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
Jyoti Goho is a well-known Harmonium player of Indian Classical Music. He is a Musician Faculty in ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata.
Tags
1985, Sangeet Research Academy, Nisar Hussain Khan, Bhuwalka award, A.T. Kanan, Harmonium, Jyoti Goho, Tanpura, Rashid khan, Tabla, Aslam khan, Gulam Akbar Khan, Zulfiqar Khan
It was the year 1985. Nisar Hussain Khan, the grandfather of Rashid Khan was the Guru of S. R. A. (Sangeet Research Academy). NisarHussain Khan was to be awarded the Bhuwalka Award, and it was decided that he would also sing at the Award Ceremony. My Guru encouraged me to play the Harmonium with him, and I agreed.
Nisar Hussain Khan used to sit on a high stool while performing, because he couldn’t sit with his legs folded owing to his old age. He was running on his 83rd or 84th year at that time. The program started and he asked me on stage to play the note for tuning other instrument accordingly. Thus I began to follow him with the Harmonium, suddenly he asked me to play it softly, said, “Why are you playing it so loud? Play it softly.” So I tuned the Hamonium to play it softly. He again interrupted and said. “No no. You are playing it too loud. Slow it down…” Amidst this, the Tanpura was also tuned and Nisar Khan started singing. In between songs, he would ask me to play softer. It was not that I was playing it very loud, but still he kept on insisting that I play it softly. He was renowned musician after all and also the Grandfather of Rashid… and I too was a bit intimidated.
At one point, I was playing the harmonium so low, that I myself was unable to hear it. But even then, he found it to be too loud. At the end of the program, my Guruji, who happened to be a South Indian, came to me and scolded me in broken Bangla, complaining that my harmonium was not audible at all. He said, “Are you mad or what! What were you playing up there? We couldn’t even hear you play the harmonium!” I told him that it was Nisar Khan, who himself had asked me to play it softly. Guruji said, “Yes, I had noticed that he was instructing you about something, but couldn’t make it what he was asking for…”
Ustad Gulam Akbar Khan
Later the Tabla player, Aslam Khan revealed to us that Nisar Hussain Khan had his hearing aid on high volume. His son in law was Gulam Akhbar Khan and his son was Julfikar, who had told the Tabla player about this. Since the volume of the hearing aid was pitched very high on the side where I was sitting, NisarHussain Khan always felt that I was being too loud. Later, I had also told Rashid about this incident, and he too assured me that this had happened a lot of times in the past as well. Rashid also told me that at home, when Nisar Khan would have his morning tea, he gets very irritated at the crows screeching outside, though the noise wasn’t that unbearable. He would also get angry at the crows and ask others to scare them off.
A. Throughout this recording Jyoti Goho has addressed Pandit Bhimsen Joshi as Panditji. B. The incident happened after 15 days of ITC-SRA Music Program in memory of Ustd. Nisar Hussain Khan in 1994. – Editor
