Season’s Greetings

Aftab Datta has kindly sent us the following recordings:

Jitendra Abhisheki – Amritvashini (Malsri)
Umeed Ali Khan – Ahir Bhairov
Fayyaz Khan – Bhankar
Salamat Ali & Nazakat Ali – Kalavati________________

Here is probably the most memorable recording of the Punjabi wedding song, sada chirian da chamba vay in the voice of Tufail Niazi.

Tufail Niazi belonged to the Kapurthala music tradition and to the lineage of Saeen Ilyas. He became an internationally renowned musician and is a great name in Punjabi folk music. Tufail Niazi had a unique edge over other legendary folk singers due to his mastery over the compositions nested in classical tradition. Often he instilled new and different meanings into common verses. Tufail Niazi also had the honour of being the first person to appear on PTV on its inauguration day.________________

Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang” receives this year’s Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar.

‘Today, as he has done for the past 6 decades, Ramrang spends his waking moments immersed in the contemplation and creation of music. True to his calling as one of the greatest vaggeyekaras of all time, Ramrang’s intellectual wanderlust shows no sign of abating; every day turns in a new insight or a new asthAi. In this context he lends meaning to Einstein’s memorable words: “Only in Science and Art are we permitted to remain children all our lives.”

‘Although Ramrang is known to devotees and students of music as the author of the Abhinava Geetanjali classics and as a composer extraordinaire, he has spent most of his musical life in relative isolation, away from the glare of public adulation, and on the fringes of the community of active performing musicians. This is entirely in keeping with his character and inner conviction that music is a lifelong sAdhanA of intellectual and emotional discipline, not a source of pelf.

‘In summing up the musical life of Ramashreya Jha “Ramrang,” the understated flourish of Professor G.H. Hardy in his essay A Mathematician’s Apology comes to mind: “Whatever we do may be small, but it has a certain character of permanence; and to have produced anything of the slightest permanent interest…is to have done something utterly beyond the powers of the vast majority of men.”‘ From A Stroll in Ramrang’s Garden by Rajan Parrikar________________

Wish you all a very merry christmas & a happy new year!