Kolkata comes alive with music during winter
■ ‘ While there is no denying that the Blues were molded in North America during the 1800s, as I have mentioned previously, I remain convinced that its roots still lie within Africa’ ■ Kolkata has decades old tradition of several concerts every night in the winter months. These have centered around the city’s downtown area — Kala Mandir, Nazrul Manch, Rabindra Sadan among others
KWhile the last week of 2017 was spent with Indian classical artistes protesting the GST being levied on tickets, and also the service tax payable by them, international music appears to have no such worries as the 2018 festive season opens with the annual Mahindra Blues Festival returning to Mumbai's Mehboob Studios on February 10 and 11. The precursor to this was, of course, the now erstwhile One Tree Festival, which was held at the MMRDA Grounds at Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex during the 2000s, with both festivals being promoted by Oranjuice Entertainment.
The Mahindra Blues Festival is being headlined by one of my initial influences on Blues, 84 year old band leader, keyboardist, and guitarist John Mayall, whose musical career spans over fifty years. In the ' 60s, Mayall became the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, an influential Blues band that, through its various incarnations, included Eric Clapton and subsequent Cream alumnus Jack Bruce, eventual Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green and members John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, future Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, impending Free bassist Andy Fraser, and guitarists like Walter Trout, who has performed at an earlier edition of the Festival, and Coco Montoya, who performs on the same stage with his one- time mentor this time around.
Among my prized possessions of the artiste are a DVD of John Mayall's "70th Birthday Concert", featuring Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor, and especially my CD box sets, "London Blues 19641969" [ 40 tracks] and "Room To Move 196974" [ 29 tracks]. The tradition of Blues has been kept alive by olkata has a decades old tradition of several concerts every night, in the winter months. The city comes alive with a musical vibrancy. These have centered around the city’s downtown area – Kala Mandir, Nazrul Manch, Rabindra Sadan, Chowdhury House, Birla Sabhaghar … one has to choose where one goes; sometimes one venue hops through the evening. With the spread of the city to the suburbs, new music festivals have sprung up, catering to music lovers in far flung areas. These include Dum Dum Margo Sangeet Utsav, Salt Lake festival, Uttarpara, Behala, and many more.
Behala Sanskritik Sammilani is hosting the 6th edition of its annual festival from 6- 9th January, at Blind School Ground Behala. Organiser Sandipan Bannerji explained the motive behind holding the festival – unless the best classical music is made available easily to the young, they will not develop a taste for it, he said.
That is why the festival is totally free of cost. The first festival was held after the death of Pandit Ravi Shankar, and was dedicated to his memory. Every year, a distinguished artist is honoured at the festival; these have included tabla maestro Pt Shankar Ghosh, and Vishnupur gharana erudite sitariya Pt Manilal Nag. The motive is to remind younger audiences of artists whom they may not have heard personally.
This year, Senia Shahjahanpur sarod maestro, and today one of the most knowledgeable musicians alive, Padma Bhushan Pt Budhadev Dasgupta will be the likes of John Mayall, his alumnus Eric Clapton, and Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival favourite John Mayer, to name a select few. One of my earlier discoveries of Blues arrived via Chuck Berry, who passed away in March 2017, a guitarist more known for his rockabilly tracks, but equally proficient with his selection of blues. By taking Muddy Waters as his guitar hero, when Berry signed with Chess Records in the mid-' 50s, the label assumed that they were getting another Blues artiste. However, one of Berry's albums, dubbed ' Blues', indeed became something else altogether, creating the very template for what eventually was dubbed as "rock ' n' roll". But before that groundbreaking shift in style, Berry turned out straight forward Blues for Chess, several of them included on this album, including "Wee Wee Hours", and renditions of Don Raye's "Down The Road A Piece", Guitar Slim's "Things I Used To Do", and W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues". Nevertheless, it was through John Mayall that I also discovered his very own artiste influences, which included musicians such as Freddie King, Mose Allison [ also an inspiration on Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, as he informed me], Little Walter, and Elmore James, to name some of them and, of felicitated by the Mayor of Kolkata. Pt Budhadev Dasgupta has not only maintained and protected the rare compositions and Ragas he learnt from his great Guru Pt Radhika Mohan Moitra, he has also diligently passed on the “virasat” to several students, having taught for years at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy where he is still a Guru. His several extremely proficient students include Sugato Nag, Debashish Bhattacharya, Pushpen Dey, Atanu Rakshit, Anirban course, the legendary Robert Johnson. In fact, Mayall's live repertoire also includes renditions of Chicago blues guitarist JB Lenior's "Voodoo Music" and fellow Chicago blues harpist Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me", both tracks that he should be performing live at the Festival, along with staples such as "Nature's Disappearing", "California", and an encore in "Room To Move". Other performers during the Festival include Walter ' Wolfman' Washington, an American singer and guitarist, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, whose roots are certainly in Blues music, although he blends funk and R& B to create his own unique sound, and singer Layla Zoe who, after her post- millennial breakout on the local circuit in Canada, has created a Blues platform for herself.
While there is no denying that the Blues were molded in North America during the 1800s, as I have mentioned in this column previously, I remain convinced that its roots still lie within Africa. To support my case, consider an African instrument that goes by the name of akonting, which is the very obvious precursor of the banjo, the comparatively modern- day instrument effectively utilised by guitarist Taj Mahal during his performance at the Festival while playing the Blues; and the roots of the modern- day plectrum, which is utilised to press the strings of the guitar where, originally, a knife was used, a technique that is still common in Western and Central Africa.
Nevertheless, returning to mother India, it is indeed a pleasure to note [ pun intended] that there are sufficient passionate event Dasgupta, Bhavanishankar Dasgupta, Pratyush Bannerji, Abir Hosain, Debsmita Bhattacharya.
Bannerji said a new feature this year was the introduction of a “Pan Asian flavor” to the concerts, by the inclusion of top Carnatic artists, vocalist Vidushi Bombay Jayashri and veena expert Vidushi Jayanthi Kumaresh. He explained, music is universal, and Carnatic music must be heard in the North more; unless there are opportunities for the younger generation to hear quality Carnatic musicians how will they develop a discerning ear.
The festival opens with organisers who are doing their level best to ensure that the niche of Blues moves beyond the realms of being a mere colour by turning into a musical genre that is heading mainstream!
The writer has been part of the media and entertainment business for over 23 years. He continues to pursue his hobby and earns an income out of it. Imdadkhani gharana maestro Ustad Shahid Parvez, always ahuge favourite with Kolkata audiences, followed by Vidushi Bombay Jayashri. Bombay Jayashri said she was humbled at being asked to sing in the space that had been earmarked for the late Vidushi Girija Devi, and was always happy to be back in Kolkata, the city of her birth, “City of Joy, City of Ma Durga, vibrant and soaked in culture.” She added “she loved the city, the January mist filling the air, the city’s lanes, and “addas”…...” Music lovers will be given the opportunity to hear her after a year, as she had not performed in Kolkata in 2017.
The next day features the incredibly versatile saraswati veena exponent Vidushi Jayanthi Kumaresh, disciple of the much loved veena maestro Vidwan S Balachander. Jayanthi’s command of her instrument has to be heard to be believed! She felt the audience in Kolkata was very erudite and she was looking forward to playing before them. She is followed by Pt Venkatesh Kumar of the Kirana gharana, another hugely popular artist in Kolkata today.
The third day starts with violin by Vidushi M Rajam and her granddaughter Nandini Shankar; the evening concludes with flute by none other than Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia.
Fans of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan will throng to Behala, as the maestro this year has decided not to perform in the Dover Lane Festival, held later in the month, starting 22nd January. He is slated to close the festival on 9th January. Before him will be the vocal recital of the talented vocalist Deboshri Bhattacharya, currently disciple of Patiala gharana’s Pt Ajoy Chakravorty. Deboshri said “I used to wait in the green room just to get a glimpse of these doyens, and now to be given the opportunity to share the stage with them is a huge moment for me.” He has been learning for 22 years, and has performed at prestigious festivals like Bengal Foundation Dhaka, ITC SRA amongst others.
As Suparna Basu, a regular attendee at all the big music festivals in Kolkata said, “it’s nice that the first festival of the New Year is bringing in some new names; one cannot keep hearing the same artists”.