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Andaaz - Tejendra Majumdar . |
Tejendra Majumdar - Sarod
Subhankar Banerjee - Tabla
Raga Bageshri
1 Alap (16:09)
2 Jor (8:14)
3 Jhalla (11:36)
Raga Hemant -
4 Gat in vilambit teental (22:15)
5 Gat in drut teental (4:27)
6 Gat in drut teental (jhalla) (5:01)
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ANDAAZ
One of the most versatile and eloquent of North Indian classical instruments, the Sarod like so many stringed instruments around the world - is a descendant of the lutes of central and western Asia. Its ancestors arrived with the invading Mughals and developed over the centuries in parallel with the music they played. With fewer sympathetically vibrating strings than the currently even more popular Sitar, the Sarod has a more direct and clear sound. Free from the Sitar's extraordinary halo of overtones, it has the effect instead of cutting straight to the heart like a human voice. Its quick responses can emulate many vocal techniques, and in its own right it is capable of wonderfully extended ornamentation of a note after it has been plucked, as Tejendra Narayan Majumdar shows soon after he begins to play here.
The ancestry of Tejendra's playing is illustrious in its own right. He belongs to the Senia Maihar gharana, named after the state of Maihar in what is now Madhya Pradesh. Relatively recent though it traces its origins back to Mian Tansen, a 16th century court musician of Emperor Akbar - the gharana was founded in the early twentieth century by Ustad Allauddin Khan, and counts Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar and Nikhil Banerjee among its' successors. Tejendra was first taught by his grandfather, Bibhuti Ranjan Majumdar, and later by his father, Ranjan Majumdar. After voice and rhythm training under Amaresh Chowdhury and Anil Palit, he studied for 18 years as a disciple of Bahadur Khan, nephew of Allauddin Khan. In 1981 he was placed first in the All India Radio Music Competition and received the President's gold medal and the Pandit D V Paluskar award. After the early death of his guru, he studied under Ajay Sinha Roy and later Ali Akbar Khan, from whom he has continued to receive training. Tejendra's reputation is for combining the intellectual density and technical virtuosity of his gharana with a personal tone, touch and feeling for melody. Apart from his tours and solo performances, he has worked as composer and arranger with Ajoy Chakrabarty, Rashid Khan, Ghulam Ali, Sipra Bose, Haimanti Shukla, Arati Mukherjee and many others; in films, with such luminaries as Satyajit Ray, Salil Chowdhury, and Nabyendu Chatterjee; and on ballets such as Amrapali, Rajnartaki, and Sita.
Tejendra's performance on this CD, a live studio recording in Gujarat during January 2005 by producer Derek Roberts has all the hallmarks of many Sense recordings- a beautiful warmth and clarity which really enhances the subtle qualities of Indian classical instruments. The performance falls into two sections, each continuous in itself through three tracks: alap, jor and jhalla on Raga Bageshri Kanada, and then switching to Raga Hemant and joined by the versatile tabla accompanist Subhankar Banerjee for a series of gats. Unfolding in just over a quarter of an hour, the alap has a long-range feel from early on, taking its time to let the early notes resonate on before developing a more incisive voice as it explores the lower register. Twice it ascends, the first time ringing out at the top and the second quietly soaring up an octave to reach its peak. The jor continues with only the lightest of animation at first, becoming more energetic after about five minutes. Finally the quick pulse of the jhalla section arrives and the improvisations grow urgent, really flying around three minutes before the end and then descending and thinning out.
Raga Hemant, with its sharpened fourth degree of the scale, now takes over with a short introduction preceding a gat composition in the popular sixteen beat rhythmic cycle of Teentaal. An innovation of Allaudin Khan, this wistful raga is generally associated with the early part of the winter season. With steady rhythmic support in a slow tempo Tejendra strikes a fine balance of virtuosity and lyricism in the process of unfolding this charming and melancholic melody.
Five or six minutes into the first gat, the tabla player is given an opportunity to demonstrate his skill with a flow of subtle cross-rhythms, incorporating an outbreak of threes-against-twos which catches the ear as the piece develops.
Hailing from the musically potent metropolis of Kolkata (or Calcutta), Subhankar Banerjee has developed into one of the most popular tabla accompanists of India. His playing has found favour with almost all the contemporary greats of Indian classical music including Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ravi Shankar and Shivkumar Sharma. For the last twenty years he has somehow managed to maintain a rigorous concert schedule, taking in many thousands of miles on his travels. His style of playing focuses on an aesthetic interpretation of compositions derived from all styles of tabla playing that suitably exploits the versatility of his instrument, producing a rare musicality often lacking in modern tabla accompaniment.
Between them Tejendra and Subhankar then gradually start to move the pace on, sharing increasingly virtuoso exchanges, until eventually a new, fast gat begins. It is followed quite soon by a third, in which the repeated melody is like a stretched-out, ultra-quick variation of the previous one. With a vivid final acceleration, the performance speeds towards its massive tripartite cadence, a resplendent example of the traditional concluding tihai.
Notes : Robert Maycock
Additional material : John Ball |
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