Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Alla Rakha at the Monterey Pop Festival '67

Welcome to Gharana Music, first the "good" news: Karan Mehra, who has been hosting this show for the last year or so, decided to graduate from Georgia Tech, and move to New York. Well, good for him, we'll miss you, Karan. Good luck. The bad news is mainly for me, desperately trying to fill his shoes at WREK. It's also bad news for you, because you, our beloved audience, will have to put up with me, Avinash Sastry. Not a fair contest. Trust me.

So on that cheerful little note, let me tell you about today's line-up. Today, we feature Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Alla Rakha Khan and their phenomenal performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. For me, this is a very special performance. It goes way back to my undergrad days, when we were sitting and watching the videos of the Monterey Pop Festival. And right after Jimi Hendrix, came these two giants of Hindustani music. We just sat there, and watched and watched for the whole hour without saying a word. The performance scarred me, in that I could never think of Hindustani music as slow music for patient listeners; it had become just as enthralling as Led Zeppelin or AC/DC (bad comparison I know, and I apologize, but I warned you ).

The first track is in Raag Bhimpalasi. It starts slow and gradually builds up speed and rhythm, yet never goes too fast, setting up the mood for the second half of the performance. The second half begins with a spell-binding solo performance by Ustad Alla Rakha in Ektaal. I really like the way Pandit Ravi Shankar explains the timing, "It is 12 beats for each cycle, counted as 4-4-2-2, but Alla Rakha wants to play it faster so we'll be counting six beats as 2-2-1-1". The third and final track, called Dhun (Dadra and fast Teentaal) concludes their performance. He explains the timing for this one too, and as they start playing it seems quite easy to follow. Soon though, you reach a point where it is almost impossible to keep track of what they're doing, and that's when you realize that it is just pure genius!

As always, feel free to send us a mail, or comment on our blog, we'd love to hear from you! If you miss the show, you can still hit those links in the second column and listen to our archive. Looking forward to a great year with you all and with Gharana Music!

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