For today's show, we're going to feature one of India's most eminent tabla players. He is a prolific performer, very well known for his amazing speed and clarity on the tabla and also for his improvisations. I've been listening to quite a bit of his music lately, and the thing that strikes you about each of his performances is the intelligence. He has this knack of turning even the simplest themes into incredibly complex patterns and I really love the way he switches between the slower and faster sequences. It is always a pleasure to listen to his music. But I've been building up the suspense far too long, so our first track for the day is Taal Pancham Savari by Pandit Anindo Chatterjee. The track is called so because it is in Taal Pancham Savari. Now for those of you who are new to Hindustani music, taal is almost equivalent to the meter of a piece. It defines the length of each cycle. In this case, Taal Pancham Savari defines a cycle of 15 beats counted 3-4-4-4.
A bit more about Anindoji. He was born and brought up in West Bengal, and it was his uncle, a sitar player, Pandit Biswanath Chatterjee who started him off on tabla training when he was just 4 years old. Years later, when asked why he chose the tabla, Anindoji replied, "As a child, I went around beating things around the house. This probably made my parents think that I had fancied rhythm and therefore I started on my Tabla training." By the age of 5, he was performing on All India Radio, and at the age of 6, he became a disciple of Padmabhushan Gyan Prakash Ghosh. Anindoji's performances are marked by clarity of tone, very crisp and clear bols and an intutive sense of rhythm and melody. The next track in Taal Deepchandi - it is in 14 beats counted as 3-4-3-4, this song is much shorter but very entertaining to listen to. Our final track is in Taal Ashta Rupak, meaning it is in 8 beats.
If you would like to hear more of Pandit Anindo Chatterjee's music, you can visit his website here.
Avinash Sastry
Gharana Music
WREK Atlanta, 91.1 FM
Mondays, 8-9 p.m.
www.wrek.org
(+1) 404-894-2468
Email: gharanamusicatlanta@gmail.com
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