N CPA and CITI had organised a spectacular percussion ensemble with the world renowned tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain in Bangalore recently for their annual musical event Aadi-Anant.
The exuberant percussion ensemble also comprised of Anantha Krishnan on the mridangam , Navin Sharma on the dholak and Sabir Khan on the sarangi. The legendary Ustad Zakir Hussain commenced the music recital with a magnificent tabla solo . He was accompanied on the sarangi by the young Sabir Khan, the son and disciple of the illustrious sarangi exponent late Ustad Sultan Khan. Sabir Khan’s soulful melodic improvisations through an evocative ‘alaap’ sequence in the beautiful night melody raga Bageshree in the non-rhythmic ‘anibaddh’ mode served as an exquisite prelude to the sonorous tabla solo that followed later. Ustad Zakir Hussain started his tabla solo with an impressive ‘Peshkar’ which could be described as the ‘alaap’ of his tabla solo. Subsequently, he chose the most popular rhythmic sequence, teental, a rhythmic cycle of 16 beats for a detailed exposition. As the sarangi artiste Sabir Khan explored the melodic possibilities of raga Bageshree in this rhythmic cycle, Ustad Zakir Hussain commenced on a fascinating exploration of the myriad dimensions of teental through sophisticated kaydas marking the incremental progression of the tabla solo. His kayadas had great stylistic elegance and revealed his capacity to express a wide variety of moods and a splendid variety of musical colours and flavours.
A thematic development was achieved through a series of variations known as the ‘palta’. Imperceptibly the onomatopoeic mnemonic syllables of ‘bols’ cascaded into ‘relas’ of great velocity , executed with astonishing skill and agility, leaving the connoisseurs in a state of amazement and rhapsody. Each section of Ustad’s solo was marked by scintillating “tihais” of numerous kinds such as “Bedum Tihais” and “Layakariyukta Tihais” . Ustad Zakir Hussain enchanted the connoisseurs with a breathtaking execution of challenging “Chakradhar” compositions like “pharmayishi chakradhar” and “kamaal chakradhar” , embellishing his delineation with arresting ‘tukdas’ , ‘mohras’ and ‘parans’.
The Tabla solo evolved into a percussion ensemble with the entry of Navin Sharma , a disciple of late Ustad Allah Rakha on the dholak and Anantha Krishna on the mridangam. Vidwan Ananth Krishna elicited a huge applause from the audience for his exuberant ‘thani avarthanam’ in aditala. Reverberating ‘tihais’ executed in unison by the two talented percussionists alongside the great tabla virtuoso Ustad Zakir Hussain marked the conclusion of the unique recital.
K.S Vaishali
