Shakti

Here's a heads-up about an event this week:
The renowned tabla player Pandit Yogesh Samsi, accompanied by Pritam Bhattacharjee of the Pandit Jasraj School of Music, Atlanta, is performing at the Dunwoody Baptist Church Chapel, Thursday, July 1st at 8:00 pm. For more details, visit: http://www.dbc.org/schoolforthearts.

Today's show features a band called Shakti, one of the earlier bands to attempt a fusion of Western and Indian music. It consists of an acoustic guitar, a tabla, a violin and a ghatam. I think the ghatam deserves some explanation, it is a south Indian percussive instrument, well, actually it's a pot made of clay. Most people would keep it upright and use it to store water; Carnatic musicians, however, prefer to turn it upside down and make the weirdest noises with it. But that is a story for another day. Shakti was formed way back in 1975 when John McLaughlin met Ustad Zakir Hussain, it was said to be instrumental on the world music scene, and the result was a blend of hindustani, carnatic, jazz music that the world had never even imagined. Personally, I'm a huge fan of their music - I find it exhilarating - and that is precisely the reason why it is here on Gharana.

Shakti began when John McLaughlin met Ustad Zakir Hussain, this was in 1975. Two others joined in, L. Shankar on the violin, and T.H.Vinayakaram on the ghatam and that was that. The band was a great success, and for the next two years they toured all over the world and produced two albums of incredible music.

Sadly, like Mclaughlin's other attempts at fusion, most notably, the Mahavishnu Orchestra in all its incarnations, Shakti did not last very long. They rarely made appearances after 1977, and they soon faded away. About twenty years later, an attempt at reviving Shakti was made, the new band being called Remember Shakti, you might want to check out their music, it is quite like that of the original band.

Here's the track listing for the day:

Natural Elements
1. Mind Ecology (5:47)
2. Face to Face (5:57)
3. Come on Baby Dance with Me (1:56)
4. The Daffodil and the Eagle (7:00)
5. Happiness is Being Together (4:27)
6. Bridge of Sighs (3:52)
7. Get Down and Sruti (7:00)
8. Peace of Mind (3:22)

A Handful Of Beauty
1. India (12:38)

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

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia

This week on the show, we're featuring the music of the legendary flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. He is an absolute genius on the flute, which could partly explain why he has produced an incredible number of albums - I looked up the list on his website, and it is just endless! He also has a long list of collaborations with literally hundreds of musicians. I've had the pleasure of attending one of his performances, and let me assure you that he is a dream to listen to. He is one of those artists whose work is "audience-friendly", if I may use the term. Personally, I find him very easy to listen to - melodious, easy to catch on to, yet very elegant - it really is very soothing to listen to, especially after a rough day at work.

Now surprisingly, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia comes from a family of non-musicians. In fact, his father was a wrestler, who wanted him to follow in his footsteps. Though he did undergo training to be a wrestler, Pandit Chaurasia started learning music at a friend's house in secrecy. It was only when he was 15, and better at music than wrestling that he was able to receive formal training. He started with vocal music but soon switched to the flute. Even today, he claims that his initial training in wrestling gave him the stamina and control that is characteristic of his style of playing the flute.

Throughout his career, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia has worked with a lot of musicians. He has put a lot of effort into making Hindustani music accessible to everyone. In particular, he has done a lot of work in collaboration with jazz artists, most notably, with John McLaughlin and the fusion band Shakti.

For more of his music, visit his website, right here.

Today's playlist:
1. Raag Madhuvanti (15:08)
2. Raag Mishra (10:30)
3. Raag Sindhi Bhairavi (6:11)
4. Raag Bageshree (10:42)
5. Raag Mishra Shivaranjani (10:43)

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

29th March, 2010 - Sufi/Fusion Special

For this show I decided to experiment a little and incorporate some Sufi-inspired music as well as "fusion", while keeping the base Indian Classical. And it turned out to be great fun. I have to say though, this was completely inspired by this recent discovery: cokestudio.com.pk

Coke Studio is a Pakistani television show that aired its first season in 2008 and the second in 2009. It features a wide range of pop, rock, classical (both Indian and Pakistani), Sufi-inspired and folk music played by Pakistan's most celebrated musicians A friend of mine found some videos of it on YouTube recently and shared them with me. I was blown away with just the first three songs that I heard and decided to get as much of the music as possible. Thankfully, they let you download it all for free. So instead of playing just one song of the Coke Studio sessions on the show, I decided to do an entire show around the concept of collaborations including, but going beyond Indian Classic music.

An interesting opener to the show was an Indian raag (Raag Bahaar) being performed by the legendary Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. I could not think of a better coming-together of music from the two countries, as you will realize when you listen to a Hindustani raag being performed in typical Qawwali style. That was followed by Aik Alif from the Coke Studio sessions (my current favourite track), Making Music by Zakir Hussain and friends (an album off which I have played nearly all the tracks over the past year), and finally a track from a CD that I found in the WREK studio that almost made my eyes pop out: "The Melody Of Rhythm", a collaboration including Ustad Zakir Hussain, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and The Detroit Symphony Orchestra!

It was a show that gave me a lot of happiness.

Here is the track listing:

1. Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (vocals) - Raag Bahaar (live)

2. Saeen Zahoor (vocals) & Noori (rock duo) - Aik Alif (Coke Studio Session, Season 2)

3. Ustad Zakir Hussain (tabla), Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute), Jan Garabarek (saxophone) & John McLaughlin (guitar) - Making Music (album: Making Music)

4. Ustad Zakir Hussain (tabla), Bela Fleck (banjo), Edgar Meyer (bass) and The Detroit Symphony Orchestra - Bubbles (album: The Melody of Rhythm)

...and that leaves just about 5-6 more shows of Gharana Music that I will host before I graduate! The countdown begins..

Karan Mehra

Gharana Music
WREK Atlanta, 91.1 FM
Mondays, 8-9 p.m.
www.wrek.org
(+1) 404-894-2468
Email: gharanamusicatlanta@gmail.com

http://twitter.com/gharanamusic

15th June, 2009

Thanks for tuning back in tonight!

Here's what played:

1. Asin by Ustad Zakir Hussain (tabla), Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute), John McLaughlin (guitar) and Jan Garbarek (saxophone) off the album 'Making Music'

2. Raag Sohni by Pandit Nikhil Banerjee (sitar)
3. Raag Bhoop by Gundecha Brothers (vocals), off the album 'Naad Sugandh'

You can listen to the show on www.wrek.org, in the archives section, where it is hosted for 2 weeks. Click here for the instructions.

Gharana Music
WREK Atlanta, 91.1 FM
Mondays, 8-9 p.m.
www.wrek.org
(+1) 404-894-2468
Email: gharanamusicatlanta@gmail.com

20th & 27th April, 2009

The last Monday of the Spring 09 semester! But the show will go on through the summer, so keep tuning in every Monday night at 8 p.m. for an hour of the highest quality Indian classical music.

To begin with, last Monday (20th April) was a Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia special, where we played his performance of Raag Bageshree (alaap and gat).

Back to this week, coming up this Sunday, the 5th of May, we will be lucky to watch a very accomplished vocalist Jayateerth Mevundi,  disciple of the legend Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, live on campus at Georgia Tech. Here are the details for this performance brought to us by the Indian Classical Music Society (ICMS), Atlanta.

When: May 3rd, Sunday at 5 p.m.

Who: Vocalist Jayateerth Mevundi, accompanied  by Bharat Kamat (tabla) and Guruprasad Hegde (harmonium).

Where: Georgia Tech Student Center Theater 

Contact: Santosh Pande at 770-447-5517, Bob Ghosh at 404-431-0091 , or Sham Navathe at 770-416-8901 

We also ended the show tonight with a piece by Jayateerth Mevundi. Here's what played on Gharana tonight:

1. Water Girl by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute) off the album 'Making Music' (1992) by Ustad Zakir Hussain (tabla), which also features John McLaughlin (guitar) and Jan Garbarek (saxophone)

2. Pandit Nikhil Banerjee (sitar) - Raag Rageshree

3. Jayateerth Mevundi (vocals) - Megh Bada Khyal

Do turn up for the concert at the student center theater, it is going to be a beautiful evening.

Karan

Gharana Music
WREK Atlanta, 91.1 FM
Mondays, 8-9 p.m.
www.wrek.org
(+1) 404-894-2468
Email: gharanamusicatlanta@gmail.com