Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty and Purbayan Chatterjee current the nuances of Hindustani music

Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty performing on the Sursagar pageant
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association

Purbayan Chatterjee showcased the melodic potential of the sitar to its fullest, providing an aesthetic expertise for connoisseurs of music. He commenced his live performance for the  forty second anniversary celebrations of Sur Sagar, a collaborative enterprise with the Kolkata-based ITC Sangeet Analysis Academy (ITC-SRA), with a well-liked melody in raag Purya Dhanashree. The alaap stood out for its serenity and each notice of this well-known raag was invested with poise and readability. The jod-jhala delineation with the surge, sink and rise of the notes was a witchery of sound patterns.

 Purbayan’s raag vistar within the medium tempo jhaptaal composition within the gat was testimony to his prowess. His gats abounded with tonal shades and rhythmic complexities. Senior tabla artiste Yogesh Samsi turned the live performance right into a  rhythmic extravaganza within the Madhyalaya Jhap taal, a cycle of ten beats, and the drut, a fast-tempo composition in Teen taal,  a cycle of 16 beats. 

Purbayan Chatterjee
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association

Purbayan left the viewers awe-struck with the favored chota khayal bandish ‘Payaliya jhankar mori’ in Purya Dhanashree. In a uncommon gesture of a guru acknowledging his inspirational debt to his sishya, Purbayan rendered a fascinating ‘dhun’ from the Benaras area in raag Mishra Khamaj, which he had picked up from his scholar Abhishek Mishra. Singing the ‘dhun’  ‘Dagar bich kaise chalu magroke kanhaiya bepeer’ in Dadra, a rhythmic cycle of six beats, Purbayan wove a tapestry of raags effortlessly  into the Khamaj matrix. This offered glimpses of the richness of our Lok Sangeet traditions. Yogesh Samsi’s accompaniment was feisty.

 The second live performance of the night featured the inimitable Pt Ajoy Chakrabarty. His rendition of the evening melody raag Bageshree showcased his impeccable craftsmanship devoid of gimmickry. His was classic raagdari music marked by classicism and ethereality. This got here by means of in his unhurried alaap in cyclic avartans of the vilambit Ek taal bandish ‘Kaun gat bhayi’. 

Ajoy Joglekar on the harmonium was equally resourceful in negotiating the improvisations of the maestro, coupled with Yogesh Samsi’s tabla sangat.  

Pt. Ajoy’s rendering of  ‘Binati suno mori, awadh pur ke basaiyya, Janaki pati Ram’ was drenched in devotional fervour.

As a disciple of the Patiala gayaki of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Pt. Ajoy rendered two basic thumris of the Ustad: ‘Ab to aavo sajna’ in raag Mishra Pahadi and ‘Ka karu sajni aye na baalam’ in Bhairavi in taal Keherwa. 

Pt. Ajoy’s disciple Deborshi Bhattacharjee lived as much as the guru’s expectations along with his saath.