Musical Year in Review - that's too formal!

Musically speaking, the past year was the most spectacular for me so far. It started with an unforgettable concert on January 15 at the revered Bhanukul in Dewas. For those who don’t know, that’s where the legendary Kumarji lived. Totally unforgettable morning where I heard people like Pt. Satyasheel Deshpande, Ravi Date, and Ashok Vajpeyee speak fondly about Kumarji and his music. After the concert I got the opportunity to exchange a couple of sentences with the extremely talented Bhuvanesh Komkali, giving people around me the impression that I know him well. Nothing can be farther from the truth. However, the star of that morning was undoubtedly Kalapini Tai. It was amazing to see her in her natural habitat, so to speak. Saw Mayank Bedekar perform on the tabla for the first time there, too.

Towards the end of March (I think 27^th or 28^th) came another beautiful thingy at Sanghi Smriti in Indore. Kalapini Tai sang Nand that evening. My brother Ulhas and I already are fans of this particular raga. Ulhas has an interesting take on the different renderings of Nand that we have heard so far. He says that while Vasundharabai sings it like a homely mother caressing her child, Vasantrao Deshpande presents it like the dada of the locality, but in a good way. Kishori Amonkar shows us how Nand can be presented like a queen of the realm, and Amir Khan sahib is the male counterpart of this royal dynasty. The rendering of Rajan and Sajan Mishra is like that of a distant relative who lives abroad but has kept regularly in touch for decades. Kalapini Tai’s Nand is difficult to describe in these terms. Of course its roots are well-known, but I think I’ll have to listen to it more.

Then came another magnificent concert at Indore, this time by Dhananjay Joshi, accompanied by Mayank again. I went crazy at his “Ratihoon sundar madan manjiri” that day. Just beautiful. I stayed crazy for the next week or so. Then my very good What’sApp friend and Mayank’s father Mr. Milind Bedekar very kindly sent me a recording of that morning's concert. Listening to it again and again never fails to amaze me.

In August there was this amazing, amazing concert at Ujjain – at the Mahakal Mandir. Readers of this blog have already read my immediate reactions to that evening. I don’t want to say any more.

In September I was fortunate enough to attend a concert by Rajan and Sajan Mishra at Ujjain. Shyam Kalyan was the raga of the evening. Another spell-binding performance by the two masters.

Over the year I also listened to Rahul Deshpande’s audio blogs. These are freely available for streaming if you have an Apple product. Just go to Podcasts and search for the audio blog. Great sound quality and free to stream. I also gave him regular feedback on those audio blogs via individual messages on Twitter. Oh, the audacity of this insignificant member of the audience.

So, in all it was a fine year for the ear. I think I have grown by leaps in this period when it comes to listening skills. I hope to keep progressing as I get more opportunities to listen. I hope to continue to write the first line of the blog year after year. That’s greed. Yes.