Last week, we revisited a programme held in 1957 to mark the death anniversary of Agra gharana exponent Faiyaz Khan. Based on information contained in the review of the programme written by TMM Rao and published in the Sunday edition of the Bombay Chronicle on December 8, 1957, we looked at the first half of the function held to mark the barsi or death anniversary of the maestro. While we do not have recordings from that occasion, we are trying to recreate the moment by accessing other recorded material featuring the artists who performed in the original concert.
Today, we look more closely at the second session held on the same day. But we before do that, let us listen to a track featuring Vinayak Vora, one of the few musicians to play the taar shehnai (for more information on the instrument, here is a link to an article on the subject that had appeared previously.). According to Rao’s review, the first session held in the morning culminated with a taar shehnai recital by Vora. Here is a link to Vora’s presentation of the raag Purvi Kalyan on the taar shehnai. Recorded at a concert, he begins with a composition set to a vilambit or slow 12-matra Ektaal. He is accompanied by tabla player Sadanand Naimpally.
The second session of the Faiyaz Khan barsi programme began with a guitar recital by Tej Bahadur. He played Bhimpalasi, a raag prescribed for the late afternoon. Interestingly, this recital was held a decade or so before the release of Call of the Valley, a hugely successful commercial recording that featured maestros Brij Bhushan Kabra (guitar), Shivkumar Sharma (santoor) and Hariprasad Chaurasia (bansuri) as the main instrumentalists with Manikrao Popatkar providing tabla accompaniment. Rao’s review does not contain any information about the type of guitar that was used by Tej Bahadur.
Recordings of Tej Bahadur and sitar player Hasmat Hussain Khan who followed with Puriya Dhanashri, a raag prescribed for the evening, are not available. But here is a link to a track featuring Swami Vallabhdas, the next performer in the session. He sings Shree, also a raag prescribed for the twilight hours.
Mohammad Wahid Khan of the Khurja gharana followed with a variety of Gauri, also a raag prescribed for the evening. Since we do not have a recording of his exposition of Gauri, here is a link to his presentation of the seasonal raag Charju ki Malhar. He sings a composition in the ten-matra Jhaptaal.
This was followed by vocalist Shrimati Bai Narvekar from the Agra gharana. She presented the raag Jait Kalyan. Sadly, her recordings are not easily accessible.
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan of the Patiala gharana sang Marwa, which the reviewer praises as the best of the evening. Here is the maestro’s rendition of Marwa from another concert. He sings a vilambit composition set to Ektaal.
Gajananrao Joshi sang Barwa at the barsi. Here is a link to a short presentation of the same raag by him in an informal setting without tabla accompaniment.
He was followed by Ratnakant Ramnathkar, who sang Bihag, and a harmonium solo recital by
Ghulam Rasool Khan, who would usually accompany Faiyaz Khan in his concerts. Ghulam Rasool Khan played Nat Bihag and a thumri in the raag Khamaj. Nalini Mulgaonkar came next with a vocal rendition of Bihagda, and sitar exponent Arvind Parikh presented Des. Here is a link to Parikh’s presentation of Rageshri.
Through the review, there is no mention of any accompanying artistes with the exception of tabla maestro Alla Rakha who accompanied violinist V. Jog. The reviewer goes on to describe their performance as a “veritable ‘Jugalbandi’” or duet that appeared to be of a competitive nature. On the next track, Jog plays two compositions set to Teentaal in the raag Jhinjhoti.
The reviewer mentions that Mrs K Chandrachud, the “moving spirit” behind the programme and a disciple of Faiyaz Khan sang a composition in the raag Kafi. Significantly, the programme did not necessarily follow the convention of featuring artistes in order of seniority, beginning with the juniors and moving to seniors. But both sessions ended with Agra gharana vocalists, perhaps as a fitting tribute to the Agra gharana maestro Faiyaz Khan.
The programme concluded with Agra gharana maestro Latafat Hussain Khan’s presentation of a raag, which the reviewer has described as a combination of the raags Lalit and Paraj. He followed this with a composition in Jogia set to Teentaal. We end this episode with Latafat Hussain Khan’s rendition of the raag Paraj Kalingda.
One of India’s leading tabla players, Aneesh Pradhan is a widely recognised performer, teacher, composer and scholar of Hindustani music. Visit his website here.