Give us this day our daily (good) music

by smudgal on July 9, 2009

I have to confess You Tube can be quite addictive particularly when I manage to find something as wonderful as this track sung by the inimitable Shobha Gurtu : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkDV5VlO3bY

What a voice and what an amazingly impassioned “pukaar” in the singing. Too bad we don’t give our great artistes befitting memorials.

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New trend on Live Preview?

by smudgal on May 4, 2008

Ask a Hindustani classical musician what he or she will perform at a concert and most likely, you’ll get a lot of humming and hawing or a non-commital dekhenge, kyaa mood bantaa hai…. or something equally ambivalent. Which is what leads me to wonder how and what is leading classical musicians featured in the Live Preview section of Time Out Mumbai to disclose, possibly weeks in advance, what exactly they will render in a forthcoming concert. At times, the column mentions that the featured artiste is “likely to present” ragas such as this, that and the other. But most vocalists seem to have no problems mentioning names of ragas they are likely to present or have already decided to present. And so I am led to wonder whether we are witnessing a new trend in which performers are actually planning what to sing in advance? [click to continue…]

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My land, my state

April 8, 2008

I meant to write about something else this fortnight but then you see, I got all busy and worked up trying to figure out these new immigration laws that us Indian, but non-Maharashtrian, musicians have to deal with sooner or later. I mean, now that the new immigration department of Mumbai has told even the [...]

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Eeks! Look what I found!

April 7, 2008

I dubbed a film song composed by Adnan Sami some months ago, and heard in the passing that it was for a Vikram Bhatt film called “1920″. I presumed then that I was asked to dub possibly because I had started sounding like I was from the 1920s! But then a few days ago, people [...]

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One challenge too many !

April 7, 2008

Please be warned that the contents of this column may prove to be distasteful for persons with strong olfactory responses and delicate constitutions. Any offence or distress caused is totally unintentional because my purpose in writing this piece is solely to draw attention to at least one of the many challenges faced by exponents of [...]

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Mata ke Bhentein

November 21, 2007

You’ll never ever realize the advantages of living close to a temple if you haven’t had first-hand experience. For years, I have lived (between commuting from city to city for concerts) in a small flat close to the Jhandewalan temple in Paharganj, New Delhi. For years, therefore, I have been one of the favoured few [...]

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The Status of the Harmonium

October 18, 2007

We are in the midst of celebrating 60 years of independent India and since we always celebrate with fanfare, there have been the usual concerts, aka Azadi Express, with a turbaned actor-cum-truant-MP Govinda doing his characteristic dance moves, TV clips on almost every channel with a stylized version of the tricolour tacked on to one [...]

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Jahaji Music by Surabhi Sharma: a film on chutney soca music

October 18, 2007

Published earlier in my fortnightly column for Mint.
Jahaji Music 

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Music Matters: a fortnightly column I write for Mint

October 14, 2007

Tunes for Breaking News
http://www.livemint.com/2007/10/13024000/Tunes-for-breaking-news.html

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Leave art and artistes alone.

May 12, 2007
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