The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : `Music is a way of life'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 02, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Music is a way of life'

Staff Reporter

Amjad Ali Khan and Zakir Hussain will perform today

Amjad Ali Khan at a press conference in Bangalore on Thursday. — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BANGALORE: On the eve of his Sarod performance here, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan made a wish: Bangalore should do in music what it has done in information technology. "It should become a `silicon valley of music'," he said.

The ustad is performing on Friday, accompanied by the tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, at 7 p.m. at RBANMS Grounds. The event is organised by Maam Entertainment. The two musicians would come without rehearsing, the ustad said and added that "I will play some rare compositions."

The Sarod player said Bangaloreans were art lovers and appreciated music well, though the quality of audience differed.

Karnataka's music had a history and recalled he had performed with the greats such as the late Veena Doreswamy Iyengar.

The ustad also recalled his association with Dasara celebrations of Mysore and remember Pandit Bhimsen Joshi's association with his (ustad's) father, from whom he had learnt Ustad Abdul Kareem Khan's famous three-minute composition, "Piya milan ki aasa... "

The Ustad remembered that Pandit Joshi would conclude all his recitals with this composition. The ustad sang it for a minute. He was interacting with people at Planet M on Brigade Road.

He said music for him was a passion, a way of life. He had come to realise that every raga had a different soul. His creativity sometimes presented him with a different soul and a new raga would emerge. He would give them his own names.

The ustad's wife, Shubhalakshmi, was present.

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