Pandit Abhijit Banerjee is a renowned Tabla player of Kolkata. He is a prime disciple of Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh. He has also learned Vocal from Pandit Ajay Chakraborty
Tags
Ravi Shankar, Riyaz, Sitar, Discipline, Nikhil Banerjee, Guruji, Jnan Praksh Ghosh, Samta Prasad, Tabla, Ali Akbar Khan, Raga, Tala, Ajay Chakraborty, Sapaat Taan, Prasun Banerjee, Tarapada Chakraborty, Viswadev Chattopadhyay , Arup Chatterjee, Anindo Chatterjee, Kumar Bose, Kushal Das
Language
Bengali
Abhijit Banerjee speaks:
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University
Among the elders, I have heard about Pt Ravishankarji, I have not seen his Riyaz (practise) personally. I heard that at the age of ninety-three, he still bathed in the morning and started his practise from 9a.m. to 11 a.m. He had that discipline throughout his life. I have seen Nikhil Banerjee also, every day he had to practise. I remembered one incident. His domestic help had committed suicide inside his residence. He, as usual, had completed his morning walk and while entering his house saw the body hanging under the stairs. He was a little bit short sighted and he touched the body to ascertain. Then the police came and all the hustle bustle started. Meanwhile Nikhil Banerjee had started his Riyaz at eight a.m. To him, ‘the police are doing their job, I am doing mine’. From eight a.m. to twelve -thirty he used to practise. It was a lesson in itself to hear him practise- as my Guruji advised us about tabla practise (bolparanta) to carry on in one tempo (laya) for minimum half an hour.
Other elders like Shamta Prasadji used to practise hard, I have heard the tales. Nikhil Banerjee as I knew him and played with him, practised vigorously. Just before the day of his death, in fact, even the day he died he practised. That very day, he returned from Dover Lane, he was feeling ill, but he kept practising. Then he said he was not feeling well and needed some rest. We had a feast, we had to go there. Then I returned home. In the evening a phone call came that he was no more. I have rarely seen such a riyaji person in my life.
Pt. Ajay Chakraborty
Another person, I can recall, is Pt. Ajay Chakraborty. When he was practicing sapa?t ta?na, he was doing three thousand sapa?t ta?na and told us to keep count. He would do this and started sweating by the sheer effort. He is the first Bengali classical singer, I can say this with much pride, whom the rest of India accepted wholly. Yes, there were others earlier, the very best of singers, but they did not get accepted in classical brotherhood. Before Ajayda, there were Prasun Banerjee, a great singer, Tarapada babu was excellent, Pt.Vismadeb Chattopadhyay was unbelievably good. I will tell you anecdote about Pt.Vismadeb Chattopadhyay later.
Another Riyazi person was Arup Chatterjee, the tabla player who is also my friend. Another senior tabla player is Anindya da, who is very sincere about Riyaz. Kumar Bose is among other Riyazi players. Another tabla player, a little senior to me, is Kushalda, we toured together a lot and I know that Riyaz is his life. I have seen Nikhil Banerjee as well as Kushalda practising simple sargam. So, one day I asked him about it, I was very young then, and I used to ask such foolish things and he didn’t mind. So, I asked away, ‘why do you have to practice sargam very day?’ He answered that your Guruji Jnanbabu did not ask you to practice such simple things in the morning? ‘Yes’ I answered truthfully, ‘but why should you do it regularly? You are a master, I am a learner.’ So, he smilingly answered ‘Why? Am I out of this world?’
Pt. Nikhil Banerjee
He had some grievances against Pt. Ravishankar but whenever I recalled his name, Nikhil babu was agitated and started grumbling. He used to tell me, “Don’t you talk about Robuda in front of me, I know you amused yourself by hearing such anecdotes. But you should know one thing for sure that if you want to listen to shudhhara?ga, if there would be a bakra?chalan even (in a ra?ga) he would maintain that. Neither me nor Pt. Ali Akbar (whom he used to call Dada) did maintain this. There is no doubt, no second thoughts about it that if you want to listen to pure Ra?ga, pure tempo (ta?la), he is the master (Pundit). I may have my personal grievances against him but do not mix these up.”So he taught me these things, but still we used to amuse ourselves sometimes.
It has been almost six years that I have been associated with Dainik Bartaman, the news paper, as a music critic. Initially, I used to critique all kinds of music, including Rabindra Sangeet, and even theater, which although not my subject, I was forced to do. For the last three or four years, I have been doing exclusively classical music critique. I do not take on projects from other genre or streams.
For the last three or four years, my publication only assigns me the biggest musical programs in all of Kolkata, which is a good thing indeed. However, along the way, I have realized something and discussed with others in the field, and all of us had come to the same conclusion. We suspect that publications like ours are not very sincere about projects like these. From my end, I simply write and review what has been given to me and send it back.
On the other hand, if you take the perspective of those responsible for running an entire news paper, it’s quite a different beast altogether. If I may take names, another famed publication, Ananda Bazaar, has almost given up on classical music review. Except from extremely high-profile exclusive programs like Dover Lane, they refuse to focus on other musical events. Our publication is not like that. Our publication reviews all kinds. However, I’ve been noticing that they are not as sincere as they used to be. I have learned from experience that the space we’re given for our reviews is far from adequate. Ultimately, what we end up doing is reporting, not review.
I have realized from experience that when I like an artist’s music, there is nothing for me to write. The fact that I liked it is the final criteria, and the several technicalities of music like raag and laya or the infusion of other kinds of tune – the entire presentation is our benchmark. We decide if we liked the techncialities, and if the entire presentation of an artist is worth it or not. However, when we do not like someone’s music, that is the meat of our review. We can’t simply dismiss an entire performance, because that generates negative publicity and would affect said artist’s reputation and future oportunities. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough space to elaborate on why we didn’t like what we didn’t like. So, our usual policy in cases like these is to simply mention the artist’s name and what they performed. We do not go into further details. Because if I say something negative in my article, I would have to justify it with logic and I simply wouldn’t be given the space required for that. In my experience, when I have written detailed analysis, the newspaper had edited it and the final result had turned out to be something nonsensical as they are not qualified to understand classical music. However, those edited articles are still going to be printed other my name and thus it becomes my responsibility to defend it when people call me up asking me why I have written what I have written. This is a big problem.
Nowadays I have noticed, at least for the past one year, that the space for our classical music discussion is slowly getting smaller and smaller. Those spaces are being taken up by television serials or cinama or reviews like that. Say, some famous actor from Bollywood has come to visit Kolkata and the newspaper focuses on their interview – trash like this is slowly eating into our space. I can’t lie, but I’ve heard that producers of television serials and movies donate money to the publication house in return for publicity. As a result, a lot of space is allotted for them. Unfortunately for us, we don’t have the resources or influence to donate. Thus, our space is slowly getting smaller.
Dover Lane music event, the biggest event in Kolkata ever, had taken place towards the end of January. However, the reviews of it were published just last week. That is how long it took. There were other events even before that, in December for example, but the reviews have still remained unpublished. It was a small event and they had sent me to cover it, so it is their responsibility to publish it. And although it has been ages since I had submitted my piece, it still remains to be put in print. I understand that there are problems regarding space allotment that they have to constantly face. But this space is slowly and gradually disappearing.
Translated by: Ankana Das
Edited & Designed: Dr. Suranjita Paul
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University
Tirthankar Banerjee is a well-known sitar player of Kolkata. He is a disciple of Sitar maestro Pt. Dipak Chowdhury.
Tags
Kabi Bishnu Dey, Ruchira, Vivekananda Park, Nikhin Banerjee, Documentary, Ramkrishna Mission Golpark, Vivekananda Hall
Language
Bengali
Tirthankar Benerjee speaks:
Note:- Here the speaker has referred to a documentary film ‘THAT WHICH COLORS THE MIND : THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF NIKHIL BANERJEE’ by Steven Baigel – Editor
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
Bangalore, Archive, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Concert Recording, Cassettes, 2007, 2008
Language
English
Dr. Amlan Dasgupta Speaks :
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
John Barlow, Mustaque Ali Khan, Radio Recording, Cassettes, Venezuela, 1960’s
Language
English
Professor Amlan Dasgupta Speaks :
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.
