Colours of the Nation:
Taal Vadya Kachehri
It was the First weekly meeting of the newly elected President Surekha Deshpande. Surekha gave her formal address and Secretary Prerna Joshi gave her secretarial announcement. After the rotary protocol started the Musical evening.
Pandit Arvind Kumar Azad the Tabla Maestro and his disciples took the whole audience on a thunderous journey across various states of India through their Folk music on the evening of 6th July 2023.
The program started with Ganesh Vandana sung by Shree Haridas Shinde in his own folk style. His range of the pitch of his voice was worth a praise. He was accompanied with percussion instruments played by his fellow performers.
Soon after the Prayers the Lavani, a folk style of Maharashtra, was presented by him which was sung by the famous late Vithabai Narayangaonkar. After Maharashtra we were transported to the folk music of Rajasthan and all tapped to the numbers of Padharo Maro desh.
Shree Nagesh Bhosekar seemed so deft with almost all Indian Percussion instruments. He had scintillating performance one after the other and I really wonder how those vibrating fingers never got tired. The Punjabi dholak caught everybody’s attention and the audience was awestruck. He played the music of states like Madhya Pradesh, the Northeastern states on the percussion instruments
The Tabla maestro and a disciple of Panditji, Shree Sourabh Gulwan performed on the table the Banaras gharana masterpiece.
Now it was time for the fusion of western music and Shree Nitin Satav brought us many Rap notes.
The fusion was performed by all the musicians playing various instruments accompanied by Shree Devendra Deshpande on the harmonium.
Nitinji not only performed but got all the audience involved in clapping on the beats that he taught using a brief span of time.
The Icing on the Cake was when Panditji himself came up the stage and under his guidance and table notes his disciples gave yet another thundering performance.
What I also liked was the analogy Panditji showed us that as Lord Ganesha holds the Pakhwaj and Lord Shiva the Damru, all percussion instruments can be called ‘ Mangal May Vadya’.
A big Thank you to PP Madhavi Mehendale for inviting such stalwarts of Music.
6th July 2023
