Tranquility

What better way to end the week than with a glorious evening of music and song?

Pandit Habib Khan, who is also my teacher, gave a fundraiser concert along with Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri last night at the McAfee Center for Performing Arts in Saratoga.

Pt. Habit Khan started the evening with Raga Marwa on his Sitar. The swara set for this raag is SrGmPDN and a has a lot of dominance on r and D which in consonance brings about a delightful melodic effect. The pancham is skipped for this lovely evening raag. Panditji began with an aalap which is the introductory piece, oft improvised, but within the constructs of the raaga. His voice was a little hoarse, as he was a little ill, but he more than made up for it with his skill on the Sitar.

Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri then joined in on the tabla. What a treat it was to see this jugalbandhi between two such accomplished musicians and the playful banter they exhibited through their instruments. Their fingers just danced on the sitar and tabla and the result was an exquisite 1.5 hours.

Our plan was to leave during the 7pm break. Sitting for long periods and controlling this easily excitable body are an ongoing challenge for me. Then we found out that a number of students from the Saraswati Gurukul, which is Pt. Habit Khan's school, were performing after the break. I was introduced to some of them as well by Sanjanaji and Rubyji. Well this was something not to be missed - I really did want to see this portion too and decided to try to stay for the 2nd half. After a quick dash home for dinner, we were back.

The performance by the Shivaranjani Orchestra did not fail to live upto its promise. 24 in all - 12 vocalists, 6 on sitar, 4 on tabla, 2 on sax, 1 on flute. And Pt. Habit Khan of course conducting and sometimes playing a little tabla too. It was his composition, starting with raaga Shivaranjani, leading to Raaga Bhopali and Raaga Bhairavi.

A Sarva-Dharma treat it was for sure - Gayatri Mantra and Ganapati Bapa in the same breath as Buddha, Allah and Guru Nanak. Lyrics from a few old melodic Hindi songs, the Sufi Mast Kalandar and Meera and Radha's longing for Krishna all combined to make it lively performance. Interspersed into the composition were of course individual performances. All my teachers were there - Rekhaji, Sanjanaji, Rubyji and Davidji. Davidji skillfully alternated between both his sitar and tabla. He usually uses a tabla in class so it was interesting to see him play a totally different instrument.

I was on a music high by the 2nd half. Then a strong smell of smoke in the auditorium during the last half hour started, adding a total discordant note and had a not so positive effect on my senses. I may have been somewhat noisy there for a bit.

Overall a delightful evening.