and we had (been) hanging about him for last few days, trying to see him, do you need anything or can we help you with something, I think he saw that and so he finished singing this song, this usual ‘Vilambit’ that he sang ‘U to jaiyo piyake desh’ and he started singing a song which is as follows, its a Gwalior Bandish, its a Gwalior Bandish. It was recorded by some in 78 rpm artist. I have heard it, some particularly distinguished, but this song, ‘Sajana Ghar Lagi Sandiya’. Now we were extatic, we have never heard him singing this song. Later, he went away, we had a recording. So later I shared this recording with other Mansoor follower, Now nobody has ever heard him singing that song and clearly he sung that song for us, for atleast these young unfortunates who were sitting there, I mean he didn’t have time for some mismanagement or people came late or whatever –whatever could be the reason, there was this hourlong, less than an hour concert and he sang this song and this is I think both the unpredictability and greatness of ustadji. I mean, his son Rajshekharji, Rajsekharji told me that he had never heard his father singing this song. So that’s it, I mean they had these immense reserves and we also think about the kind of training that these people had that on spot they pull out a song from anywhere, they’ll sing it, if they feel like it or because they were thinking that there are some people in the audience that they would like it. I don’t think Mansoorji quite enjoy singing in Calcutta because his singing style, kind of singing was not very familiar in Kolkata. We need to understand Nibrutibuaji had not come to Kolkata yet. Many years ago Kesarbai had sung but that was a different thing, Kesarbai’s singing was quite different thing. Mansoorji’s singing had a very heavy influence of Gwalior. Gwalior. Blend of Gwalior and Jaipur, I don’t think it was very popular. In small audience, a very dedicated following but not a very large following. Some people used to visit all his concerts, I have seen them, there were lot of (them). So I don’t think that there was much of a taste.
Pt Ulhas Kashalkar
The taste came later, with Ulhasji and people like (him), they built up this taste. Mansoorji, I think, that’s the reason why he was happy that people who wanted to listen, he wanted to give them something, that is his piece of acts of love and that is music is all about.
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.
It must have been in 1974 or 75, when I first heard Vismadev Chattppadhyaya sing. I had heard him sing in gramophone records, we had some of his gramophone records at home, We heard long kind of stories about him. My teacher Sri Amarnath Dey had organized a programme at Balygunj Sikhsha Sadan, where he came. Always I was told that he was a very unpredictable singer that mean that mean what will he sing, or whether he would sing anything at all or just go away, no one could predict it at all. But he came and he sat quietly and he asked for lot of tea, I remember I went him caught the tea, and I think it was also ‘Paan’ that he requires so I was put in charge for looking after him for these things. There was Keramat Sahab, and there was Kesto Babu on the Harmonium. So he was sitting there and then he, I think he was playing the Harmonium himself. I also remember small thing when he took Keramat Khan Sahab’s Tabla and played then with Buddhadeb Dasgupta, So there were all kind of thinks that was happening. Then he went on to the stage and sang ‘Alap’ in ‘Malkauns’ and that is I think the really marvelous part of that programme. After that he sang ‘Khayal’ in ‘Malkauns’ then he sang ‘Drut khayal’ ‘Malkauns’, ‘Vilambit ‘ and ‘Drut’, and then he sang ‘Bhajan’, and stopped. After which I think people in the audience, whom he knew, you mean lot of people, there were lot of people there, lot of music lovers, who asked him to go on and say that you can’t leave us like this, and then he pulled the Harmonium towards himself and must have sang some eight or ten ‘Ragpradhan’ songs, That was really marvelous, really marvelous. Went on far beyond the time which we were booked the hall for, we were all standing there, pleading with the hall authorities to allow him to go on singing, saying something is happening which is so marvelous that, it will be really a great pity to, tragedy to stop it. So the thing is that the ‘Malkauns Alap’ I have never heard him before, after I heard him three times perhaps afterwards in ‘ Bango Sanskriti Sanmelam’ and also the programme that we have organized an year after. But he did’nt sing an ‘Alap’ , I never heard any recording later when I was sort of tried to look for the recordings of Vishmababu, I found a couple of ‘Vilambit Khayal’s but no live or recorded ‘Alap’. But that he had training and this was something which was remarked upon by all the artists present there was something that I thought was really marvelous because evidently he was talking about a kind of ‘Talim’ about on which we knew almost nothing.
Verbatim by Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
There was a hilarious incident that took place in SRA when I was there. We used to organize event called ‘Jhalapala’. In the performing artists all the artists who were known for their singing or Tabla playing or some other you know forte, they were supposed to switch roles and do something else like a singer was supposed to dance, a table player supposed to sing or vice versa. So the hall was full when we organized this in 1998 I think or 1999. Because Mr. Kichlu was there, was still director of SRA at that time.
Mr. Kichlu we discovered that he was trained by none other than UdayShankarji in his Almora ashram. As a boy he had learnt how to dance. Earlier also I had heard from Deepalidi, Deepali Nag that once they had done Shah Jahan and Anarkali soDeepalidihad become Anarkali and Mr. Kichlu was Shah Jahan. Sorry Jahangir and Anarkali. So on this day we requested Mr. Kichlu to present an item. He said that – ‘I’ll show you how Ram walks, his dignified way of carrying himself and how Sita walks’. And it was fantastic, it was really fantastic. He was in plain white pajama kurta, but then one could see that Sita is walking, lifting her lehenga, covering her head with curni. It was very nicely done.
Pandit Lakshmi Narayan Mishra
Then Ustad Rashid Khan was asked to sing sorry asked to dance in given item odissi. He very nicely gave a tribhangi mudra and I was singing the item for him Pallavi and he tried to copy Pratima Bediji. Then there was Pandit Lakshmi Narayan Mishra. He is a veteran Tabla player. He said that he wants to sing Thumri. So he came and sang beautiful Thumri for all of us. AnandaGopalBandopadhyay, he also sang Thumri in that. He is a wonderful singer. Incidentally he is the disciple of Mahadev Prasad Mishraji who used to teach Tabla and Thumri. And Anandada learnt Tabla from him and Thumrihis one of the best known disciples was Vidusi Purnima Chowdhury.
Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan
There were many other artists also who were associated with SRA’s activities. One of them was Tanmoy Bose, the aced tabla player. He was asked to present an item and he came up with BirjuMaharajji’s way of talking or doing the Kathakata while dancing. After dance naturally one gets breathless. So Tanmoy presented that so beautifully, you know, catching his breath and then again saying some words…it was beautifully presented. There were so many artists there and we all enjoyed you know, you want artist name like Arun Bhaduri was there, Deepalidi was there, Purnima Sen, then Ullhasji was there I remember and the younger artists were there, all the scholars were there who would learning from various Gurus. There was Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan Sahab. He is well-known poet, everybody knows. His way of reciting the gazals, I am saying reciting not singing…that was also fantastic. So he recited his self-composed gazals and that was also…it still clings on my mind.
Note:- In this recording Jyoti Goho has referred to his Guru Pandit A.T.Kanan as Guruji. Here he has also mentioned A.N.Haksar (Ajit Narain Haksar) as a Director of ITC Sangeet Research Academy. Actually Mr. A.N. Haksar was the Chairman of ITC Sangeet Research Academy – Editor
