Ustad (the master)

came back home very late today...no time/ideas for bliptogether
I wrote this after coming back from the concert on Saturday night...


...out of the world experience - that's how probably I would describe the concert. It was fusion concert featuring four artists - Ustad Zakir Hussain on tabla, his brother Taufiq Qureshi on percussions, Niladri Kumar on Sitar and Sabir Khan on Sarangi. Each of them coming from a musical background where Indian classical music is being practiced, played and worshiped for generations now. It began with Taufiq taking the stage and starting off the concert with bell and hammer and a religious hymn. Then as he took on to making music just with his mouth, hands and face - without using any other instrument, we were all transported into a different world. His music was like a gust of wind and we mortals a leaf fallen off the branch...we didn't reach the ground, we just went where the wind blew us away. Slowly he moved to the instruments and what followed for the next half an hour was an amazing display of skill and sound.

Audience had hardly recovered from the pulsating beats of the percussions when Sabir Khan's sarangi filled the air with a soft but intense tune. His music was slow, deep and a bit on the sad side. It was a slow and sweet poison that entered our ears and before we could realize, it was running with the blood in our veins. Sabir is the ninth generation in his family playing the sarangi. One of his forefathers was a musician in some king's royal court.

Towards the end of Sabir's performance, Ustad Zakir Hussain joined him as an accompanist. But he slowly took over the entire show with his sheer genius. When Ustad plays, you don't just listen, watching him play is an absolute delight. His antics, expressions and the signature head-banging is a visual treat. Though primarily classical, his style of playing is a little unconventional. Tabla is two-piece instrument - the smaller one and a larger, rounder one for the bass. But Ustad sat with 6 or so tablas all around him and was simply spelling magic with them. He doesn't just play, his tabla 'talks'.

Last to grace the occasion was Niladri. He was mixing some non-conventional creativity with the regular classical style of sitar recital. I have been to a few live sitar shows in the past. But the kind of things that he was doing with sitar, I've never seen or heard such kind of stuff. The pace and clarity with which he was playing at his young age, was indeed commendable.

In the end, all four of them joined hands to put up the final few minutes of a fusion show. And you know what happens when 4 masters come together and play in harmony - it creates absolute magic! Ustad, Taufiq and Niladri's music was high-energy and spirited. Sabir, on the other hand, added the much required tranquility and pathos at the same time. The last piece they played was "Raghupati raghava raja ram... (a very famous devotional song, popularized by Mahatma Gandhi) and the crowd went mad at that...soon, the show ended, leaving all of us hungry for more...the only complaint that I've against the concert that it was too short!