I went to a program on the occasion of Ustad Azmat Hussain Khan’s birth centennary at karnatak sangh this morning. I thought I was quite late arriving near 11 a.m. Although the program was supposed to have started at 9a.m. the first singer, Nandu Dhaneshwar was still in his vilambit khayal. Notable was the absence of any amplification of the tambouras. With no harmonium, just violin, the vocal was quite naked, and not very appealing. Next was a sitar player I hadn’t heard before, Ravindra Chary. He was really excellent. Again, although the sound quality was very good, the tabla was too loud in relation to the sitar. I do not know if it was because the tabla player is quite high profile, Fazal Qureshi, or what reason it could have been, that delicate balance is too important to ignore. I also wished he had not played his vilambit gat at all and gone straight to his madhya lay composition. Time was short. Ustad Aslam Hussain Khan sang laccha lalit, raga and composition credited to alladiya Khan (ahmed piya). This variation on lalit has traces of rags laccha, shubra gouri, hindol and malashri. After this he sang two bandishes in husseini todi. It was a short program but he sang beautifully. Kishori Amonkar attended the program, a rare occurrence probably in recognition of her ties with Ruby Mansion via one of her gurus, Anwar Hussain Khan, and the atrauli- jaipur gharana connection with Azmat Hussain Khan. She was of course a neighbor when she was living in Gowalia Tank with her mother.
