Passing of the great maestro, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

This morning, I learned of the sad news that the great sarod maestro, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, has passed away. He was one of the all-time greats of Indian classical music, and was instrumental in bringing Indian classical music to the West. Here are a couple of excerpts from the press:

From DNA India:

Sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan died in San Francisco in the US today after a prolonged kidney ailment, according to a family friend here. Eighty-eight-year-old Khan died at his music centre at 10 am IST, Rabin Pal, the secretary of sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar, said. He is survived by wife Mary, three sons and a daughter.

Pal, a family friend of the maestro, said he was informed of Khan's death by the ustad's family in San Francisco. Khan's secretary in Kolkata, Ashish Roy, said the maestro was on dialysis and had been ailing for over four years. His condition had deteriorated in the last four months.

A recipient of the Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan, Khan had been a colossus in the world of Indian classical music for the last five decades. He became court musician for the maharaja of Jodhpur and continued for seven years, till his patron's death. The state of Jodhpur bestowed on him his title of "ustad".

At the request of violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, Khan visited the United States in 1955 and performed at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

He founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Kolkata in 1956. In 1965, he began teaching in USA, later opening a branch of his college there, and in Switzerland. In 1997, Khan performed at a programme in the United Nations to celebrate the 50th year of India's independence.

He also composed music for films, creating the musical score for Chetan Anand's Aandhiyan(1953), Merchant-Ivory productions' The Householder, Tapan Sinha's Khudita Pashan, Satyajit Ray's Devi and Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha.

Khan married thrice. His son, Ustad Aashis Khan, is a sarod artiste of repute. The maestro once said: "For us, as a family, music is like food. When you need it, you don't have to explain why, because it is the basis of life."

From The Hindu:

"Kolkata (PTI): Hailed by violinist Yehudi Menuhin as 'the greatest musician in the world', Sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan, who died on Friday, had many a first to his credit in taking Indian classical music to the West.

88-year-old Khan, who had settled down in San Francisco in the US, was admired by both Eastern as well as Western musicians for his brilliant compositions and his mastery of the 25-string instrument.

The illustrious son of Ustad Alauddin Khan, he was once described by Menuhin as 'the greatest musician in the world'. He was the first to cut a long play record of Indian classical music in the US and to give a sarod recital on American TV.

Khan was also the first Indian musician to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1991 and was nominated for Grammy Awards five time between 1970 to 1998.

Born on April 14, 1922 in Shibpur village of Comilla district, now in Bangladesh, Khan took up music at the age of three, learning vocal music from his father and percussion from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin.

His father also trained him in several other instruments, but Khan decided to concentrate on the sarod and on vocals.

A recipient of Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan, Khan gave his first public performance in Allahabad at the age 13 and made his first gramophone recording in Lucknow when he was in his early twenties."

Tabla at the Festival international de jazz de Montréal

For the past several years, because of touring or tabla workshops, I have tended to be out of town during the Montreal Jazz Festival. This year, I am here, so I am paying particular attention to the lineup. I thought it would be nice to do a rundown of all the tabla-related performances this summer. Unfortunately, I won't be performing tabla in the festival this year.

July 1, 2009 at 6pm

Erik Truffaz - Benares

Gesu, 1200 rue de Bleury

From the JazzFest program - "French trumpeter Erik Truffaz opens his three-night stand in the style of his triptych Rendez-vous, lining up high-calibre collaborations. In Benares, the first of three "cities" visited in this wholly original series, we're ushered into an Indian salon where Indrani and Apurba Mukherjee await us, alongside Truffaz and Malcolm Braff. Vocals, piano, trumpet and tablas conjure the clamour of an India bathed in dusky light, car horns and dust, in a rhythmic whirlwind of a fusion of the Middle-East and the western world."

July 2, 2009 at 6pm

Eric Truffaz - Mexico

Gesu, 1200 rue de Bleury

From the JazzFest program -"On the second stop of his musical pilgrimage, Erik Truffaz welcomes electronica artist Murcof, one of the most freespirited of his generation, to fold his airy rhythms around the trumpeter's soaring, dynamic runs. They engendered a longdistance exchange via the Internet, weaving a sonic tapestry true to Truffaz' boundless sense of invention and musical curiousity. It's a radical, impressionistic proposition; and here they are together, playing music enhanced by the percussion of Talvin Singh, unquestioned master of the tablas and the Asian underground sound."

Personally, I don't see the connection between Talvin and Mexico, but hey, why not?

July 4, 2009 at 9:30pm

Miles From India

Théâtre Maisonneuve, Place des Arts

From the JazzFest program -"Miles goes Indian… or vice-versa? The Festival presents another concert homage to the legend, this time with a major musical project spiced with a delicious touch of exoticism. Inspired by the double album of the same name, Miles from India is a musical fusion of Indian and American cultures. Two groups, one composed of elite Indian musicians, the other of American jazzmen who’ve previously collaborated with Miles, unite onstage for a Subcontinental, spiritual celebration of the master’s music."

Nicholas Payton • Trumpet

Robert Irving III • Keyboards

Bill Evans • Tenor Saxophone
R. Mahanthappa • Saxophones
Darry Jones • Bass
John Beasley • Keyboards
Badal Roy • Tabla
U. Shrinivas • Mandolin
Lenny White • Drums
Ndugu Chancler • Percussions
Vince Wilburn • Drums
Anantha Krishnan • Mridangan
Hidayat Khan • Sitar
V.K. Raman • Flute/Vocal
Selvaganesh • Khanjira

July 9, 2009 at 10:30pm

Indo-Pak Coalition

Gesu, 1200 rue de Bleury

From the JazzFest program -"Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition is turning heads internationally in both the jazz and world music scenes. Rudresh, an innovative alto saxophonist, along with guitar virtuoso Rez Abbasi and tabla star Dan Weiss, blazes new trails into the future of jazz, synthesizing jazz with the astutely improvised musical forms of South Asia. Their debut album Apti, on innova Recordings, has received rave reviews in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Downbeat."

Dan Weiss is famous for his incredible Tintal Drumset Solo. It'll be nice to hear him on tabla.

Overall, quite a lot of tabla this year. If you attend any of the concerts, please post a review!

Symphonie du Sud-Ouest

From February to mid-April, I was involved in a very interesting project, the Symphonie du Sud-Ouest. This series of workshops on musical creativity and improvisation was initiated by guitarist/composer, Tim Brady. The project involved 20 musicians from the community at large; more specifically, those living in the south-west borough of the city of Montreal. Tim Brady, saxophonist Jean-Marc Bouchard (from the Quasar saxophone quartet), and myself met with the group every Wednesday night over the course of two months.

The participants were of mixed age and background, ranging from 16 years old to 70 years old, and with varying amounts of musical experience. Instrumentation included voice, piano, guitar, bass, electronic drumset, recorder, clarinet, and saxophone. My setup included tabla (of course!), darbouka, a couple of cymbals, and a milltone drum.

Each week, we would begin with a short presentation on a musical style or compositional technique. Topics included melody, harmony, orchestration, register/dynamics/density, improvisation, composition, theme-and-variation, Indian music (of course!), etc. Then, we would break off into our three groups, led by Tim (guitar and voice), Jean-Marc (winds), and myself (percussion). My group, though loosely labelled the percussion group, actually included African percussion, electronic drumset, slam poetry / vocal sound effects, piano, and my setup that I mentioned earlier.

Over the course of seven workshops, we worked on creating our symphony for a performance at the Maison de la culture Marie Ugay on April 15. The final structure was:

I - Group improvisation, directed by Tim

II - Guitar / voice group soli

III - Wind group soli

IV - Percussion group soli

V - Group "comprovisation", composed/directed by Tim

It was fun to see everyone push their musical boundaries far past their pre-conceived notions of music and music-making. The concert was well attended, and enthusiastically received. We are currently planning a second edition of the workshop, which should begin sometime in mid-June! If you are a resident of the Sud-Ouest borough of Montreal and would like to participate in the second edition of the Symphone du Sud-Ouest, please contact the Centre Culturel Georges-Vanier.

Upcoming performances

I thought I should mention some upcoming performances of my own, and others in the area. 

On May 2, Crudessence, Montreal's top "living food" restaurant is putting on a party called Bollywood Express. There will be a bollywood dance demonstration, and a DJ who will play all your favourite Bollywood tracks, so you can dance the night away. But before everyone gets down, Jake Charkey and I will open the evening with some North Indian classical music for tabla and cello. Yes, cello! How to explain it? It's just like Indian violin, but lower! :)

May 2, 2009 at 8:00pm

Espace Reunion, 6600 rue Hutchison

Montreal, Qc

Tickets cost 15$ in advance, 20$ at the door.

If you are in the Ottawa area, the Ragamala Association of Ottawa-Carleton is presenting a concert with sitarist Ustad Shahid Parvez, accompanied by Subhajyoti Guha on tabla. May 2 at 7:30pm. Kailash Mital Theatre, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario. Tickets are 20$ to 100$.

Later in the month of May, the Kabir Cultural Centre is presenting a semi-classical vocal concert with Shafkat Ali Khan, from Pakistan. He will be accompanied by Pandit Ramesh Mishra on sarangi. The concert is on May 16 at 7:30pm. DB Clarke Theatre, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, Montreal, Qc. Tickets are 15$-50$. Unfortunately, I will be missing this performance, as I will be in London, UK at the time, but I will fortunately be seeing Ramesh-ji in performance with Shri Sanju Sahai on May 9 at the South Bank Centre! Ramesh-ji is an incredible sarangi player, and I would highly reccomend attending whichever performance you are able to! :)

Mark June 12 and 13 in your calendars for Sudeshna Maulik's Crossroads project, which will take place at the Salle Gesu in Montreal. This will be a full performance of kathak and odissi dance, with Jake Charkey on cello and myself on tabla.

New releases

A couple of recordings that I worked on last fall have just recently been released. These aren't groups that I regularly perform with, but they were looking for some Indian flavour for specific tracks on their albums.

The first recording is with La Nef, a group whose music is extremely varied and defies categorization. Generally speaking, they perform both early music and world music. This recording, as the title suggests, is of music inspired by desert cultures. I perform santoor (yes!) on the second track, Rub al Khali. The other performers on the track are the very talented Pierre Hamon on bansuri, Carlo Rizzo and Patrick Graham on frame drums, and Andrew Wells-Oberegger on oud. Pierre and Carlo had flown in from France for this occasion. The rest of the CD is extremely varied, with voice, various flutes, numerous frame drums and percussion instruments, oud, saz, guembri, and jaw harp.

The other recording that has recently been released is francophone pop artist Yann Perreau's Un serpent sous les fleurs. Having recently returned from India, Yann wanted some tabla on his new record. I perform on the track, Le marcheur rapide.

Future releases in 2009 include a couple of guest tracks on Marie Saintonge's upcoming funky-electronic-world CD (previews can be heard on MySpace), a compilation with slam-poet-singer Mathieu Lippé and the soundtrack for a National Film Board of Canada short film.

That's all for now! More tabla-news coming soon.

A Quick Update on Recent Activities

Things have been really busy these past several weeks with many great projects. Here is a quick rundown of what's been going on.

First, in January, I performed tabla solo for the Abhilasha Project's fundraiser concert. In February, another fundraiser concert - this time, for the Montreal Heart of the City Piano Program, and a performance of Payton MacDonald's marimba and tabla duo, Jugalbandi, with marimbist Catherine Meunier. We also recorded some music by composer Luigi Allemano for an upcoming National Film Board short film.

Performing Jugalbandi with Catherine Meunier

March included a recording and performance with Francophone singer/poet Mathieu Lippé in Quebec City, a jazz performance with pianist John Roney, and Bhumi Pranam, a Bharat Natyam performance with Ginette Dion's Sattvika Danse.

My setup for accompanying John Roney included tabla (3 dahinas),

shakers, and a variety of Sabian cymbals that I played with both hands and sticks.

(Special thanks to Ji for the photo!)

Coming next are performances with contemporary violinist Parmela Attariwala in Toronto, and pop singer Yann Perreau's album launch in Montreal.

Tabla Tracks - New CD Release by Pandit Sharda Sahai!

I am really excited to annouce this news. Pandit Sharda Sahai (my tabla guru) has just released a new CD! This album is really special in many ways. It is in fact a very old recording - from 1976. Music Room - Jalsa Ghar was recorded at Pandit Samta Prasad's house in Benares (Varanasi) upon Pt. Sahai's return from a six-year residency in the United States. This recording has been archived privately all this years, and it is only now that this historic recording has been made public for the first time.

There is a special mood to this recording; it is a live performance in an intimate house concert setting. Over the course of the performance, we can hear the comments made by Pt. Samta Prasad as well as other audience members. There was immense anticipation of this concert, as Pt. Sahai had been away for so many years; everyone wanted to see how he was playing. Needless to say, the performance is absolutely spectacular and the mood is electric. The performance includes many of the compositions that have become Panditji's trademark as well as some rare compositions that are not available on any other recording released to date.

This is an absolute must have for anyone interested in Indian classical music. This is certainly one of the best tabla solo recordings of our time.

This recording has been pressed in limited edition and so will not be available from all retailers. If you are in Montreal, I have a few copies available. Audiorec will be carrying the CD for international sales (as of this posting, I don't see the CD listed online but they do have them), and if you are in London you can also contact the Pandit Ram Sahai Foundation to purchase a copy directly.