Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Upaj (उपज)' - Zakir Hussain, Taufiq Qureshi and Niladri Kumar

Attended a concert titled 'Upaj (उपज)'. A concert featuring Zakir Hussain, Taufiq Qureshi and Niladri Kumar at Shanmukhanand hall, Mumbai, on 14th Dec 2016. 

Upaj literally means 'harvest' while in Indian Classical music it is a term used for enthralling 'improvisations'. 

Concert started with Raag Shree and with Zakirji and Niladriji on stage. Aalap and jod followed by jhala, Zhakirji joining in. Audience clapped on his first strike on Tabla. The Raag was played for about 50 minutes. 

During aalap and jod, when Niladri was playing very fine, delicate and faint notes, Zakirji had to contain the audience from clapping and urge them to listen. They complimented each other and also played Sawal Jawab. Their playing was very good and so were there excellent pauses. 

Second Raga, rather Ragini, was Bageshwari. Zakirji made a pun about Rageshree and Rageshrimati. Taufiqji joined in for this segment. The two purcussionists joined almost immediately after Niladri started it. 

Taufiqji then played a solo piece for 20 minutes and showed how many variations can be played on a single drum. 

Taufiq and Zhakir then played a composition of guru of their guru (dada guru) for few minutes together. This was a Punjab gharana composition. They also played Jugalbandi. Sitar then joined for grand trio that included solo, simultaneous and Sawal Jawab. 

Concert ended with Niladri playing Zitar, Taufiq playing drum sets and Zhakir on tabla for the grand finale. It was a medley that even included Bhajan 'Raghupati Raghav' with drums. They jammed. This section, though good, appeared out of sync with the concept of concert and seemed like an appendage. It was the first time I attended a proper classical music concert with drums. 

Zakir Hussain is the best known Tabla player in the world. He belongs to Punjab gharana and is a disciple of Ustad Allarakha. He is a contemporary legend. His effortless Tabla play won the audience. He also anchored the program with his light hearted commentary. 

Niladri Kumar is the prodigal Sitar player from Maihar gharana. He is disciple of Katick Kumar and Pandit Ravi Shankar. He has created an instrument called Zitar. His hands are a blurr on Sitar and he can play anything and everything. 

Zhakirji and Niladriji together and all three have superb understanding between them. They enjoyed and consequently so did the audience. They matched each other stroke by stroke. This was my third concert of the pair and second of the trio. 

Taufiq Qureshi, who also belongs to Punjab gharana, is well known and innovative purcussionist. He has also composed background scores for numerous films. He is disciple of Ustad Allarakha and Vikku Vinayakram.

Concert started about half an hour late. But still there were many latecomers disturbing the aalap. Auditorium was clean, chill and had good acoustics. 

Entertainment rating 9/10.

 


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