27th October, Mumbai: To mark the occasion of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Jehangir Art Gallery, A number of exhibitions and talk were held.The best among these was a concert held at the National Centre of Performing Arts (NCPA) with none other than maestro Zakir Hussain to bless the occasion. The event saw a packed capacity crowd with a number of people from the art and music fraternity. The Concert consisted of performances by Violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan, Mridangam player Sridhar Parthasarathy, dholak player Navin Sharma, Manipuri Dancing Drummer Joy Singh, Saxaphonist George Brooks and Flautist Rakesh Chaurasia individually and together. Tickets were priced at Rs.1,000, Rs.2,000 and Rs.3,000 with respect to the seating arrangement.
The Concert started with performance folk/musician dancer Joy Singh. A traditional outfit and gimmick filled acts brought Manipur folk culture on to the stage. The Concert was held at the enormously spacious and architecturally beautiful Jamshed Bhabha Theatre at the NCPA. The roof of the auditorium was architectural marvel with appropriately dim lighting. A professional arrangement saw a smooth execution of the event with no worrying glitches whatsoever. The auditorium’s acoustics were apt for the concert. The auditorium resonated the melodies of the various artists on stage. The audience tad older than the average music concert. Classical Indian music has always enjoyed a loyal audience. The acoustics of the auditorium were so good that the concert could have been held even without the use of mics. Though a special mention needs to be made of the sound mixer guy. The work done by him was terrific. The final output showed that attention and accordingly settings were adjusted for each instrument. Zakir’s kit sounded like a modern metal kit with a deep bass kick which was deceptively hidden within his kit. Was it the tabla was it something else one does not know. It could be that a high overdrive was set on one mic. It was so deep it made the walls creak outside the auditorium. Tabla Beat Science founder also used various other percussion instruments in his performance. Micing relevance springs up tenfold in such percussion based events. As differences among these instruments fall in a narrow frequency spectrum of sound.
It must be an exhilarating experience at the same a challenging for any percussionist to share the stage with someone of Zakir’s repute. Nonetheless the percussionists Navin Sharma and Sridhar Prathasarathy rose to the occasion and present distinct and yet highly aesthetic rhythm pattern through their bass notes.
Rakesh Chaurasia sounded good on the flute. The village like imagery associated with the flute was instantly apparent in his melodies. The smooth glide style added a crystalline clearity which made the sound travel. Its surprising what reverb could do to a flute. Collaboration of Zakir with each of the musicians was versatile in mood and tone. Thunderous applause followed after each song. California man George Brooks brought in a western ingredient to the other Indian Classical outfit. He fused well the east – west mixture. Surprisingly he did not play for long.
It was not clear if this was pre rehearsed show put up or a live jam in action. Either way it looked like both.
Emotion filled melodies of Ganesh Rajagopalan on the violin were well complimented by Sridhar Parthasarathy and maestro Zakir.
The Night ended with the ensemble of all musicians playing a delightful cover of the track ‘Making Music’ and the classical jam consisting of each player repeating a pattern on their respective instrument. The musicians received a standing ovation for their performance. A classical concert in a way is quite different from concerts of other genres in several ways. One most apparent being a pin drop silence in the audience making the concert almost equivalent to watching a movie.
Zakir Hussain’s performance was mind blowing as always. The solo probably went at 200 bpm. One may have seen his performance once or many times but still one would want to go to this performance again such is the effect of the Tabla Maestro who is now 61 years young. His short sayings in between tracks are equally amusing and inspiring. Funded by Sir Cowasji Jehangir, Jehangir Art Gallery was built in 1952 as a public art institution, it continues to be the most affordable and visible platform for many emerging artists. In other news, it is the jazz time of the year, a number of jazz festivals have and are to take place in the country in the weeks to come. Notably among them being, Jazz Utsav and Jus Jazz Festival. Jazz Utsav, a festival showcasing the rising stars of the European and Jazz scene took place between 26th to 28th October in Mumbai 2012 at Blue Frog. Jus Jazz Festival is to take place from 2nd to 4th November in Delhi and 3rd to 5th November. It plays host to performances of a number of virtuosos from the jazz fraternity.
