A crucial musical link

Amidst the many virtual concerts, it felt good to hear about a two-day festival of live music dedicated to the memory of Pt. Jasraj.

Held annually in Hyderabad for the past 47 years, the event, titled this year as ‘Jai Ho – Pt. Jasraj presents Pt. Motiram Pt. Maniram Sangeet Samaroh’, has been a long celebration of the late maestro’s link with the city. Organised by Durga Jasraj, supported by the government of Telangana and ITC, it was an effort to continue the tradition established by Panditiji to pay tribute to his father, Pt. Motiram, and brother Pt. Maniram. The event was also streamed live.

The festival opened with an invocatory piece sung by two of Pt. Jasraj’s disciples: his nephew Rattan Mohan Sharma, and the much younger Ankita Joshi.

What made the festival memorable was the screening of videos that had the late singer speaking about various incidents from his life. The festival’s highlights were concerts by Anup Jalota, and a percussion jugalbandi with Shubhankar Bannerji on the tabla and Patri Satish Kumar on the mridangam.

Another splendid jugalbandi was presented by two senior disciples of the maestro, vocalist Sanjeev Abhyankar and flautist Shashank. Sanjeev said, “Though Shashank and I did not train under guruji at the same time, we are good friends.” The duo performed raag Puriya Dhanasri (Carnatic raga Pantuvarali), in which Sanjeev sang alaap and jor. Trained in khayal gayaki, which does not have alaap without percussion accompaniment, the singer explained, “Guruji had taught me dhrupad-style alaap but I don’t know if he ever sang it himself; certainly I never heard him.” The next piece, the bhajan ‘Sumeer Ram’ was in raga Hamsadhwani.

Giving an opportunity to young talent at such a major festival is laudable. There was a live presentation by eight musicians (including Rattan Mohan Sharma, Ankita Joshi, sitarist Mehtab Ali Niazi and violinist Yajnesh Raikar), who accompanied a video recording of Pt. Jasraj singing, an interesting concept well presented.

The Delhi-based author writes on music and musicians.