No piece of music can be considered complete without the able accompaniment of a right percussion instrument. The Indian musical landscape has been enriched with percussion instruments like tabla, dhol, pakhawaj, mridangam, khol, ghatam, khanjira et al. Unfortunately, the percussionist was relegated to the background in past. Musicians like Pt. Ravi Shankar and the artistry of percussionists like Ud. Alla Rakha reached the percussion support to its deserved status and the spotlight is now shining bright on the percussionists. So much so that to celebrate the birth centenary of its founder chairman Lala Charat Ram, Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra (SBKK) presented one of his favourite artistes, Ustad Zakir Hussain in concert at the Kamani auditorium.
The special concert had a special floral décor on the stage to greet Zakir who entered most unassumingly amongst thunderous applause. “This concert is not just mine. The transmission of knowledge now is not confined to the family only but has crossed international boundaries. I am just one of them and each one of them is a big star. It's a collective effort.” Introducing them all, he invited Sabir Khan to open the evening with his sonorous sarangi to create the appropriate atmosphere and the right mood. The others, he said, would join as and when they felt like it, because it was an open ended concert.
The most significant feature of the concert was of course Zakir’s tabla solo with a clear air-brushed tone and technical flair that was striking in its training and innate understanding of rhythm and phrasing. Sabir Khan had played a quality delicate and detailed alaap of raga Saraswati in which he played the lehera (the musical refrain) for the tabla solo by Zakir in Teentala. The pregnant pauses of Sabir’s sarangi had meanings that evoked a lot of expectations from Zakir who opened with a detailed alaap like peshkara that started in barabar ki laya, that is at the same pace and tempo in which Sabir provided the lehera, with a kind of taut tension and vazan that reciprocated even the pauses of sarangi. The elongated initial round of the peshkara itself heralded a loud round of applause.
Then came the Dilli ka Quayeda, which was reversed by Ud. Habibuddin Khan of Meerut keeping the Tir kit ahead. It was followed by the “Dhir Dhir kit tak...” of Benaras and the delicacies of many different styles. The technical virtuosity of Zakir kept the scale and proportion with strikingly intricate layakaris that pirouetted on the rhythm with quiet aplomb.
Zakir gradually turned his concert into an ensemble of remarkable appeal. The well-conceived and competently-coordinated ensemble comprised Ananth R Krishnan, the grandson and disciple of Vidwan Palghat Raghu on the mridangam, Nitin Sharma on dholak and Sabir Khan on sarangi. Nitin has studied under Ud. Allah Rakha Khan and has played with diverse genres from Jazz, Pop, Rock and Fusion to Ghazal and Bhajan ensembles. Sabir is the son and disciple of Ud. Sultan Khan, the real sultan of sarangi. When Zakir reached the medium tempo in Teentala, he was joined by Nitin on Dholak. Nitin could reciprocate with effortless ease to all the rela-paltas of Zakir since they both learnt from the same Guru Ud. Alla Rakha Khan. They played alternately and together, when they came on a thunderous ‘sam’ after a chakkardar tihai.
Soothing sarangi
Ananth Krishnan joined them last with his totally tuneful and lyrical mridangam. His expertise was best showcased in the intricate work of Misra Jati.
All three of them took turn gradually going faster in drut laya (faster tempo) and played the choicest of farmaishi tihai comprising one Dha, two Dha and three Dhas respectively in the three repetitions of the same mnemonics or bols that form the tihai and the bedum tihai that doesn’t even leave space for a breath, before reaching together the ultimate Sam. Although all three percussionists were masters of their specific instruments, the only problem was with the dholak, that did not sound as accurately drenched in ´sur´ as the tabla and mridangam did.
The melodious interludes of sarangi came as a cooling respite in between the fireworks ignited by the percussion ensemble. Sabir, in fact, was the soul of the whole ensemble and Zakir utilised his full potential right from the beginning, even before he opened his tabla Solo, when he invited him to play the initial alaap in raga Saraswati, establishing the musical refrain for his solo in Teentala.
The ensemble’s climax was a riot of wit and virtuosity. They should have stopped at this zenith only, because the following ghoomar, the Rajasthani folk song sung by Sabir Khan could not match and maintain the total tunefulness of his sarangi and marred the well built climax. Singing does not come with sarangi as ‘buy one get one free’. You have to work on your voice as you do on sarangi.
Ultimately, it was not just the charisma but also the command of Zakir´s hypnotising art, that the jam-packed hall sat rapped and absorbed throughout the mesmerising evening.
