The Endangered Assortment

“Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music”. – Jimmy Hendrix

Continuing my crusade of “Gems of India", I take you all from Maharashtra to West Bengal.  A state with rich cultural, literary & folk heritage, West Bengal surely has a lot to make every Indian feel proud of this shining pearl from the entire necklace called India. 

Talking about West Bengal, it would be unfair if I don’t mention Guru Sri Rabindranath Tagoreji, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bankim Chandra Chaterjee, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Batukeshwar Dutt, Satyajit Ray, Pandit Ravishankar, SD Burman, Pancham daa, P.C Sorcar and many such highly regarded people.

This musically rich state also has multiple indigenous musical genres such as Baul, Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrul Geeti, Atulprasadi, Kantageeti, Adhunik Gaan, Bangla Rock etc.

During the week of Durga Puja, in the entire state of West Bengal as well as in large enclaves of Bengalis everywhere, life comes to a complete standstill. Elaborate structures called Pandaals are set up.

A staple allure in Durga pooja festival is a magnificent drum that men hang around their necks and play with two thin sticks to infuse the frenzied rhythm into listeners. It’s called the Dhaak. The traditional drummers who play this instrument are called the "Dhaakis". 

Dhaakis - Image courtesy - Mandar Sengupta

The tradition of Dhaak playing is passed on from generation to generation. Like most of the Indian music genres, dhaak playing doesn't have any documented notation or language. Its purely a listen and learn art form.

Making a Dhaak itself takes four months. A mango tree trunk is immersed in water for a month. Then it is hollowed from the inside and the shell is dipped in a vat of mustard oil mixed with garlic pods that’s placed on a fire for an hour.The log is left dipped in the oil until it’s black. After all this is done, the leather is stretched across and tied up. A fully made Dhaak weighs about 14 Kgs. 

Durga pooja is the prime time for Dhaakis to earn some money. They are otherwise landless farmers who play the Dhaak in their villages when they have time to spare. Unfortunately, this tradition is on the verge of extinction primarily due to preference of pre-recorded CDs. While music shops do brisk business in selling pre-recorded CDs and cassettes for anything between Rs. 23 and 40, Dhaakis find it hard to earn Rs. 150 to Rs. 200 per day

Gokul Chandra Das
Image courtesy - Tehekla.com

Gokul Chandra Das, a Dhaaki who played at the Hollywood Bowl says that “I realised that people treated me very differently when I sang Baul gaana. I’d get paid better, be fed well and have a nice place to stay in. But when I played the Dhaak, they didn’t treat me with the respect due to a skilled musician. That’s because people think Dhaakis are lowly. Nobody thinks of requesting us to play as they would any other musician. Instead, they demand that we play and think nothing of insulting us. As a result, I became so heartsick that I stopped playing the dhak for four years and concentrated on singing instead,” says Das. It was also difficult to support a family on a dhaki’s earnings, which range between Rs 2,000 to 7,000 during the puja season.

The Dhaakis when travelling outstation are routinely harassed by the police primarily due to their large Dhaaks.The return journey is even more hazardous because they have money in their pockets.

All I can do sitting here is write about this wonderful art form and the skilled musicians who execute it impeccably. I wish and pray to the almighty to give this art form its due recognition and respect both in India and around the world. 

The first video is of a Durga Pooja festival where Dhaakis showcase their skills. 

Here are 2 videos of Dhaaki Gokul Chandra Das. The first one is a footage of his performance at the Hollywood Bowl.

The second one is a jam session with drummer Ryan Shah.

My Salute to the Dhaakis and their talent, may their race grow and progress by leaps and bounds. 

The Gems of Music

I hate to admit that I conveniently forgot about this little world where I can share what I feel about music. Like most of us, I too have a day job and commitments which have vanquished my passion to play & write.

The personage within thinks in a flaccid state and reprimands that there is no place where he can pour out the feelings. I hence come back to take refuge and pour my heart out.

Being a musician, I feel it’s my duty to introduce to the world some wonderful souls who command their instrument and produce an enthralling magic which sooths ears, mind & soul alike. I‘d like to venture into the deeper parts of Maharashtra to dig out a traditional folk art form called Tamasha.

Tamasha is believed to be derived from the ancient form of Sanskrit drama - the 'Prahsana' and the 'Bhana'. This Marathi folk art form is performed by local or travelling theatre groups within Maharashtra. It has also been the subject of several Marathi films.

Here is an instrument which is used prominently but not limited to this art form. It is by far the most popular symbol of Maharashtrian Rhythm culture known as Dholki. 

For the non-conversant, Dholki literally means “a small dholak”. It’s a bit narrower in diameter and uses tabla-style syahi masala on its treble skin. 

The treble skin is stitched onto an iron ring, which tenses the head before it is fitted. The bass skin often has the same made up as in ordinary dholak but sometimes they may have a kinar and pleated Gajra, as seen in tabla, to withstand the extra tension. The modern variants use nuts and bolt hardware which are easier to tighten & tune.

The rich tone of this wonderful instrument commanded by able player is capable of mesmerizing the best of skilled musicians & common man alike. 

The first video is a small Dholki solo piece. My salute to the fantastic Dholki vaadak Krishna Musale who plays the Dholki with such an ease and produces magic. 

The second video is a jugalbandi. Its lead by a man who's Dholki has mesmerized listeners in India and abroad. 

Vijay Chavan needs no introduction to the people who have seen the marathi blockbuster movie Natrang. The credits section of the movie has a Dholki duet which was played by Vijay Chavan and Krishna Musale. It is said that the audience never leaves the theater till this section is over. 

My namaskar to these wonderful musicians. May their tribe grow.

Musicians of India

While sipping my morning tea today, I was reading an interview of Ranjit Barot.

For those, who don't know him, he is the Son of Kathak legend Sitara Deviji and one of the best drummers in india. Ranjit infuses his western influenced chops with his Indian soul. He creates rhythms that are intricate and unpredictable; yet they groove ferociously and swing effortlessly. He makes odd-time signatures seem as natural as breathing. He is also one of India’s top music producers, and an accomplished composer and arranger. He has written numerous films scores and performed with some of India’s best musicians.

Here is the extract from the interview posted on Abstract Logix :-
Rod: I read where you said that in the ’80s, it was hard to make a living as a drummer.

Ranjit: It was. 1986, I think, is when the electronic revolution hit India; and I got replaced by basically a drum machine. It was heavy, because I was not making any money; and it was kind of scary for a bit. I got a break working in a studio. This piano player, who’s also on Floating Point , Louiz Banks – an old friend of mine – he gave me a break in the studio. I wanted to leave. I said, “Well, I’m gonna go to America. At least there are still drummers there.” I didn’t really know whether they needed drummers, I just felt that any place besides Bombay would be okay.

After reading this paragraph, I asked a question to myself, "Is a musician's life so hard ? Can't a musician survive in india ?".

We belong to a country which has deep musical roots. Our Vedas and Upanishads have transcripts related to music, we worship Goddess Sarasvati for blessing us with musical knowledge. Indian music has a history spanning millennia and has developed over several eras. It remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as sources of religious inspiration, cultural expression and pure entertainment. Today, it has reached far west where people have started learning and appreciating our stuff. Be it Baisakhi, Durga Pooja, Poongal, Oonam, Navraatri; we have songs for every festival and occasion.

Our history proves that musical performances were a part of our evolution. The Natya Shastra is an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts, encompassing theatre, dance and music. It was written at an uncertain date in classical India (between 200 BC and 200 AD). It is based upon the much older Natya Veda which contained 36,000 shlokas. Our Maharajas had Mahasabhas were artists would perform for the king and courtiers. Kucheries, Arangetrams, Tamashas were a part of our history.

How can a country with such musical heritage lack in terms of opportunities for musicians ?

Today, a typical middle class man would want his son or daughter to become a Doctor, Engineer, Programmer or Scientist. He would want them to go abroad and earn a fancy salary. How many of us would encourage our children to become a musician ? Do we even consider B.A or M.A in Music as an academic degree ? Whats the future of a person in india even if he gets a degree from the esteemed institutions like Berklee college of Music or Trinity college of Music ?.

We feel good when an Indian gets 2 Oscars for a single movie score. We feel proud when we hear that an indian received standing ovation at 1967 Monterey Pop Festival in California. We are filled with joy when an indian artist wins a Grammy but at the end, we know that our country lacks opportunities for musicians and we would never want our children to suffer because of this.

The electronic revolution is also responsible to some extent for these changes. We prefer downloading music rather than buying a CD, we prefer to watch TV instead of going out for a concert or drama. We love the so called re-mixed songs which are butchered by a person who doesn't understand anything of melody and rhythm and calls himself a DJ. We spend thousands of rupees at a pub for costly liquor and a pathetically re-mixed track but we never pay attention to the begger who sits at the railway station overbridge and plays an Ektara.

Sure there are many talent hunts which are conducted by our Television channels but most of them are a replacement for family drama rather than a true talent hunt, all of them are for promoting singers or comedians. There are no talent hunts where musicians can show their potential. Ther are hardly few clubs where musicians can play and show their potential. The concert scene is still at an adolescent stage but improving day by day. Lot of playback singers are opting for a band instead of minus one track which in turn is boosting the requirement for live musicians.

Orchestra was a good option for many years during the 90s but now even that has come to a verge of standstill, thanks to the 10 PM deadline by our state Government. I wonder why these deadlines are never considered during a political campaign ? As of today, Classical and Carnatic music are confined to temples. There are hardly any listeners who would like to attend a Mehfil, Tamasha or a kucheri. At this stage, all I can do is crib and pray for my fellow musicians who earn their bread and butter from music. Let things change for good.
I got a video of one of my favorite rajasthani folk songs which I am posting below. My respect to the artist who has sung the song in a beautiful way.

Enjoy the video.

RIP M.J - You will be missed

Last month, the world lost an icon...

An icon which went stilled on June 25, 2009. The loss is irrepairable, the King Of Pop is no longer with us.

My heartfelt condolences to the Jackson family. We will miss you Michael, may your soul rest in peace.

Niether I am talented, nor do I have the competence to write anything about such a great artist. As a tribute, I present 2 songs of M.J which are my favourites.

LIFE IS SHORT…! Artists and their art live for ever. Jai Ho, MJ ! We love you for your music, regardless of all the controversies!

- AR Rahman

(During tribute to Micheal Jackson at Chennai).

My compositons

I have been thinking of uploading some of my works on the Blog. So at last, here are couple of compositions which I had done.

The first one is titled The Chase

The second one is Aggression.

The third one is Sadistic.

Do let me know your thoughts. I would be uploading many more stuff soon.

Cheers

Sabareesh

Dhvani - Part 3

Note :- If you have come directly to this page, please read the Part 1 and Part 2 of this story.


Unfortunately our band’s flute player Sri Ram (known as Fram) couldn’t join us as he was down with fever. The D-day arrived; judges were Vishal, Shekhar and Luke Kenny. We performed our O.C track and they appreciated it, then the cover was Naresh’s hot favorite “Breathless” and our first round was wrapped up with “Dhoom” from Euphoria.

We made it; we were selected for the final round along with 20 other bands.

Now the competition was tougher, we had to re-mix or rather re-compose a song and present it in our way. Brains started working and we finalized 2 songs. On the D-day, some goof-ups happened. Sri Ram was not allowed to join us for the second round and I was not allowed to play bongos for a stupid reason that I did not play it in the first round. Amidst such loud atmosphere created by metal and hard rock bands, Naresh forgot the tune and we lost it royally.

Yes, we were disappointed and we had every reason to feel unhappy. We lost our first chance to reach fame which was to be given by a prestigious television channel.

Time flew as always and Naresh got busy with Channel [V] Super singer competition. We were happy that his performance was quite well there.

On a Saturday night, Vikram called me up frantically and was the following was our conversation.


Vikram - Hello !
Me – Haa, bol
Vikram – Tujhe pata hai aaj kya hua ??
Me – Kya ??
Vikram – Mera Naresh se aabhi baat hua…
Me – aacha, good… kaisa hai wo ?
Vikram – Aabey who chod, tujhe pata hai, Chanel [V] super singer mein kaun Judge hai ??
Me – Haa, pata hai, Adnan Sami naa ??
Vikram – Nahi yaar, un log ne A R Rahman ko invite kiya hai as a special judge……

That was it!!

The world around me started spinning; I could imagine what Naresh might have felt when he saw Rahman for the first time. It would have been a wonderful moment to meet the maestro face to face. Since the band started, A R Rahman was in the list of gods in our diaries. The entire band was happy and cheering for Naresh’s success.

Somehow, he was not selected in the final round but Rahman told him that soon he would be flying to Chennai.

2 – 3 weeks later, Naresh called us that he was back from Chennai for a day or 2. The maestro had offered him a song from a tamil movie “Anbe Aaruyire”. Then there was no turning back for Naresh. His song was a huge hit and he was a household name in Chennai. Then came Rang De Basanti and Roobaroo, Khalbali, Paatshaala were in the charbusters list.

The rest is known to the world. As a mugshot, I present some photographs and videos of Dhvani from various concerts.

Enjoy

|| Beats for Dhvani ||

P.S – This is my official signature as a Drummer and Percussionist of Dhvani

This photograph was taken after Mysore Yuva Dussera Concert at Maharaja Palace Grounds.
From L - R :- Siddharth, Naresh, Vikram, Pankaj, Aniruddh, Ninad, Aparna, Sriram, Saurabh, Sabareesh

Breathless @ Mumbai Festivel in Powai

Rang De Basanti @ Mysore - Yuva Dussera

Dil Se Re

The good ol' Malgudi Days

An Impromptu Jam durning the sound check @ HOPE 2006

Dhvani - Part 2

Note :- If you have come directly to this page, please read the Part 1 of this story.

Finally the day came, we did a pretty decent job and people were happy. The biggest achievement was that we were happy with our performance. We kept meeting each other regularly and couple of shows happened in the by lanes of Dombivili and Thane.

|| Dhvani || was born..

A Bass player known to Saurabh (the learned guitarist) joined the band; dandiyas, school annual days and send off days were then the arena for us to showcase our potential. A road side tea stall (Pramod Chaiwaala) was our head office where we used to sit and discuss about shows, budget, playlist etc.

We started upgrading our instruments slowly and steadily, Vikram purchased a good Roland keyboard, Saurabh got a new guitar processor and I purchased a Chancellor Drum kit.

After each and every show, we felt confident and the bond grew. One day, Vikram called me up and told about an event called Channel [V] Launch pad. It was a band talent hunt competition organized by Channel [V]. We got the band enrolled and started preparing for the concert.

We were told to perform an original composition and a cover for the first round. While a cover song was not an issue but original composition was a leap of faith. We were at Saurabh’s house madly scratching our heads and trying to recollect our Hindi lessons. The tune and lyrics were written simultaneously which mainly revolving around Naresh’s (our band’s learned singer) voice quality and singing style.

Here are 4 lines of our first compositon :-

तेरे बिन, लागे ना

मोरा जिया मैं क्या करू हाय
सजनी सजनी...

Finally the song was completed, groove and chords were finalized. Naresh and Ninad (the Bassist…you should actually see him to believe that he plays the bass guitar which would be almost half of his height) joined us later. They heard the composition and liked it.

Naresh sang the song and we loved it, it was a proud moment for us to see our first song taking birth. The song was named as SILK.

Here is are 2 pic of ours at Channel [V] launch pad and the one below is a short video of SILK from one of our concerts :-

Read Dhvani - Part 3