Udaipur, on November 11, 2011 hosted a concert on Classical Music in memory of the legendary Tabla wizard, the Late Pandit Chatur Lal who was the first ever to introduce the Jugalbandi of Tabla with Western Music. The Chief Guests of the event were Charanjit Chatur Lal, son of Pandit Chatur Lal and his wife Smriti Lal.

 The Event was organized by the Pandit Chatur Lal Memorial Society and Vedanta (Hindustan Zinc Ltd), in association with The West Zone Cultural Centre and hosted through an 8 hour mesmerizing evening at the Shilp Gram, Udaipur.

Highly acclaimed Classical Music and Sufi artistes viz. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma (Santoor), Pandit Yogesh Shamsi, Pandit Sudhir Pandey, Pranshu Chaturlal, Rashid Mustafa (Tabla); Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia (Flute); Dr. Prakash Sangeet (Vocal); Warsi Brothers (Sufi); Jayant Phadke (Harmonium); Siddharth Sarkar (Violin); Preeti Jhanve (Tanpura), etc.

Vilas Jhanve told UT that such events help promote Indian Classical music and encourage Indian Culture and Music, which unfortunately is losing its hold among people, especially the younger generation.

Vachaspati

The event commenced at 6pm amidst a gathering of over 500 spectators and music lovers who came to witness the event. Dr. Prakash Sangeet mesmerized the audience into silence with a fantastic performance on Raag Vachaspati, where he gave voice to “Yaar Kaaro Momo Naav” and “Chatur Sudhar Balma”. He was supported by Jayant Phadke on the Harmonium and Sudhir Pandey on Tabla.

Mesmerizing Santoor Vaadan

Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, the legendary and world renowned Santoor artiste spoke at length to the audience on the participatory congruence, where he lightheartedly mentioned that the “ringtones” of the mobiles and “crying” of little children in the audience did not match with his ‘Raagas’; this bought the audience into willing silence and motivated control.

He also educated the audience on the meaning of “Alaap’ as a building block towards a combined final performance. He commenced his offering to the occasion through an Alaap of Raag Jhinjhoti.

The Alaap got the audience into a hypnotic mode and the completion of the Alaap was met by a thunderous applause. The performance of the Raag then commenced through a splendid Jugalbandi between Santoor and Tabla; where he was accompanied on the Tabla by Yogesh Shamsi, one of the senior disciples of the legendary Late Ustad Allahrakha Khan.

Yogesh Shamsi, said that this was his second visit to Udaipur after a gap of two decades and he was enthralled by the beauty of the city and the infrastructure developments that have taken place over the period.

What made this performance interesting was the presence of Takahiro Arai from Japan, on Tanpura. Takahiro is a disciple of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma.

in photo: Akhtar Bohra with Takahiro Arai

In his discussion with UT, Takahiro said that he has been learning under Panditji since the last four years, prior to which, he was learning the Santoor under a senior disciple of Panditji in Japan. Born and bought up in Saitama, near Tokyo, Takahiro spoke clear Hindi and his love for music started at an early age, around 10 years ago, when he started playing Jazz Drums in Japan.

Spellbound under the Melodious Flute

The audience had barely come out of the mesmerizing Santoor performance, then they were again held spell bound under the melodious offering by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, our own renowned Flute virtuoso; who is also the proud holder of the Padma Bhushan. Pandit Chaurasia began with Alaap of Raag Kirwani.

This was followed by compositions of Roopak Taal and Teen Taal, where he was provided exceptional support by Pranshu Chatur Lal (grandson of Late Pandit Chatur Lal) and Rashid Mustafa on the Tabla, Siddharth Sarkar on the Violin and Preeti Jhanve on the Tanpura.

Sufi Qawwali

A break of 20 minutes was followed by an enthralling Sufiyana Qawwali performance by the Warsi brothers, Nazzeer Ahmed Khan Warsi and Naseer Ahmed Khan Warsi from Hyderabad. This performance commenced through a Naath by Ameer Khusro, “Mann Qunto Maula” followed by “Aale Nabi Wa Salwatullah” and a Bhajan of Sant Kabirdas, “Ek Dil ko doosre se wabasta bana”. The public demanded “O Lal Meri” and “Dhama Dham Mast Kalandar” from the brothers, which was duly performed by them to the immense pleasure of the audience.

About Pandit Chaturlal

Pandit Chatur Lal, the Tabla wizard was born in Udaipur in 1925 and toured the globe with legendary proponents of Indian Classical Music, Ravi Shankar, Aashish Khan, Vasant Rai and Ali Akbar Khan, which helped popularize the Table in Western Countries.

Charanji Chatur Lal, in his talk with UT, informed that Pandit Chatur Lal produced the first fusion of the Tabla with the Lord of Trump, the Late Sir Philip Jones in 1957. He further informed that there is a museum in the name of Pandit Chatur Lal in New Delhi and a road in his name leads to the museum. An award was instituted on 16^th April 2011 in the honor of Pandit Chatur Lal.