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Umeed - Sultan Khan & Manju Mehta . |
Ustad Sultan Khan - Sarangi
Smt. Manju Mehta - Sitar
Prithviraj Mishra (CD1) - Tabla
Hetal Mehta (CD 1) - Tabla
Sukhvinder Singh (CD 2) - Tabla
Tracks
CD 1 - Raag Kaunsi Kanada
1 Alap 18.45
2 Jorh, Jhalla 15.29
3 Teentaal 17.22
4 Drut Teentaal 12.51
5 Rajasthani folk song sung by Sultan Khan 10.07
CD 2 - Raag Malkauns
1 Alap 13.33
2 Jorh, Jhalla 12.57
3 Rupak 16.39
4 Teentaal 10.09
5 Drut Teentaal 8.07
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Over its life span of 25 years, the Saptak Festival has provided its audiences with
mesmerizing performances from the most celebrated exponents of Indian music
including Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pt. Kishan Maharaj, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Jasraj,
Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Sharda Sahay, Ustad Allarakha Khan and many more.
Lasting 13 days and featuring over 30 performances, the festival, rooted in Gujarat's
largest city, Ahmedabad, has built its reputation not just on quality performances but
innovative programming encouraging collaborations between outstanding musicians.
This recording features a duet of two of India's most esteemed string players, bringing
together the rare combination of Sitar and Sarangi. The pairing of Manju Mehta and
Sultan Khan is an example of a musical partnership which has proved a popular feature
of the Festival over the years.
The heart and soul of Indian Classical music is said to lie in its vocal music. Instrumental music works most effectively when it captures the subtle nuances of the human voice. Both Sitar and Sarangi have the capacity to capture this essence in contrasting ways. The glissando of the voice is achieved on the Sitar by the use of Meend, through the pulling of strings over the sixteen curved frets, while the bowed Sarangi is perhaps the most accurate mimic of the voice being the preferred accompaniment instrument for khayal and thumri singers. Sir Yehudi Menuhin remarked that 'the Sarangi remains not only the authentic and original Indian bowed stringed instrument but the one which most poignantly and most revealingly expresses the very soul of Indian feeling and thought'. The word Sarangi is derived from two Hindi words: sau (meaning "hundred") and rang (meaning "colour"). Sympathetic strings on both instruments create a rich harmonic texture.
Smt. Manju Mehta belongs to a well known family of musicians from Jaipur,Rajasthan. Her younger brother is award winning guitarist Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. She has benefited from a comprehensive musical education, training with Shri Shashi Mohan Bhatt, her elder brother Damodarlal Kabra and the legendary Sitarist, Pandit Ravi Shankar. She first gained recognition through winning the coveted All India Radio Talent Search competition, and these days her influence on the field of Indian music can be felt in almost every facet of art, including performance, composition, and teaching.
Apart from her performance she has gained deserved recognition for her contribution to music education in the Indian state of Gujarat. She has thirty years of experience as a teacher in Jodhpur University and 'Darpana' of Ahmedabad. She is presently teaching at the Saptak School of Music in Ahmedabad of which she is also a trustee.
The real beauty of her music stems from her devotion and commitment to the tradition she represents. People recognise her as an artist whose performance is of the highest calibre, but it is also her great warmth and sensitivity as a human being that makes her truly outstanding.
Ustad Sultan Khan is one of the great Sarangi players of the modern era, with a distinctive tone which creates an immediate warming in the hearts of listeners. The emotional depth of his playing, and his extraordinary technical and melodic control over this difficult string instrument has led to him to collaborate with a succession of great musicians from all around the world including Pandit Ravi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin, George Harrison and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan amongst others. More recently he has featured in Bill Laswell and Zakir Hussain's hugely successful and innovative Tabla Beat Science project.
His playing style is characterised by gamaks (grace notes) and intricate taans (melodic patterns) representative of the Indore Gharana, made famous by Vocalist Ustad Amir Khan. He learned the rudiments of music from his father, Ustad Gulab Khan, an accomplished sarangi player and vocalist, and his families' musical lineage can be traced back eight generations to the court musicians of the princely state of Jodhpur.
Sultan Khan is also now recognised as a talented vocalist through several commercially successful recordings. His singing has become a popular feature of his performances and in recent years.
Recorded in January 2004, CD 1 features a recital of Raag Kaunsi Kanada, a combination of Raags Malkauns and Darbari Kanada, Beginning with Alap, a slow, meditative exploration of the key phrases of the raag, both musicians skilfully work their way up through the notes of the raag until the full character of the raag is revealed. Next, a rhythmic pulse is introduced for the Jorh/Jhalla phase of the performance. In this section the phrases become more animated, and the more playful aspects of jugalbandi (or duet) playing starts to materialise. The first composition is set to slow tempo teentaal, a sixteen beat rhythm. Here the soloists are joined by Prithviraj Mishra and Hetal Mehta, two emerging tabla players whose careers have taken off through some stunning performances at Saptak in recent years. Both players represent the Benares style of tabla playing, having been mentored by tabla legend Pandit Nandan Mehta and tabla legebd Pandit Kishan Maharaj. The tabla players get the opportunity to show their skills in the last part of the recital set to drut teentaal. The concert was concluded with a charming Rajasthan folk melody sung by Sultan Khan. When played on Sitar and Sarangi, this composition is known as Dhun.
CD 2 features a live recording from the 2006 Saptak Festival, with a performance of Raag Malkauns, a pentatonic mode said to be one of the six original Raags of North Indian music.
The performance features a detailed Alap, Jorh and Jhalla before the main compositions are introduced with dynamic accompaniment on tabla by Sukhvinder Singh, one of Pandit Kishan Maharaj's most talented disciples.
Notes: © John Ball
John is based at the University of Sheffield in the UK.
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