hope springs eternal
ptv features sitar virtuoso ustad raees khan ably accompanied by his son Farhan Khan
ustad jee has unique body language & the pair played raga malhar & haunting rendition of raga bhairveen.
in the early 80s, I heard ustad raess khan recording on bbc tv & sang the following
mohay ayee na jag say laj
main itnee zor say nachee aaj
kay ghungroo toot gayay
a BBC 4 recording.
I am not aware of raees sb having too many vocal recordings to his credit but an awesome voice nonetheless and the defiant tone given to “ghungroo toot gayay”
sitar, sarangee always have a special impact on me... i am intrigued by the concept encapsulated by Shah Lateef in his Sur (Beejal-) Rai Dyaach – the story of supreme sacrifice hy Rai Dyaach, the ruler of Jhunagarh.
the ruler of the adjoining kingdom, unable to defeat Rai Dyaach militarily, hires the services of Beejal a musician par excellence knowing Rai Dyaach’s penchant for music….
beejal plays his instrument to his desired outcome…..in the wee hours of the morning, held in complete rapture by Beejal’s instrument, Rai Dyaach asks Beejal for anything that he desired as folk tales usually go
beejal jumps at the opportunity & asks the king for his head & reveals the real purpose of his visiting Jhunagarh.
true to his word, the king fulfills his promise & loses his life & his kingdom gives way to marauding enemy forces…
talk about primitive operation desert storm…(that beejal regrets his actions comes only after Jhunagarh capitulates & this aspect of the tale of lesser importance)
secular interpretation/perspective of such folklore is that of devotion to music and for a right note of a surinhdo a proto-type of saarangee, being moved to the point of complete surrender no matter what price you must pay …
the sufistic interpretation is achieving closeness to God through a vehicle, ironically in this case, music. That the modern day guardians of faith, the detestable mullahs consider music as haram goes to prove the harm done to faith than any external force
as nusrat fateh ali khan has demonstrated, music can hold the unbelievers in a trance and make converts out of them by the sheer force of genius
my latest discovery is sm shahid’s book on tufail niazi that comes with a 2-cd set that had me in tears but more on that later
in the meanwhile raga malhar has had a desired impact and Karachi has seen the first sign of the monsoon….
6 Comments:
Zaroori baat khayni ho
ko-ee wada nibhana bo
oosay awaz daynee ho
oosay wapus bulana ho
humaysha dayr kur dayta hoo(n) mai(n)
I saw your comment on Xill-e-Illahi's page regarding soc.culture.pakistan...... and, wow, memories come flowing back.........
I have been unable to find a direct contact for you so am compelled to leave this public message.... but one of my hopes in starting my blog was to get back to the wonderful intellectual comaradrie that we all had at SCP (woudl this blogging generation even recognize that today)......
do write
Adil (adil.najam@gmail.com)
adil, you cannot imagine how ecstatic i am to see your message hence writing to you separately on gmail..you have not lost your touch hence the very apt nazm by muneer niazi
somewhere in my archives, i have the postings on scp saved on my old PC
such is the nature of blogging that a new culture has emerged
however you would be pleasantly surprised to see some pakistani blogs & am glad you started yours which i got to know thanks to xill-e-ilahi
stumbled onto your blog by a fairly circuitous route and quite amused to find adil here, too. your profile and postings show that we share many common interests in music and poetry genres (though within that our tastes seem to differ at times. but that's life).
there was - in striking simillarity to the adil situation - no email through which i could contact you. just wanted to add you to the list (with your permission, of course) of people i invite when we have little private mehfils of classical music and 'mushaerettes' (just one or two poets).
m a g's work is a wonderful piece of labour.
apologies about popping in again ... but it just occurred to me that you and adil may enjoy 'dayr' in the poet's own voice.
just pop over to an old post of mine
http://www.kidvai.com/zak/2006/02/pros-and-cons-of-being-early.html
Liked your blog - I accidentally stumbled on it. I would not repeat what Adil Najam wrote since his comment conveys my reaction to your interesting posts and varied interests!
raza - thanks for dropping in.
zakintosh - my email address is naveed.siraj@gmail.com...very kind of your invitation...do not think i am worthy though
BTW - you are not ZAK of APMC fame by any chance? :)
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