The second edition of MTV India Music Summit in Jaipur saw some riveting performances and impromptu collaborations. In between big ticket performances, notes were exchanged on subjects related to music. Such was the response that the activities started at 7 in the morning and continued till 2 a.m. Dr L Subramaniam performed in his orchestral composer “avatar”, presenting a number of his own compositions with his accompanists. New Orleans Jazz singer Robin Barnes jammed with him in an impromptu act, singing “It’s a Beautiful World” and “Let there be”. In fact, the spontaneous intermingling of artists of different genres was an interesting underlying theme in this festival. Jasbir Jassi performed with Robin Barnes, his concert included Rajasthani manganiyars Ghazi Khan and his troupe. Aruna Sairam’s magnificent session included manganiyar khartaal player from Jaisalmer. Shankar Mahadevan’s session included Rajasthani Indian idol winner singing with him.
A western symphony orchestra from NCPA and the 11 member Mizo Cardinal Choir, founded in 2012 also made an appearance. The sessions were carefully woven with different genres taking the stage successively thus ensuring the eclectic audience got every musical flavour.
The morning session of Shruti Sadolikar was memorable, with a crisply delivered succinct raga Mian ki Todi Teen taal khayal said to be composed by Shah Sadarang in honour of Mohammed Shah Rangile. This was followed by an unusual jhaptaal khayal in raga Deskar that Shruti recalled she had sung in Jaipur thirty years earlier. The mandatory “maand” for the Rajasthani audience was followed on request . Remembering Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, a session titled “dasgangoi” ended by being more of a recital by his grandsons, with brief interjections of anecdotes by Danish Husain.
Aruna Sairam’s session was spectacular, with the doyenne demonstrating her vast repertoire, singing in turn an abhang, a Bengali stuti sung at the time of Mahaalaya, a tillana, a virutham amongst other pieces. The audience would not accept the conclusion of the session which extended well beyond the one hour slot.
Ambi Subramaniam’s violin recital proved without doubt that he is a fantastic instrumentalist; expectedly he was awarded the “Emerging Artist of the Year” award. Parveen Sultana entranced her audience with her raga Puriya Danashri, ending of course in with her ever popular “Dayaani Bhawani”. Ustad Shujaat Khan, undoubtedly, a communicator par excellence with any type of audience interwove interesting anecdotes with his delicate sitar in his two sessions. Pt Channulal Mishra as usual kept his pieces short and educative.
A session on patrons of classical music that could have been meaningful in outcome, meandered somewhat by moderation by Prasoon Joshi, who rather surprisingly queried the need of patronising the arts, remarking that in the film world “jo bikta hai, woh tikta hai”. Randhir Singh of Patiala opined that just as sportsmen are supported financially by State governments, so should classical artists; Siddharth Shriram felt that corporate social responsibility should be enforced.
Story of a song
The session with Prasoon Joshi talking to Shankar Mahadevan was immensely interesting, the words flowing into the music with the two singing their creations together, and discussing what goes into making a song. Another spontaneous interaction was with Usha Uthup who revealed how the world of entertainment has changed in her 49 years of singing. She had to get a license to sing from the police station near Trinca’s and had to sign a promise not to solicit! Her rendering of the film hit “Dam maaro Dam during her chat with Music Concepts founder Mala Sekhri had the audience on their feet. Manjari Chaurvedi in her talk highlighted how the contributions of the “tawaifs” had never been acknowledged in the world of classical music.
In the words of Ustad Shujaat Khan, the Summit was inclusive.“It was like the days when I grew up, when we would be a host of artists all staying together under one roof, performing and interacting informally.”
