Last Thursday I had a chance to watch Junoon (if we may call it so !) live at Blue Frog, New Delhi. It was a good show but not the same Junoon as it was with Ali Azmat and Brian being part of it. Salman Ahmed is an awesome guitarist but Ali’s vocals were something that along with Salman’s guitar made Junoon what it was in its good days. Their choice of lyrics, compositions, singing…everything was awesome. It is really sad to see that these guys parted ways. We don’t know the reason for their split and would probably never know but what we can do for sure is cherish the great music they created during their best times.
Someone’s comment on youtube on a video of Atta Ullah Khan:
sometimes i think that i HATE pakistan…but when i go to songs of ataullah khan ,nusrat fateh ali khan ,abida parveen,,,THEN I THINK F*** HATE….”WE ARE BROTHERS”…
(Literal translation is: Who can dare tell God that do it like this, not like that ?)
How truly someone has put it in just a few words.
A very very sad day for music and the music lovers. The “one man army”, the captain of Indian Ghazal singing Jagjit Singh is no more. And even sadder is the thing that there is no-one to carry forward his legacy. His untimely demise marks the end of an era in the Indian music. There is no one like him, of the same status, same repute. In our sub continent also, there are very few names; Mehdi Hasan already stopped singing due to his health. At this moment the singing in 2 countries was being headed by Ghulam Ali & Jagjit Singh and one of them just left us. I can’t describe in words what a tremendous loss it is. Only a month back, we saw him perform live with Ghulam Ali and I was not at all happy with his performance and complained a lot about it. Because I wanted him to sing the classics he created. I feel lucky to have seen him perform live thrice in my life. I can’t just accept that he is no more with us.
Whose live show we are gonna attend now ?
Who will sing ghazals like Jagjit Singh ?
Posting some of my most favourite ghazals sung by him. Let us remember our hero and pray for the peace of his soul. Rest in Peace Mr Jagjit Singh !
Just got back after watching Ghulam Ali & Jagjit Singh live in concert at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi. It probably was for the first time that both were coming together on a single stage. The concert started with Ghulam Ali and as usual he was amazing. He started with faasle aise bhi honge and then went on to sing dil mein ek lehar si uthi hai abhi, chupke chupke, legendary Ahmed Faraz’s phir kisi rahaguzar par shayad, hungama hain kyon barpa and so on. And believe me it was an amazing performance. If someone is there after Mehdi Hasan, he is Ghulam Ali. After one and half hour Ghulam Ali freed the stage for Jagjit Singh
and
now comes the sad part
Jagjit Singh was totally disappointing. It was nothing more than playing a CD. He sang some idiotic ghazals that were sung in some movies. He almost didn’t speak anything, no interaction with the audience; just kept on singing one ghazal after another. By the time he was going to finish, it became bit ok but just a “bit”.
Then Jagjit Singh called Ghulam Ali on stage again and they started with a jugalbandi on Ghulam Ali’s lag gaye nain avede. One guy from Jagjit Singh’s orcehstra and then another one from Ghulam Ali’s orchestra also joined. That was totally awesome. Then they went on to sing a classical composition (I can’t recall the lyrics) and it was amazing too ! And that was the end of the show.
Ghulam Ali totally stole the show and Jagjit Singh was totally, absolutely disappointing and I don’t think I will ever go to watch Jagjit Singh again. It was totally a lifeless singing. And by the way why doesn’t he use a mic with harmonium ? So that harmonium’s sound is not heard ? #FAIL
Before I start writing anything else, I must thank Narvinder Bal who actually let me know that this awesomeness was going to happen in the city. Well, watching Abida Parveen live concert was another dream come true. We reached the venue well in advance. And to our biggest surprise, we were about to enter the place where she had to perform and what we saw that she is coming from the other side and crossing from where we were standing. It was kind of so surprising that we couldn’t even manage to ask her for a photograph .
We entered the venue and took our seats. Due to a bit of rain in the morning the weather had turned really pleasant, a kind of perfect for such an evening. The program started around 6:30 but Abida’s performance started around 7:30 as there were few other things before that. Few songs by 2 singers from Zee’s Sa Re Ga Ma concert and a dance performance by a group. Finally around 7:30 she came on the stage, in her typical style, acknowledging the crowd waving her both hands in the air. The stage was all set and she immediately took her seat. The opening performance was Amir Khusro’s man kunto maula which she started with oooo jeeee maulaaaaaaa o miaaaannnn and believe me listening to that much only was equivalent to attending the full concert. There was pin drop silence in the audience and the only voice in the air was maulaaaaaaa….maulaaaaaaa…absolutely mesmerizing. Then she went on to sing verses from the poetry of Bulle Shah. The next was Kabir’s poetry. Then few of tracks were bit new to me. Finally came the legendary jab se tune mujhe diwana bana rakha hai…totally super awesome. She sang for around 2:25 hours and ended the concert with dama dam mast qalandar. It was an amazing performance and I am already looking forward to her next performance in the city.
As usual there were so many distractions. The biggest being that people didn’t reach in time and there was so much of disturbance of people moving around. Another reason was that probably they distributed more number of passes than the seats so many folks were standing as they were unable to get the seats.
Otherwise also what I have observed about myself is that I am not able to enjoy in live concerts as much as it should be. That i think, mainly due to all the distractions around. To enjoy this kind of music, one needs to be in certain state of mind. Now first that state of mind can’t be achieved intentionally and secondly due to so many disturbances at the venue it becomes so difficult to connect with the music. I would go to the extent that a single youtube video can give more satisfaction than watching that song live. Obviously when you are in that “state of mind”. This thing really disappoints me .
Anyways, i am so happy of having seen all the great singers live in concert. My next wish is to see Sain Zahoor Ahmed (along with watching Rahat, Ghulam Ali, Abida, Jagjit Singh & Wadalis again ) perform live. Let us see when that wish is fulfilled .
Few days ago, while going through some videos on youtube i came across a song ve asan tainu ki aakhna by Masooma Anwar. Oh boy what a voice ! She is studying MBBS and taking up singing along with the studies.
Then she renders legendary Reshma’s ve main chori chori
Such a soulful voice. Totally reminds me of Reshma. There are other videos of her as well. Another superb performance is kalaam-e-Iqbal
Totally stunning performances !!!
Wishing her all the best. We have another voice like Reshma ! (I don’t mean to have any comparison)
Today, finally i got the chance to watch Rahat Fateh Ali Khan live in concert. As we haven’t seen Nusrat singing live so to watch Rahat perform is the closest we can get to watching Nusrat live. And yes that is true as well. No surprises here, Rahat is hugely talented.
Lets first talk about the good stuff. He stared with man kunto maula and did it brialliantly. After that came 2 bollywood movie songs he has done, no wonder he did it awesomely but that was not the stuff we were interested in. Then came the real gem dillagi…Nusrat’s version is of 17 mins. It was not that long but again brilliantly did. Next was yehjohalkahalkasaroorhai…& it was a mind blowing performance clearly showing what a great teacher Nusrat was and how beautifully Rahat has been trained under him. Again a long spell of bollywood stuff and then sanuik pal chain naaave & akhianudeekdiyan. He was about to end it with dam mast qalandar but somebody requestesd to sing tere mast mast do nain (from movie Dabbang). He amazingly sung tere mast mast do nain; not really in a movie song style but at really high pitch. Amazing…amazing performance. And the ending beauty was evergreen dam mast qalandar mast mast that got everyone to clapping with the song. For me personally, the bollywood stuff was the absolute crap, firstly in a sense that that is not what Rahat’s real talent is and secondly it disturbed the flow. When he sang dillagi & halkahalkasaroor it was magic all around but it got disturbed with that x y z stuff from bollywood.
Really, Rahat has got a huge talent. While singing for more than 2 hours not a single time his voice went out of sur or pitch went low. To give such a performance one needs to have some potential which was clearly visible. Due to the kind of idiotic Indian crowd that comes to attend such shows, they are expected to sing such bollywood numbers and for the same they need to keep drums and other things in orchestra. Otherwise from a qawali point of view, mouth organ & another instrument (probably keyboard) were sounding too loud. There probably was some issue with the sound setup as well. Also clapping sound was not audible and harmonium & tabla were also lost in the drums sound. The whole orchestra was being driven by the mouth organ not by harmonium. Despite of all this, it was an awesome, amazing performance by Rahat and i would love to watch him again & again; best probably at some place where he would sing only qawalis.
Now coming to all the bullshit that happens in India. As expected the arrangement was pathetic. They divided it into 3 sections. First was some VVVVVIP shit, second one for the people who had 2000 Rs tickets and third for the people carrying 1500 Rs tickets. And oh yes there was one ticket for Rs 1000 also and i think those people were standing at the end. The 2000 Rs ticket section was just 20-30% full and people from the 3rd section were trying to enter there but being stopped by security. Finally the revolution erupted, people jumped (man aunties also ) over the fencing and everybody was sitting in the 2nd section leaving the 3rd one empty.
About the people, as usual they just go there because they can afford to go. One thing i don’t understand is that while going to such an event cant they dump their kids at home ? And oh yes is it for the first time in their life that they get to see ice cream, coke, spring rolls etc over there ? Why the heck they cant take care of their tummies before coming to such shows ? Then every alternate person was getting up and fetching coke ++ stuff for their family of dozen plus items etc etc.
Despite all this, it was an amazing experience to watch Rahat perform live. Wish to see many more such concerts !!!
Most of the Indians go to see live concerts because:
They are the people with approach and can manage to get free VIP passes and all.
They are from rich section of the society and can manage to buy tickets (if any).
Attending live concerts is a feel good thing and a bit of fun.
The real fans of artists are generally sitting in last rows, or even worse; standing. The folks sitting in VVIP and VIP sections are the the output of above 3 points. Anyways yesterday night there was a live concert of Ghulam Ali and me and 2 of my friends were ready to enjoy and had high hopes. So we got the tickets well in advance to avoid any “not available” etc etc situation. The time printed on the ticket was of 7 PM and 2 other singers were supposed to perform before Ghulam Ali. So we reached the venue around 6:15 to find that they had just started to setup the stage and other stuff. Nothing much strange as India runs like that only. Finally after 8 PM they started entering people and we got good seats. Weather was being tricky and a rainfall was a sure thing to happen. Finally things started moving a bit and it started drizzling as well. They introduced some local signer on stage and he left after singing 1 song. Then came the two expected ones; a man and a lady and till then it was no more drizzling; it was raining. Things continued but people were waiting for Ghulam Ali only.
Then after 9:30 Ghulam Ali came (rain had stopped by then) and was seated in the first row with some chief guests and that guy and the lady were still singing. Now those guys were not supposed to waste any time but he still continued. Many people had even left till this moment. Ghulam Ali took the control of stage around 9:45. It has been just half an hour or little more that police came to get it closed due to 10:30 PM limit. Somehow somebody talked to them and the matter was sorted out but probably for some time only. After sometime a policeman came in front of the stage, raised his hands and asked them to stop ! Man just imagine, an artist of the stature of Ghulam Ali singing on stage and a policeman, in this way, telling him to stop; what a crying shame !!! What the heck the organizers were doing at that time ? Anyways Ghulam Ali did acknowledge him and said “shayad woh keh rahe hain k hum yeh band kar dein…bas 2 min mein kar dete hain….” Ghulam Ali said the final words and started to leave.
Then the stage was taken over by the host. He got pretty emotional and said that some xyz of Delhi is sitting here (some counselor or something was sitting there in guests). The night clubs can run up to 4 AM. There is not an issue with that but a ghazal mehfil cant continue after 10:30 PM. Then some action was taken and permission was given for another half an hour or so. Then Ghulam Ali started again but the taste has been lost till then. So things were just not that good.
And about the ambiance and other things there i just don’t understand what the heck is the need for people to bring their 0-14 yrs kids along. And then eating chips, sipping soft drinks…ghazal mehfils are for that ? On stage on guy is going up, another coming down etc etc. One sick idiot was standing in front of the stage and shooting with his video camera, Ghulam Ali requested him twice to stop but everything fell on deaf ears. Then two security guards came and literally pushed him away. Still he was not ready to move. Enough of crap…
At the end it was a magical show spoiled by few idiots ! We came back so sad and disappointed. An oppurtunity to watch such a great artist lost
And for the friends who would like to know what what according to me a ghazal mehfil should be like, please watch these videos. This is what magic a ghazal mehfil can create.
I was browsing through The Times of India website and came across a link to a video of a performance by Abida Parveen at a recent Aman ki Asha concert. I had already seen this video many times but this time more than the video, a comment caught my attention. Quoting here the same:
Roopa, bangalore, says: OMG what a horrible singer with horrible voice.. Somebody without training could sing better then her….
Nothing much to say. vichari poor soul…she doesn’t even know what she is talking about. God bless her that she, sometime in future understands what Abida Parveen means to music and its lovers across the globe.
Someone has rightly said “Money can’t buy happiness”. One may not believe this but watching 2 videos made my day and gave me a ton of happiness.
I stumbled upon one video of Musarat Nazir on youtube and then i saw mera long gwacha‘s video, done by her on PTV in 1985-86. My lifetime favourite song which i have grown up listening to. The voice, tone ,music reminds of those beautiful old days. It used to play mostly on radio channels like Jalandhar, All India Radio and Lahore. When i got computer at home, i recorded this song by placing microphone near radio speaker and today i got to watch that video. Plain awesome…real singing with soul and emotions.
Then watched video of another favourite of mine chale to kat hi jeyga safar. Simply made my day !!!
) perform live. Let us see when that wish is fulfilled 
.
) over the fencing and everybody was sitting in the 2nd section leaving the 3rd one empty.
