A comment some months ago by Nandu Dhaneshwar in his review of a concert of Ustad Aslam Hussain Khan was interesting. In his favorable revew, after describing the rare ragas that Khansaheb sang he said something to the effect that ” finally, at the end Khansaheb sang something that we could understand, sohini”. For some, like me, the chance to hear some of these treasures that Khansaheb (and others too of course) has in his repertoire is wonderful. Others look at it as eccentricity, the attitude being- there is so much depth in the common repertoire why sing something that noone has heard before. The general public wants to hear the current 40-50 popular ragas. That list changes. Abhogi is rarely heard anymore (possibly because of Amir Khans influence waning over time). Maybe because of Gajananbuas influence standard Gwalior fare (goud malhar, chayanat, kamod etc.) seems more prominent than some years ago when Bhimsen joshis with his very limited repertoire was the undisputed no.1 singer. This is only vague speculation, please……..I might well be completely wrong! Thanks to Ulhas Kashalkar many less known ragas and alternative variations on ragas (lalit, ramkeli) are heard. He does not ignore the popular ragas either. Maybe it is like Elton Jon, helpless facing the audience demand for him to sing his old hits that he really doesn’t like instead of the new songs from his new cd.
Hello James, I don’t know if you remember me from Madison. It has been a long time and it is great to find you in Bombay, with a music blog no less!
best wishes
sanjay
hi Sanjay, Your name is very familiar but I just cannot place you. Remind me. Thanks for getting in touch. Where do you live, etc. ? James
Your comments on Ustad Aslam Khan made me go back to some old cassettes I have by him. Marvelous singing, so unlike the standardized khayal we hear everywhere. I put one of the cassettes on my blog for those who want to hear the voice that goes with the words:
http://lalogiqueinterne.blogspot.com/2010/11/ustad-aslam-khan.html
Do continue with Bombay news.
btw. we have friends in common between Toulouse and Belgium!
Hans Bosma
Hi Hans, Thanks for that! Aslam Khansaheb is a very exciting performer and fountain of knowledge who has not gotten the recognition he deserves. It is a mystery to me, but maybe has to do with his also singing ghazals which is somehow seen as being a deviation from classical purity. I have also seen this with Asha Khadilkar, a wonderful classical singer whose career suffers because she also sings marathi natyasangeet. Perhaps his career suffers too because he chooses to sing unusual ragas- the public prefers ragas they are familiar with. Thank you for providing this and other gems on your site. I will add it to my links if you don’t mind. James
I just checked on the statistics of my blog: hundreds and hundreds of visitors for the Nikhil Banerjee links, quite a few for Vilayat Khan, some rare surfers who got astary and landed on KG Ginde’s link. As to Aslam Khan, he is easily beaten by the posts I did on current art exhibitions around here. This will not keep me from posting other music by him later on however!
Btw. I would be proud to have a link to my blog on yours.
Hans Bosma