Absence from the forum for a few days, and no activity in this particular thread.
Hiten, Sri Gurav is no longer one of the lesser known artsites. He has been performing quite extensively.
Issigonis and Sivasarjun, great taste, both of you. Great collection of vocalists there.
Sumeet, if I may comment, some of the gharanas you have listed above is slightly misleading. Fayyaz Khan should belong to Agra, rather than Agra-Atrauli. Contrary to whatever we may believe, there was connection among the different schools, at times through marriage, for example between Gwalior and Agra. But if Fayyaz Khan is to be put any particular gharana, it should be the Agra gharana.
Paluskar definitely belonged to Gwalior gharana, and no question there.
Although the followers of Amir Khan say that he belongs to Indore gharana (may be the Ustad himself said it at some point), but a gharana has to be comprised of at least 3 generations of music. Amir Khan followed the gayaki of the great Kirana gharana ustad Behre Abdul Wahid Khan ('behre' means deaf, at very old ages, Wahid Khan's ears were almost gone, and he used to play his tanpura very loudly and the title Behre stuck to his name). There is no doubt in most people's mind, Amir Khan belongs to Kirana gharana.
Mallikarjun Mansur and Kesarbai Kerkar both learned from the great Alladiya Khan, and belongs to what is known as Jaipur-Atrauli, just Jaipur or just Atrauli gharana.
Just a small comment on gharanas (schools). Great artistes are usually beyond gharanas. If you listen to Kale Khan of Patiala gharana (uncle of Bade Ghulam), you will not find his music ditto on Bade Ghulam Ali. On the other hand, if you listen to the Gwalior great Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, you will see that how much Bade Ghulam was influenced by Krishnarao's style. The great artistes think about their music, and develop their own style. Similarly, although Bhimsenji learned from the Kirana Gharana maestro Sawai Gandharva, he developed his own style. The traditional Kirana style used to be followed by Hirabai Barodekar and Firoz Dastur, for example.
Lastly, in response to some comments made above regarding real artistes vs commercial artistes, and real listeners vs pretenders, I think it would be best if we leave these things to time. Time has its own dynamics and things settle in their proper place with time. As a person who has done music all his life (I did not not take it as a profession because of some reasons, but I very well could, even can do it now if I really want to), Let me just say this: a true artiste always wants to perform in front of an audience who are serious listeners, not necessarily just for the so-called connoisseurs who in many cases come with a baggage. Please remember, only the musicians, who have the talent and have worked hard for many years, are the true connoisseurs, and all others, are actually not. All a true musician wants is for the listener to open his heart for the music, join in an inclusive process. I have personally known many of the very best musicians, and I have observed this personally. I personally have converted a number of people who knew almost nothing about Indian classical music, and now they are serious listeners to the extent that they do not listen to anything else. One of them even married a classical musician.
Most of you will be surprised to know the genuine interest Indian classical music (both Carnatic and Hindustani) has generated among the Westerners. As I said before in another thread, they are mostly interested in the serious part of our music. Some of them have developed into very very good performers (I have taken the name Ken Zuckerman of Basel in some other thread, he is already a senior person, but there are many others now). It is now far more than just a fashion among Westerners. Even some Western composers are composing their music according to the Indian (harmonic or just intonated) scale and not in their equally tempered scale. The world has slowly understood the value of Indian classical music. Otherwise how do you think the numerous trips made by Indian musicians abroad are supported financially. If it's just a temporary craze, it would pass in a few years. But it is sustaining for the last several decades now. In any case, if some of us can embrace Western music by heart, why can't they accept our music seriously? All they have to do is understand our scale, although it takes a bit of time.
There are several people in Kolkata (among many other places) who are also running businesses supplying Indian instruments (sitars, sarods, tablas, harmoniums, tanpuras etc etc) abroad. I know a person who used to work in a Bank. He is now completely in this business. Every year I see here in Kolkata, a lot of young people from Germany, Holland, even countries of Eastern Europe, US, Japan are coming to Kolkata, renting apartements, living quite a hard life here, just to learn music. A few of them have come to my place also to meet me. The seriousness and knowledge they have about Indian classical music is of far superior quality than the many so-called connoisseurs here. I have a feeling I will see a day before I die, when Indian classical music will be truly a global music in its true sense. In any case, doing music all my life, I like to include as many people in my musical journey as possible. Let's not make it an exclusive club. Truly great music has the power to reach everybody, and it's not a cliche - I have experienced it in my life.
Regards.
Hiten, Sri Gurav is no longer one of the lesser known artsites. He has been performing quite extensively.
Issigonis and Sivasarjun, great taste, both of you. Great collection of vocalists there.
Sumeet, if I may comment, some of the gharanas you have listed above is slightly misleading. Fayyaz Khan should belong to Agra, rather than Agra-Atrauli. Contrary to whatever we may believe, there was connection among the different schools, at times through marriage, for example between Gwalior and Agra. But if Fayyaz Khan is to be put any particular gharana, it should be the Agra gharana.
Paluskar definitely belonged to Gwalior gharana, and no question there.
Although the followers of Amir Khan say that he belongs to Indore gharana (may be the Ustad himself said it at some point), but a gharana has to be comprised of at least 3 generations of music. Amir Khan followed the gayaki of the great Kirana gharana ustad Behre Abdul Wahid Khan ('behre' means deaf, at very old ages, Wahid Khan's ears were almost gone, and he used to play his tanpura very loudly and the title Behre stuck to his name). There is no doubt in most people's mind, Amir Khan belongs to Kirana gharana.
Mallikarjun Mansur and Kesarbai Kerkar both learned from the great Alladiya Khan, and belongs to what is known as Jaipur-Atrauli, just Jaipur or just Atrauli gharana.
Just a small comment on gharanas (schools). Great artistes are usually beyond gharanas. If you listen to Kale Khan of Patiala gharana (uncle of Bade Ghulam), you will not find his music ditto on Bade Ghulam Ali. On the other hand, if you listen to the Gwalior great Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, you will see that how much Bade Ghulam was influenced by Krishnarao's style. The great artistes think about their music, and develop their own style. Similarly, although Bhimsenji learned from the Kirana Gharana maestro Sawai Gandharva, he developed his own style. The traditional Kirana style used to be followed by Hirabai Barodekar and Firoz Dastur, for example.
Lastly, in response to some comments made above regarding real artistes vs commercial artistes, and real listeners vs pretenders, I think it would be best if we leave these things to time. Time has its own dynamics and things settle in their proper place with time. As a person who has done music all his life (I did not not take it as a profession because of some reasons, but I very well could, even can do it now if I really want to), Let me just say this: a true artiste always wants to perform in front of an audience who are serious listeners, not necessarily just for the so-called connoisseurs who in many cases come with a baggage. Please remember, only the musicians, who have the talent and have worked hard for many years, are the true connoisseurs, and all others, are actually not. All a true musician wants is for the listener to open his heart for the music, join in an inclusive process. I have personally known many of the very best musicians, and I have observed this personally. I personally have converted a number of people who knew almost nothing about Indian classical music, and now they are serious listeners to the extent that they do not listen to anything else. One of them even married a classical musician.
Most of you will be surprised to know the genuine interest Indian classical music (both Carnatic and Hindustani) has generated among the Westerners. As I said before in another thread, they are mostly interested in the serious part of our music. Some of them have developed into very very good performers (I have taken the name Ken Zuckerman of Basel in some other thread, he is already a senior person, but there are many others now). It is now far more than just a fashion among Westerners. Even some Western composers are composing their music according to the Indian (harmonic or just intonated) scale and not in their equally tempered scale. The world has slowly understood the value of Indian classical music. Otherwise how do you think the numerous trips made by Indian musicians abroad are supported financially. If it's just a temporary craze, it would pass in a few years. But it is sustaining for the last several decades now. In any case, if some of us can embrace Western music by heart, why can't they accept our music seriously? All they have to do is understand our scale, although it takes a bit of time.
There are several people in Kolkata (among many other places) who are also running businesses supplying Indian instruments (sitars, sarods, tablas, harmoniums, tanpuras etc etc) abroad. I know a person who used to work in a Bank. He is now completely in this business. Every year I see here in Kolkata, a lot of young people from Germany, Holland, even countries of Eastern Europe, US, Japan are coming to Kolkata, renting apartements, living quite a hard life here, just to learn music. A few of them have come to my place also to meet me. The seriousness and knowledge they have about Indian classical music is of far superior quality than the many so-called connoisseurs here. I have a feeling I will see a day before I die, when Indian classical music will be truly a global music in its true sense. In any case, doing music all my life, I like to include as many people in my musical journey as possible. Let's not make it an exclusive club. Truly great music has the power to reach everybody, and it's not a cliche - I have experienced it in my life.
Regards.
