Saturday, December 10, 2011

59th Sawai: Ustad Amjad Ali Khan

Tabla: Vijay Ghate

Ustadji started his performance with raga Ganesh Kalyan - his own creation. After a brief alap Ustadji played a dhun in Kehrwa (Bhajani theka). The only major difference I could spot between Yaman Kalyan and Ganesh Kalyan is the occasional use of komal nishad in addition to shuddha nishad. I also noticed some unusual phrases but I could not understand enough details to write about them. The gat in Kehrwa was followed by a gat in drut Ektaal.

Ustadji continued his performance with a dhun in raga Zilla Kafi - set to Deepchandi taal - played very beautifully. The laykari was done very skilfully.

After this Ustadji played a folk dhun composed by Ravindranath Tagore.

Ustadji continued his performance with a Mishra Bhairavi dhun in Dadra which also included a ragamala and concluded with a Bhairavi gat in drut Teental. The clarity and tunefulness of his playing even at a ver fast lay was commendable.


Vijay Ghate's tabla sangat was excellent as usual.

Unfortunately due to time constraints Ustadji had to cut his performance short and the audience including me were left hungry for the elaborate rendering of one raga.

Overall a masterly performance by a maestro.

- Bansuriwala

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