You can listen to and buy the album here.

Everything fits perfectly into Call me dil including Rashid Ali’s voice! The track builds up beautifully and Rahman keeps it simple and sweet. Karthik’s singing and the vocal harmonies work nicely for Hello Hello.The song is a monolith; effective in whole, true for most of the songs in this album. Cry Cry has been doing the rounds in promos across channels. I personally love these kind of songs (Jaane kyon, Agar main kahoon, Kabhi kabhi aditi et al)  The percussion is super effective. The guitar-sax-flute interludes are beautiful and so are the voices, especially Shreya Ghoshal. The only quibble, Rashid Ali‘s sounds a bit too sophisticated for the tapori slang and the “kai ko” seems kind of awkward in his vox! Its good to hear Sonu Nigam singing again for Rahman; however Do Nishaniyan is certainly not among the best from this duo. Maiyya Yashoda is very catchy. The track has the perfect folksy pace/rhythm going and the harmonium and flute bits work very well. The singing is brilliant, Javed Ali and Chinmayee faring wonderfully and reascertaining themselves as singers to look out for. Shreya’s Pam Pa Ra works in parts. There are some catchy elements in the arrangement including the Sax, and percussion in some areas. I’ve been waiting is soulful; kudos to the beautiful orchestration. Vijay Yesudas does extremely and surprisingly well delivering the song.

Simplicity and subtlety win you over all through this refreshing album from A R Rahman, arguably his best in 2010 going by the sheer number of songs.

Music Aloud Rating: 9/10

Recommended Tracks: Well the only one that I found falling short is Do Nishaniyan.

The 57th National Awards announced today, saw Amit Trivedi bag his debut Best Composer award for the brilliant score in Anurag Kashyap‘s Dev D. Best lyricist award went to Swanand Kirkire for Behti Hawa from 3 Idiots. Its Kirkire’s second shot at the awards after he won it a couple of years back for Bande Mein Tha Dum from Lage Raho Munnabhai, incidentally for the same crew of Rajkumar Hirani-Vidhu Vinod Chopra-Shantanu Moitra. Musical veteran Ilayaraja won a fourth National award after a long gap of two decades, this time for the background score of Malayalam movie Pazhassi Raja. Don’t remember hearing about a background music National award before this, which would make Ilayaraja the first recipient in this category! And though there are few in the industry who would be more deserving than Ilayaraja to receive this honour, presenting it for Pazhassi Raja is pretty much analogous to ARR winning the Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Nevertheless, better late than never! The vocalist honours were both taken by Bengalis, Best Male singer going to Rupam Islam (lead singer of Bangla rock band Fossils, who has sung a song for Pritam in Jannat) for Mahanagar and his female counterpart being Nilanjana Sarkar for Houseful.

Ajay Parasuraman

The previous post explained the various sub-categories possible for the Ragas in the Hindustani system. You won’t be surprised to find out that there are similar classifications in Carnatic, will you?
Apart from the much broader divisioning of the ragas into Melakarthas and Janya ragas, that is.

There are 72 Melekartha ragas (previously mentioned), each of which fall into one of the 12 ‘Chakras’. Thus, there are 72 / 12, or 6, ragas in each Chakra. Just like in the katapayadi sankhya where Vedic mathematics was used, here too, one can find a similar convention adopted to give names to these 12 Chakras.

• Indu stands for the moon, of which we have only one – hence it is the first chakra.

• Netra means eyes, of which we have two – hence it is the second.

• Agni is the third chakra as it denotes the three divyagnis (fire, lightning and Sun).

• Veda denoting four Vedas is the name of the fourth chakra.

• Bana comes fifth as it stands for the five banas of Manmatha.

• Rutu is the sixth chakra standing for the 6 seasons of Hindu calendar.

• Rishi, meaning sage, is the seventh chakra representing the seven sages.

• Vasu stands for the eight vasus of Hinduism.

• Brahma comes next of which there are 9.

• The 10 directions, including akash (sky) and patal (nether region), is represented by the tenth chakra, Disi.

• Eleventh chakra is Rudra of which there are eleven.

• Twelfth comes Aditya of which there are twelve.

Thus, the name of each of the 12 chakras suggest their ordinal number as well. How beautiful is our culture, no?

The 72 melakarta ragas can be divided into two parts. viz.,. suddha Madhyama and prati Madhyama ragas. When a given suddha madhyama raga’s M1 is replaced by M2, we get the corresponding prati madhyama raga.

For those who want to play each of these aforementioned ragas on a piano, check here.
That sort of concludes the classification of the various Raagas in both Hindustani and Carnatic Music, unless I have missed out some point(s). Until next time, keep singing (and reading this segment, of-course)!

Enjoy these wonderful renditions for now..

You can listen to the soundtrack online here.
Plagiaristic allegations aside, the Punjabi track Challa works wonderfully, highlights of the song being the brilliant singing by Babbu Mann and the catchy Ta-na-na hook. The remix by Tigerstyle also sticks to the Punjabi template and hence succeeds. Mere Bina follows next, a breezy melody rendered well by Nikhil D’Souza. That chap has been getting some wonderful songs of late. The overall pop-ish arrangement of the song does remind me of something else though I can’t quite place it. Nevertheless, an addictive melody, like most Pritam melodies. An unplugged version of the same song sees KK take Nikhil’s place, with equally fantastic results. What’s with Pritam’s (or is it the Bhatts’) obsession with three variants?! It was the title track in Tum Mile and here Mere Bina features a third, much more mellow version titled Tujhko Jo Paaya, Mohit Chauhan crooning to an acoustic guitar backing, sounding more unplugged than the one titled Unplugged.
Neeraj Sridhar enters with Kya, a groovy track replete with signature Pritam elements in the arrangement and corny lyrics reminiscent of the 90s barring the English part. The lounge-ish effects and Neeraj Shridhar work out an engaging combo though. KK returns with Tujhi Mein, a well-arranged melody again, but not as good as Mere Bina. Loved the second interlude though. The Reprise version is more haunting, more melancholic, more the general Bhatt movies type music.
Except for the Tujhi Mein, Crook misses the melancholy that has almost come to define music from the Bhatt household of late, but that’s not to say the standard of music has been compromised one bit. Be it hook or crook, Pritam once again manages to produce an impressive score.

Music Aloud Rating: 8/10

Recommended Tracks: Challa, Mere Bina (Nikhil), Kya

George Harrison called him “the wonder boy of tabla”. From Harrison to Pt. Ravi Shankar to Zakir Hussain to Pete Lockett, he has worked with the biggest names in the world music arena and at the age of 44 already has to his credit 11 solo albums, 12 film scores and over 70 collaborative works, and quite a few lined up for the near future. Music Aloud’s interview of ace percussionist Bickram Ghosh, for you.

Tell us about your musical beginnings. Being born to musical parents did all of your training happen at home itself? Your education was all literature-oriented. Was there a turning point anywhere in life that prompted you to leave all that and get back to music?

Yes my father Pandit Shankar Ghosh is my main guru. Him being one of the all-time greats of the tabla was my biggest blessing as I learnt tabla at home, easily, in a relaxed fun way, from him.
My mother Sanjukta Ghosh is a well-known singer. The influence of Patiala Gharana in my compositions stems from her.
My parents insisted in a top notch education for me and I ended up doing a masters in literature in English. Yet I always knew deep down that I would be a musician.
However I plunged into my career as a tabla player only after I completed my MA. It was then that my father asked me what I wanted to do and that question just opened the floodgates of my love for music. In an instant I knew it had to be music!

You have worked with the who’s who of the World Music scene. Did being born to an established musician make your beginning in the musical world easier?

My father said to me at the outset that he had taught me and given me an education. He had no intention of promoting me as a musician.
I worked my way up slowly and with difficulty and the first time he played with me on stage together was when I was already established and 33 years old!
I struggled a lot but I didn’t regret it as it gave me a rare quality – integrity as a musician. That is my father’s gift to me!

You have released 11 solo albums apart from the many collaborative works, each fusing tabla with other classical, folk and in Electroclassical even electronic elements. So how much of preparation goes into each of these albums? And what sort of preparations?

I meticulously think out my albums and once I plunge into recording I go with the flow. My solo albums are autobiographical in nature as they always reflect my state of mind in that phase. I spend a lot of time in post production being ruthless editing the material at hand!
Some albums are more in the jam format like Kingdom of Rhythm with Pete Lockett….

Congratulations on the brilliant music in your latest Electroclassical. How has the response to Electroclassical been? What do you think about the general attitude people have regarding classical/fusion music? How have you seen the perception change over the years?

Electroclassical is, touchwood, selling extremely well – in charts country wide… The response from listeners is diverse if music is fantastic, but predictably, the traditionalists are wary of it!
Some people think Electroclassical as an alternative to the traditional classical music. I have always said clearly this is simply an exploration in marrying tradition with modern trends. To allow those who don’t listen to classical to develop a taste for it within the soundscape they are used to listening to! Simultaneously I have released 2 pure classical albums!
Listeners always and still appreciate good music. Even after 10 years and massive changes in trends, Rhythmscape still sits on the charts! Good music always has takers ….
However, if an artist also takes into account temporal trends and incorporates them to express eternal emotions, I believe one can communicate better and linger with the audience! You can wear a denim forever, but u must cut it to suit the current trend. Otherwise you can be outdated….

Your film forays, at least the Bollywood ones, have been restricted to the art film arena. Why is it that you have avoided mainstream movie soundtracks?

I do film only if I am inspired by the project. I am not here to play the Bollywood Rat race. I am a performer first, then a maker of albums and third, a film composer. I will do a mainstream score only if I see myself fitting into the setup comfortably!
I loved doing Little Zizou and Gumshuda… In the latter I have done 5 songs in a slightly off beat mode though within a commercial premise! Dhoondo sung by Sonu Niigaam is doing rather well…

There have been talks about your plans to start a School of Percussion. Could you tell us a bit about that?

I am launching my percussion course called Repercussion for an online music university in America called Ace university.
My own academy will take a few years…..

What do you think of the fusion music scene in India? Any promising groups that have come to your notice?

The fusion scene here is dominated by classical musicians. I love the work of some of my contemporaries like Taufiq Qureshi and Rahul Sharma.
I have not heard anything yet from the younger lot (other than some of Anoushka Shankar’s works) which has really impressed me. I am hopeful and waiting to hear something which will make me sit up!

Could you share with our readers your upcoming musical projects?

My own music company Melting Pot Productions launches in October.
Ready for release Albums: Tablasphere, Mortal, Tagore Lounge, Venus
Television: Nabadurga
Upcoming: Heart and Beat(tentative title) – Sonu Nigam and Bickram Ghosh, Terra Groove – Bickram Ghosh and Greg Ellis

Finally, what sort of music do you listen to? Who are your favourite artists? Anyone you still long to work with, after all these years?

I listen to everything! Anything! I love Shankar Ghosh, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Amjad Ali Khan, Zakir Hussain, R D Burman, Kishore Kumar, L. Subramaniam, Stephan Grapelli, Nitin Sawhney, Rahman in Lagaan and Swades, Madan Mohan, Khayyam, Keith Jarret, Sting, Toni Braxton……
I would love to work with Carlos Santana and Keith Jarret.

When it comes to the question of who the best female singer in Bollywood is, the answer in almost all cases would invariably be Lata Mangeshkar. Indeed there have been few singers gifted with such divine voice and talent. But when the spread of singing genres becomes a criterion, the scales may in all probability tip towards Asha Bhonsle. In her nearly six decades of singing, there is hardly a genre that Asha Bhonsle has not left her mark on with her vocal brilliance. And as the legend celebrates her 77th birthday today, we present to you what we consider to be her best 15 songs. We have also tried to give a taste of as many genres as possible but some songs are just too good to be ignored!

Aayiye Meherbaan – Howrah Bridge (1958) – MD: O P Nayyar

C A T Cat Cat Maane Billi – Dilli Ka Thug (1958) – MD: Ravi

Achcha Ji Main Haari – Kala Pani (1958) – MD: S D Burman
Abhi Na Jao – Hum Do (1961) – MD: Jaidev
Isharon Isharon – Kashmir Ki Kali (1964) – MD: O P Nayyar
Yeh Hai Reshmi – Mere Sanam (1965) – MD: O P Nayyar
Raat Akeli Hai – Jewel Thief (1967) – MD: S D Burman
Parde Mein Rehne Do – Shikar (1968) – MD: Shankar-Jaikishan
Aaj Kal Tere Mere – Brahmachari (1968) – MD: Shankar-Jaikishan
Piya Tu Ab To Aaja – Caravan (1971) – MD: R D Burman
Dum Maro Dum – Hare Ram Hare Krishna (1971) – MD: R D Burman
Dil Cheez Kya Hai – Umrao Jaan (1981) - MD: Khayyam
Tanha Tanha – Rangeela (1995) – MD: A R Rahman
Janam Samjha Karo – Janam Samjha Karo (1997) – MD: Leslie Lewis
Radha Kaise Na Jale – Lagaan (2001) – MD: A R Rahman

Ajay Parasuraman

As we’ve covered the basics of both Carnatic and Hindustani to an extent, it is time that we delved a little deeper into each of the individual entities associated with Classical Music; Raag, Taal etc. This post will entirely be about Raags. So, to those who are interested, read on!

Sept 5th happens to be the birthday of one of my favorite singers of all time, that of Madurai T.N Seshagopalan. I, on behalf of Music Aloud, wish him a Happy Birthday! May he continue to awe more and more aficionados with his serene voice and incomparable brigas!

That done, let’s get on with elaborating on the protagonist of this post.

The word ‘Raga’ comes from the Sanksrit word for ‘to color/dye’. The word has since retained it’s original purpose and meaning — to ‘beautify’, in a sense. As I had mentioned in one of the earlier posts, Indian Classical Music has 7 swaras or Sapta-swaras. In fact, these sapta swaras are furthered split-up into sub-categories. In both the systems, the Sa and the Pa are fixed. That is, they don’t have sub-categories, and are fixed for a particular pitch.

The other swaras, however, are divided. Let’s call the divisions as ‘versions’ of each swara. In the Carnatic system, each of the swaras, excepting Sa, Pa and Ma, have 3 versions. ‘Ma’ has 2 ‘versions’. In the Hindustani system, in a given seven-tone mode, the second, third, sixth, and seventh notes can be natural (shuddha) or flat (komal, ‘soft’) but never sharp, and the fourth note can be natural or sharp (tivra) but never flat. The following table gives the different divisions in Carnatic and their equivalents in Hindustani:

A Raaga is a combination of some of these and are ‘fixed’ for a Raaga and don’t change during the duration of a song/kriti. Ragas that have five swaras are called audava ragas; those with six, shaadava ; and with seven, sampurna . Those ragas that do not follow the strict ascending or descending order of swaras are called vakra ragas.

Every raga is capable of stirring an emotion. In olden times, each raga would have a prescribed time of day to be sung in, thus accentuating it’s purpose of affecting the emotions of it’s listeners. During the monsoon, for example, many of the Malhar (Megh Malhar etc) group of ragas, which are associated with the monsoon and ascribed the magical power to bring rain, are performed. Amrita Varshini in Carnatic provides the same ‘output’, so to speak. However, South Indian ragas don’t generally come with a specified time of the day. Hence, all ragas are sung during Concerts.

As the Great Nedunuri Krishnamurthy sir said once during one of his lecture demonstrations: “every raga is a raga devatha (goddess)”. Singing in a particular raga would then mean that the singer would be invoking the goddess associated with that raga. In this regard, I’d like to mention a work of literature that was the first to mention this associated of a raga and it’s ‘goddess’ : The Sangeeta Ratnakara , which is entirely composed in Sanskrit. This text was later made into a series of paintings called the ‘Ragamala’ paintings, lit. Garland of Ragas. The Ragamala paintings flourished well, far and wide under royal patronage, but, now, have faded over the last century or two.

The Ragamala paintings also happen to be a form classification of ragas. The raga-ragini scheme was a classification scheme used from the 14th century to the 19th century. It usually consists of 6 ‘male’ ragas each with 6 ‘wives’ (raginis) and a number of sons (putras) and even ‘daughters-in-laws’! As it did not agree with various other schemes, and the ‘related’ or ‘allied’ ragas (ragas with similar notes or swaras)  had very little or no similarity, the raga-ragini scheme is no longer very popular.

In 1570, Kshemakarna, a priest of Rewa in Central India, compiled a poetic text on the Ragamala in Sanskrit, which describes six principal Ragas– Bhairava, Malakoshika, Hindola, Dipaka, Shri, and Megha–each having five Raginis and eight Ragaputras, except Raga Shri, which has six Raginis and nine Ragaputras, thus making a Ragamala family of 86 members^.

Six are male (parent) ragas; the thirty raginis are their wives and the remaining forty-eight are their sons. These are listed as:

• (1) Parent Raga: Bhairav raga

Wives: Bhairavi, Bilawali, Punyaki, Bangli, Aslekhi. Sons: Pancham, Harakh, Disakh, Bangal, Madhu, Madhava, Lalit, Bilaval.

• (2) Parent Raga: Malkaus raga

Wives: Gaundkari, Devagandhari, Gandhari, Seehute, Dhanasri. Sons: Maru, Mustang, Mewara, Parbal, Chand, Khokhat, Bhora, Nad.

• (3) Parent Raga: Hindol raga

Wives: Telangi, Devkari, Basanti, Sindhoori, Aheeri. Sons: Surmanand, Bhasker, Chandra-Bimb, Mangalan, Ban, Binoda, Basant, Kamoda.

• (4) Parent Raga: Deepak raga

Wives: Kachheli, Patmanjari, Todi, Kamodi, Gujri. Sons: Kaalanka, Kuntal, Rama, Kamal, Kusum, Champak, Gaura, Kanra [36].

• (5) Parent Raga: Sri raga

Wives: Bairavi, Karnati, Gauri, Asavari, Sindhavi. Sons: Salu, Sarag, Sagra, Gaund, Gambhir, Gund, Kumbh, Hamir.

• (6) Parent Raga: Megh raga

Wives: Sorath, Gaundi-Malari, Asa, Gunguni, Sooho. Sons: Biradhar, Gajdhar, Kedara, Jablidhar, Nut, Jaldhara, Sankar, Syama.

For those interested in learning about the Ragamala paintings in detail, kindly go here.

I guess that’s it for this post. Hope it wasn’t too much to take in. Do voice in with your comments. And, not to forget, suggestions! I leave you with a birthday tribute to T N Seshagopalan, one of his effortless renditions of Begada Raga.