Hanging on in Talwandi: Mohammad Afzal Khan and Mohammad Hafiz Khan (reupped)

Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism

The Talwandi gharana (family/household/school) centered in the musically fertile Kasur area of Pakistani Punjab is often mentioned as a ‘cousin’ of the Darbhanga gharana which the Washerman’s Dog highlighted last night in the post on Ram Chatur Mallik.  Both are considered to be essentially dhrupad gharanas though their repertoires include khyal as well.   

Tonight the Dog highlights the singing of Malikzada Mohammad Afzal Khan  and Malikzada Mohammad Hafiz Khan, which quite frankly is some of the most exciting  and exhilarating I’ve ever heard.  The Talwandi gharana, is almost entirely performed in Pakistan and like the more famous Dagar gharana of Rajasthan, the tradition is ‘owned’ and nurtured by a single family.  While dhrupad as an art form has its origins deep in the Hindu worship tradition, it has over the centuries been performed by Muslim singers, including, in the contemporary context, the Dagar and Khan (Talwandi) families.

Dhrupad was and is conceived as a sacred music, often used for ritual as well as concert performances, but with different sectarian emphases-Hindu, Muslim or Sikh-depending on local circumstances.

In Mathura, north Bihar and West Bengal, the known dhrupad traditions all flourished in association with Hinduism of different varieties; dhrupad was employed for both court music-making and for temple ritual, but it was adopted to whatever Hindu cult was locally prevailing. Thus dhrupad texts from Mathura typically celebrate Radha and Krisna, those from Bihar the Shakti goddess Kali. [Also] the Mathura tradition was essentially a temple tradition [but] Muslim singers from the Agra gharana may have also contributed to this ritual use of dhrupad.

A similar situation seemed to have existed in the Punjab. Before Partition, dhrupad was a popular art form for which members of the Talwandi gharana were particularly noted. It is said they were employed by Sikh religious leaders to compose music in the dhrupad style for use in the temples of Amritsar and elsewhere; they also taught Sikh and Hindu pupils sometimes adopting Sikh or Hindu titles and dress. Thus music of ultimately Hindu origins was adapted by Muslims for use in Sikh ritual. Today, however, members of the Talwandi gharana project an exclusively Islamic identity, singing dhrupads largely on Islamic themes, and claiming an Islamic origin  and role for the whole genre. This can be understood as a response to the religious climate in which they find themselves.

(‪Dhrupad: tradition and performance in Indian music, Volume 1 By Ritwik Sanyal, Richard Widdess, pg 33)

At the time of Partition the Talwandi gharana was headed by the great dhrupad singer Mohar-e-Mauseeqi Malikzada Mian Mehar Ali Khan. He was born in 1913 trained by his uncle and father in law, Mian Maula Bakhsh and migrated with him to the rich town of Lyallpur in his youth on the invitation of a wealthy Sikh patron. This was a smooth transition after the loss of princely patronage. Till the time of Partition the family performed in traditional settings before highly select audiences cultivating interest in the rich genres of alap and dhrupad. 

The departure at the time of Partition to India of Sardar Harcharan Singh left the family of these great dhrupad singers to the vagaries of chance, and after the exhaustion of funds and savings had to turn to the official media with whom they had some success in the early fifties due to the personal interest of the Radio Pakistan Director General Z.A.Bukhari. After Bukhari, the family was left without any support from the media and was mainly supported by the younger son's (Malikzada Muhammad Hafeez Khan) employment with government and the private sector in non-musical capacities. The family however continued its daily practice of music and also taught pupils and performed whenever possible.

This resulted in the brothers Malikzada Muhammad Afzal Khan and Malikzada Muhammad Hafeez Khan springing into prominence. Their resurgence also coincides with the resurgence of interest in dhurpad the oldest extant genre of music in our tradition on the Indo-Pak sub continent. The duo has travelled and performed abroad, has evoked considerable research interest and despite all possible opposition from the official media and its attempts at artificial reinterpretation of cultural heritage to suit vested interests, continues to flourish and transmit its rich knowledge of music to pupils in the family and outside the family. It also has attracted foreigners who are in training in Lahore where the family’s main proponent Malikzada Muhammad Hafeez Khan resides. The example adequately indicates that such strong forces cannot be diverted and manipulated easily. It also indicates that despite all the criticism levelled against the modern media (even by the orthodox musicians) it is a liberating force which has provided some support to even very esoteric art forms by the general liberation that it has injected in the patronage and propagation structures.

(Music in Pakistan - The Story of Five Decades by Khalid Manzoor Basra)

                  Track Listing:

01   Adana Bahar

02   Hussaini

03   Mian ki Malhar

04   Multani

Listen here.

Dhrupad Samrat: Pandit Ram Chatur Mallik (Reupped)

Maithili Krishna and flute (north Bihar)

This album of a concert in Brindavan is powerful medicine.  The singer, Pandit Ram Chatur Mallik, is 80 years old but his voice is as strong and as authoritative as a man’s a half a century younger. It is deep yet playful and agile. He sings secret ragas of his family. Composed and polished and handed down for as long as the grandfathers have sung, even before they were appointed as the Maharaja’s court musicians.  In between the sets the old man recites the verse he is about to sing in a crisp eastern Maithili Hindi.

            My beloved has not come home, o friend

            How shall I remain patient?

            In my blossoming youth the separation tortures me

            How shall I endure day and night?

In an era where Indian music has adapted itself to modern age and changed its face to a degree which was unthinkable only a few decades ago Ram Chatur Mallik remains one of the few legendary figures of the past—a past in which musicians were performing only for a selected few who could either elevate them to a status almost equal to that of an Emperor or otherwise reduce them to that of a mere servant, if not worse. This was the age of the maharajas, the ruling chiefs and landowners who regraded it as a mark of distinction to ornament their courts and sessions with outstanding musicians. They had to prove their value in the face of stiff and uncompromising competition. Cheating was not possible as the audience mostly consisted of people who knew the music by heart, often performed it themselves, and had to be constantly no only entertained, but again and again, challenged and surprised to acknowledge the superiority of a musician.  It was not rare for concerts, even of great artists to be interrupted mercilessly if they happened not to be up to the mark. There was no dearth of musicians in all the different styles who moved around all the formal and informal gatherings, constantly trying to surpass each other. Music was a daily routine, inseparable from the activities of the courts. 

Ram Chatur Mallik, the last great court singer of Darbhanga, in northern Bihar, has seen it all and has sung for all of them. Darbhanga was one of the richest princely states, and the late Maharajadiraj Kameshwar Singh owned a fleet of private airplanes, flocks of race dogs, hundreds of elephants, sent his laundry to Paris and invited the Indian and British nobility to tiger hunts and games of polo and tennis. Selected members of the court, among them Ram Chatur Mallik, were taken on trips around the world for which drinking water was supplied from India.

Ram Chatur Mallik was a close personal companion of Raja Bahadur Bishweshwar Singh the young brother of the Maharaja. He was a musician himself and devoted his life to the pursuance of the art. The stars of the Indian music world were his regular guests and Ram Chatur Mallik proved to be the match not only in the ancient dhrupad style, but also in khyal and above all in the romantic thumri. He was a close friend of Ustad Amir Khan and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.

Pt. Ram Chatur Mallik

His own heritage has been the austere dhrupad, coming to him through his forefathers Radhakrishna and Kataram, who had arrived in Darbhanga towards the end of the 18^th century. They had studied their art from Bhupat Khan, descendant of Tansen, the famous singer of medieval Indian history. In 1785 a terrible drought paralyzed north Bihar. Madhav Singh, the rule of Tirhut, as the area was called at the time, asked the two brothers to invoke rain through a magical performance of Raga Malhar. History tells that a downpour so heavy that the two singers were immersed up to their chests, began immediately. Madhav Singh erected a marker that can be seen to this day in front of a Kali temple in the town.  The village of Amta and the surrounding area were donated to the brothers by the Raja. The brothers adopted the title, ‘mallik’ (landowner/lord) and the family has lived there in service to the royal family ever since.

Ram Chatur Mallik was born in Amta in 1902. At the age of 5 he astonished his elders by repeating a musical composition line for line without having any previous training. From them on his destiny was sealed. He followed in his father’s footsteps as the most prominent singer of Darbhanga court.  Besides from his father, he received training from his fathers mentor, Kshitipal Mallik, considered the most brilliant singer of his age.  He went on reap every award the Indian state could give but appreciated his audience’s name for him, Dhrupad Samrat (Emperor of the Dhrupad) the most.  He died in 1990.

The recordings on tonight’s post were made in 1982 at a concert in Brindavan, the home of Krishna and the dhrupad. He is supported by his grandnephew and disciple, Abhay Narayan Mallik and Purushottam Das on pakhawaj.

(from the liner notes)

Track Listing:

01.  Vinod: Alap

02.  Vinod: Dhrupad

03.Sindura

04.  Paraj

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Intermission at Picture Palace: Sunil Ganguly

Every Saturday morning between the age of 10 and 17, during the school year, my friends and I would hike down through the bazar of Mussoorie, (Queen of Hills, as the Indian Tourism Promotion Board used to refer to this once grand Raj hill station) and see a movie. An old American or English action picture at Rialto. The latest Rajesh Khanna melodrama at Picture Palace.

Waiting for the film to start

As we waited for the film to start and at intermission the cinema’s management would put on a record of some pop music, more often than not the same record played over and over for several months at a time.  Cliff Richards was popular as was, in the early 70s, The Ballad of John and Yoko.

Another sound that caressed our ears was a sweet Hawaiian guitar that sounded both foreign and Indian, contemporary and timeless. Cool and slightly weird.  I never knew who this was, and at the time, who cared? It was just music holding our attention until the lights dimmed and John Wayne or Richard Burton or Dev Anand lit up the screen.

As Fate would have it that strange, alluring ‘Intermission’ sound has come back to me by way of a record I picked up recently from a new old friend in Allahabad.  The music was that of the electric guitarist Sunil Ganguly, another unsung hero of Indian pop music.

Born (1940) in the far-eastern Indian State of Tripura, Ganguly, studied singing and classical music with various Pandits  before settling on his instrument of choice, the electrified Hawaiian guitar.  At a time when such instruments were exotic and hardly mainstream, Ganguly, developed a style of playing the instrument that was highly influential. Many Indian guitarists, including Brijbhusan Kabra, Van Shipley and others credit Ganguly with being a huge influence. And indeed, if you are familiar at all with Indian guitar playing prior to the cassette-led music revolution of the early 1980s you’ll agree that Ganguly’s modus has come to define the genre. 

As with all popular music artists he had to play covers and interpretations of popular Hindi film songs but Ganguly also brought his foundations in classical Hindustani music to the instrument and made several recordings of Indian classical music.

This record, shared tonight, is a rare treat and has one of the best titles of all time: Sunil Ganguly Plays Reminiscental Melodies of Lata Mangeskhar from Hindi Films.    

Ganguly’s music has been followed by a small cult of collectors and music lovers over the years and most recently, he has featured on an excellent compilation by Sublime Frequencies called Bollywood Steel Guitar.  However, full original recordings of his are difficult to locate.  It is another wonderful star of the glittering Indian universe of popular music. An LP issued in 1975 with, one wonders, what audience in mind?  The artwork is appealing. Sunil's name all mod colours and  a slightly off kilter photo perspective of what looks like an early Moog Synthesizer. Where is the electric guitar? Apparently, there were more than cinema hall managers who liked this sort of music! 


I love it!

So crack open a packet of mango papad, sip on your Fanta, sit back and let the lights dim. Ladies and gentlemen, the unique, sublime guitar musings of Tripura’s Sunil Ganguly.

Track Listing:

01 Rajnigandha Phool Tumhare

02 Rahen Na Rahen

03 Aja Re Pardesi.

04 Bada Natkhat Hai Yeh

05 Yun Hasraton ke Daagh

06 Allah Tero Nam Ishwar

07 Tera Bina Zindagi Se

08 Mad Bhari Yeh Hawaen

09 Hum Nahin Mataa-e-Koocha-o-bazar Ki

10 Na Jiya Lage Na

11 Megha Chhaye Adhi Raat

12 Raton Ke Saye

Listen here.

That Evening in Paris: Farewell Shammi Kapoor

Shamsher 'Shammi' Raj Kapoor
1931-2011

Shamsher  ‘Shammi’ Raj Kapoor, one of India’s best loved and most popular actors passed away of kidney failure, in Mumbai, on August 15^th, the 64^th anniversary of India’s independence from Britain.

A member of Indian cinema’s royal Kapoor family, (his father Prithviraj was one of India’s greatest thespians and his brothers, Raj and Shashi, megastars of Bollywood), Shammi paid his dues as a low paid actor in theatre and struggled to be accepted as a film idol. His early films were generally poorly regarded and it was only in 1957 with Tumsa Nahin Dekha that his career took a star turn.  Blessed with the stunning handsome Kapoor looks he fancied himself an Indian Elvis and carved out a unique place in audiences’ hearts as a swaggering, fun loving, irrepressible and adorable leading man.

Shammi Kapoor took a greater interest than most of his peers in the music of the films in which he acted. He often selected the songs and worked with music directors and composers to create a perfect union of the audio and visual. To that end he formed a long-standing relationship with Mohammad Rafi the dominant male playback singer of Hindi film throughout the 50s and 60s.  Their work together is often regarded by fans as inseparable: Rafi’s voice was Shammi’s and Shammi’s hits were Rafi’s as well. Rafi’s ability to express a huge range of emotion with his voice, from drunkenness, to anger, to infatuation, to sly humour and spiritual devotion gave a boost to Shammi’s career in a way that no other playback singer was able to.

The internet is full of tributes tonight for the passing of this man who was so loved for his screen antics but also for his humanity and humor off the set. A couple of the best are the Guardian’s obituary and a loving Pakistani fan’s.

So in honor of the passing of another of the three great Kapoor brothers (only Shashi survives) the Washerman’s Dog posts tonight a collection of some of the most loved Shammi songs, rendered by his musical alter ego, Mohammad Rafi.  These songs are full of humor, joy and dance beats and reflect early attempts to include a rock ‘n roll ethic into Hindi film music.  Enjoy and pay tribute!

            Track Listing:

       01 Baar Baar Dekho

02 Dil Deke Dekho

03 Tumsa Nahin Dekha

04 Dhadakne Lagta Hai

05 Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe

06 Taarif Karoon Kya Uski

07 Lal Chhadi

08 Aye Gulbadan

09 An Evening In Paris

10 Main Hoon Pyar Tera

11 Kis Kiss Kisse Pyar Karoon

12 Badan Pe Sitare

13 Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyar Ke Charche

14 Tumse Achha Kaun Hai

Listen here.

And here is a youtube clip of the great man in his 1967 hit, An Evening in Paris.

The Revolution will be Taped: Ghulam Ali

The problem with fishing trips, especially to warm languid climates where one wakes each morning and nods off each evening to gentle Andaman Sea zephyrs is that they must end. And so it is with mixed feelings that the Washerman’s Dog returns to more regular music sharing.

Tonight, the focus is on a fine album of Punjabi ghazals, folk and sufi music performed by Ghulam Ali. There are a number of interesting aspects about this record, other than the high standard of Ali’s performance and the strong, well-selected material.

The album was released in 1981 at a time when Ghulam Ali was not yet a massively popular artist in India. He was beloved by critics and a small audience of music ‘aficionados’ but was still not a name that rolled off the lips of the average music-listening public.  And the selection of songs included on this record reflect a rather ‘conservative’ and safe approach: songs based on traditional Punjabi folk-epics and one of its greatest mystical poets, Waris Shah. There are none of the more romantic, more contemporary ghazals that have distinguished most of Ghulam Ali’s career. And which has made him so well loved in India as at home in Pakistan.  No doubt the record company ‘suits’ felt that this staid approach was the appropriate way to promote Pakistani music in India.

Until the 1983, the sorts of popular music, other than film music, that were made available to the average music lover in India were very limited. Music was available only on LPs that could be played only on record players which about 0.1% of the Indian public owned! If you listened to the radio you got film music and some classical. If you wanted popular music you had to tune into Radio Ceylon! All India Radio was extremely slow to open its radio waves to popular music that did not meet its staid conservative heavily politicised agenda. One or two major international record labels controlled the music market and if they weren’t interested in your type of music (language, genre, style) then you simply didn’t get it. Maybe at the temple or in the home but not on the radio or in the record shop.

Between 1983-6 this virtually totalitarian system was blown completely apart by the advent of a simple technology: the cassette tape. Suddenly, and literally almost overnight, small producers, local artists, singing in every possible language and style, were able to record, distribute and create huge audiences for non-film based and classical music which the monopolistic record companies preferred. And the ‘genre’ that led as well as benefited from this revolution (as equally earth-shattering as the emergence of Elvis Presley in 1950s USA) was the ghazal. 

So this record is interesting because it is one of the outstanding South Asian singers of our time singing some great Punjabi songs on the cusp of the collapse of the contemporary Indian popular music industry. And on the very edge of the dawning of a new age of non-film popular music of which he himself would soon become a superstar.

            Track Listing:

01.  Koi Hosh Nahin Deewana Main

02.  Ranjha Jogra Ban Aaaya

03.  Uth Gaye Gavando Yaar

04.  Kyon Chan Vekhan

05.  Main Tere Qurban Ve

06.  Heer Waris Shah

Listen here.

Vietnam raw: Roady music (Link restored)

Hello .
The fishing trip is going well.


Internet is dodgy in the tropics so next few posts will be quick with minimal commentary or photos.
As current coordinates are SEAsia today's post is from the region.

This music I got as novelty but was surprised to learn just how much fun and pleasurable much of it is.

Live "field recordings" from the streets of Vietnam. Itinerant singers from the villages- garage rock based on American pop, sidewalk pop music blasted through burnt out amplifiers!  Mostly unclassified street music.

For anyone who has spent time in Asia or the developing world more generally,this sort of "raw" music is what makes a wander through the bazar, souk or market stand out.

Enjoy, with a special of the hat to Marti who loves this part of the world!

Listen here

Gone fishing. Back soon.