My first ghazal concert finally happens...not in my own town:)

Just a few months back me and Tony decided that it was too early to sing ghazal yet- a lot more riyaaz was needed and a lot lot more of polishing the notes, making them blend into the music, the essence of the poetry and the nuances of ghazal. So with that in mind we decided I should be working on it for the next six months at least and after that we would be ready to showcase our effort.

But then this is not just the effort of Tony with me, but also Naseem bhai, Mishraji and scores of others...needless to say papa. So when out of the blue when Geeti-ji called to say she was inviting me for two concerts, I hoped it was not ghazal yet. In any case, throat was out-of-order, as usual in the winter time in faridabad. Even in the other two concerts that I had in January and Feb, this was the state of affairs. But no...ghazal was very much a part of her agenda.

So I brought out all the ghazals I could have sung- they turned out to be quite a few actually. But realizing that Nepal may not be the Lucknow sort of Urdu listeners, I left several things out- including the difficult poetry ones. I did on my part choose the simpler poetry. And then there was the additional problem of my tanpura- I cannot yet sing without it, though I have tried. Either I am deaf or something is the matter with me- so Tony insisted that ghazal is all about communicating with the audiences and I cannot be having the tanpura stand there like a wall!!

So this is the final outcome- in the first ghazal concert I sang about nine ghazals; all new ones, most of them papa's compositions (a bit unusual for me) and I was well received. In fact I do remember how warmly I have been heard in smaller mehfils earlier...oh how I wish there had been a sarangi and a compere here. Maybe soon someday there would be, in other concerts.

That reminds me that I have to look for another sarangi person as the one recommended by Tansen never came over for riyaaz. And yes, I have to call up Naseem bhai too and share the outcome with him.
My only sense of loss was the wooden faces of listeners...ghazal is so much about communication, and if you see in front of you people who are sitting as though brooding over their life's sorrow, it just takes away from the spirit. And the other problem I encountered was the dimmed light around the hall- was I expected to communicate with dark silhouettes?! Organizers can be so ignorant...or maybe I take everything in my stride, more than I would at an older age, when I am more at home in my music and surer of my accompanying artists.

Learning a few new ones- first time Ghalib for me

 خط کوئی پیار بھرا لکھ دینا - by Bani
This is one of the new ghazals I am working on these days for the upcoming concert. I am looking forward to this as this is my first real concert of ghazal in front of a live audience on a real concert stage when I will be singing my original singing and not someone else's renditions.

Reminds me how long ago I sang the songs of Noorjahan and Suraiya. They were great programs too, but somehow because I shared them with other artists, the experience was altogether an insipid one. In fact at the time of the second program, though it was received very well by people in the India International Centre, I had decided to never sing someone else's music again. So the next time I was approached to sing Geeta Dutt, I just declined!.

For this concert I am also working on at least two new ghazals by Ghalib. Hope to write a separate entry about that later. The Ghalib ghazals are

دل ہی تو ہے نا سنگ-و-خشت ، درد سے بھر نا اے کیوں
( dil hi to hai, na sang-o-khisht, dard se bhar naa aaye kyon)


and
ہر ایک بات پی کہتے ہو تم کے تو کیا ہے
(har ek baat pe kehte ho tum ke tu kya hai)

Alim

Perhaps the first ghazal that I ever sang was Alim Lakhnawi's

Duniya ko tune ishq ke qabil banaa diya

 دنیا کو تونے عشق کے قابل  بنا دیا
جس

This was composed by my father and the musical scale is almost a pentatonic one- the melody is  a very simple, beautiful one. I love to sing this ghazal and the poetry is very deep, beautiful and touching.

It all started with Kabir actually

Long, long back...
I was just learning to dabble with composition a little bit- a colleague of my father who also taught at the Zakir Hussain College with him, Naseem Ajmal, heard my recorded voice singing Kabir. He is a poet in the Urdu language (in addition to being a professor of Mathematics!) and has a natural flair for discerning voices. He pointed out to my father that 'this voice is appropriate for singing ghazal'.. Father came home and shared the sentiment. For me this was by far the most unthinkable thing that could be.

But Naseem bhai was not giving up so easily. Somehow or the other I found myself in his presence. And there he was trying to explain to me the significance of Urdu poetry, the angst, the suffering it conveys and that not all of it is about wine and women- the manner I thought with my own limited exposure to the genre. The limitation of the exposure incidentally did not stem from my family- where ghazal was by far the most popular music heard and sung!! It was my own bias, which seemed to view ghazal as a lesser sibling of the classical music genre of khayal.

Even earlier than that one of my teachers, Dinanath-ji had been very keen that I should be singing ghazal and punjabi folk music- but I had an aversion to them then. The ghazals he sang himself were typically the sort of ghazals that talk of wine, women, pining and so forth- and I found that tedious, stereotyped and way beyond my league. But that was then.

Entry Naseem bhai, long discussions and lo and behold...my worldview expanded. And today, nearly eight years later I know that ghazal is the one thing that I really want to sing, perform and make a contribution in the world of music if I may.