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Indus Raag - Collector's Edition

Review by Ally Adnan

Recording Hindustani Sangeet - the music of Pakistan and Northern India -

is not an easy task. Our music does not lend itself easily to recording and

poses many challenges for those who undertake the daunting task of

capturing it.

The correct recording of our music depends primarily on four (4) factors -

the musician, the audience, the accompanying artists, and the set-up; it is

not possible to conjure musical magic if all four (4) are not present.

The musician needs to be talented, knowledgeable and prepared. In

addition, he needs to be in the right frame of mind, in a good mood and

motivated to do his best. Our musicians enjoy being surrounded by

admirers, both of their music and their person, and at are at their best when

fully engaged with an audience.

The right audience for our music is not easy to find; certainly not in

Pakistan or even in India. The audience needs to be knowledgeable, well-

behaved, aware of proper mehfil (musical event) decorum, able to

concentrate, willing to engage with the performer, and enthusiastic about in

lavishing praise.

A performance of Hindustani Sangeet is never a solo exercise; its success

relies as much on the principal performer as it does on supporting

musicians. Proper chemistry between the two (2) is necessary.

Accompanying musicians need to be able to read the mind of the main

performer, accurately anticipate his needs, and complement the

performance in a supportive and unobtrusive manner. They also need to be

aware of the unique personality traits and requirements of the musician.

This is not easy and varies greatly from one musician to the other. In an

interview, the great tabla maestro Ustad Miyan Shaukat Hussain Khan

spoke about accompaniment. "Malika E Mausiqui Roshanara Begum liked

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simple and accurate accompaniment on the tabla," he said. "She did not

want the tabla player to do much more than just play the theka (basic

words of a rhythmic cycle). Ustads Fateh and Amanat Ali Khan enjoyed

dialog with the tabla player when they were in the mood for it; otherwise

they liked simple accompaniment. Ustads Salamat and Nazakat Ali Khan

kept the tabla player on his toes throughout a performance. They wanted

an intensely engaged and complex accompaniment. I used to accompany

all three (3) in a way that satisfied each one of them. That is what a good

accompanist does. He does not have a style of his own. He plays in the

style that the performing artist wants. Period."

The recording of our music poses significant technical challenges. The

sound of most instruments - especially the sarangi, veena and tabla -

emanates for unlikely areas in the space around them. Traditional

placement of microphones does not work in such scenarios. Most digital

recording equipment is designed for western music and analog equipment,

which is more appropriate for recording our music, is increasingly hard to

find and expensive to employ. Since the interaction of the musician with the

audience is vital to a good performance, it is necessary to take audience

seating into account when setting up for recordings. It is customary in our

mehfils for the audience to praise the performers with spontaneous and

loud expressions of mashala, subhanallah, wah wah, ah ha ha, kya baat

hai and other such words, talking during the performance. This unique

aspect of mehfils is cannot be ignored when recording music. Improvisation

is key in our music which is never written. No two (2) performances are

alike and retakes often result in diminishing returns. They are hard to

manage in live concerts and ruinous even in studios. Therefore, the

recording set up needs to be right the first time. There are few opportunities

for retakes.

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A consequence of the challenges, requirements and constraints faced

when recording our music is that a very low number of good recordings are

available in the market. It is, then, a great pleasure to listen to the more

than thirteen (13) hours of

music packaged in the

Tehzeeb Foundation's

wonderful set, Indus Raag -

Collector's Edition. The set

includes twelve (12) compact

discs of music recorded in

the five (5) year period

ending in 2011 and an

accompanying booklet. It

may well be one of the finest

sets of classical music ever

released in Pakistan, almost

on par with the 1978 EMI

sets of Khawaja Khurshid

Anwar's Raag Mala and

Gharanon ki Gaiyiki.

The husband and wife duo behind Indus Raag, Malahat and Sharif Awan,

seem to have made all the right decisions - about the musicians,

accompanists, audience and recording arrangements - for Indus Raag.

The set features some of the best musicians, both senior and young, in

India and Pakistan today. A number of well known musicians including

Ustad Rais Khan, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan of

Gwalior, Ustad Ghulam Hassan Shaggan, Ustad Naseeruddin Khan Saami,

Ustad Bashir Khan and Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan are featured in the set

along with emerging ones such as Akbar Ali, Asad Qizilbash, Karam Abbas

Khan, and Mumtaz Ali Sabzal.

Accompaniment is provided by musicians of very high caliber - Kamal Sabri

on sarangi, Ustad Bashir Khan and Shabaz Hussain on tabla, Nafees

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Ahmad Khan on sitar, Afzal Khan on the harmonium, and several other

talented musicians.

The Tehzeeb Foundation has a carefully curated list of members, a lot of

whom were present during the performances featured in Indus Raag.

Enthusiastic, motivated and attentive, the helped bring out the best in the

performers. A number of the performances were attended by senior

musicians and musicologists, whose presence encouraged and, to some

extent, forced the artists into peak performance. The success of some of

the masterpieces in the set owes a great deal to the audience who

participated in the recordings.

Faisal Rafi was responsible for recording the music for Indus Raag. He

records in a simple manner, focusing primarily on capturing sound

accurately. He succeeds where many fail - correctly capturing the natural

sounds of the sarangi, sitar, banjo, and flute. His greatest achievement in

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Indus Raag is the recording of

three (3) tabla solos, using a single

microphone in each, and

judiciously leaving the balancing of

the sound of the duggi (left hand

drum) and dhaavan (right hand

drum) to the percussionist instead

of handling it in the recording. The

one area where he fails is in

capturing the reaction of the

listeners. The recordings seem incomplete without the customary wah

wahs and subhanallahs of the audience.

Sharif Awan made a conscious decision to record most items during live

performances; where this was not possible, an audience was invited to the

studio. "Our music is not meant for the studio," says Malahat Awan.

"Pakistani and Indian musicians come alive in front of a knowledgeable

audience. The usual set-up of a recording studio kills their spirit. We,

therefore, recorded all the music in front of a live audience."

The Tehzeeb Foundation is an enthusiastic and passionate supporter of

the arts. They are singularly focused on our musical heritage. With Indus

Raag, they make good on their promise of working to promote, preserve

and archive our musical tradition.

The first disc in the set, aptly titled Historic Jugalbandi, features three (3)

items - Aiman, Bhairav

and Khammaj - by

Pandit Vishwa Mohan

Bhatt and Ustad Fateh

Ali Khan of Gwalior. A

grammy award

winning musician,

Bhatt plays the Mohan

Veena, a slide guitar

that he created

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himself by modifying the concord archtop guitar. The instrument has a total

of nineteen (19) strings: three (3) baaj ke taar (melody strings), four (4)

chikaari ke taar (drone strings) and twelve (12) tarab ke taar (sympathetic

strings). The Mohan Veena is a loud instrument, not ideally suited for a

jugalbandi as it tends to drown other music. Thanks to the Faisal Rafi's

superior recording technique and Bhatt's restrained playing, the jugalbandi

works well. Pandit Ji plays as an accompanist when Fateh Ali Khan sings

and comes into his own with some great interludes between Khan's vocals.

The three (3) items contain some genuinely magical moments.

Indus Raag features a magnificent khayal (popular genre of classical vocal

music) in raag Lalit by Ustad Ghulam Hassan Shaggan. He renders the

raag with a great fidelity evoking the feelings of anguish, longing and

sadness associated the Lalit. The master skillfully uses the shudh and

teevar Madhams (natural and sharp versions of the fourth) sequentially in

his rendition, making the afore-mentioned hallmark of Lalit bring the raag to

life. He makes sure that the focus on the vadi sur (dominant note in a raag)

shudh Madham does not result in shifting the notional scale in the minds of

listeners, causing the raag to sound like Miyan Ki Todi. After a sombre

aalap (opening passage of khayal sung without rhythm), Shaggan Khan

sings the traditional bandish Rain Ka Sapna in vilambit (slow tempo)

teentaal (rhythmic cycle of sixteen (16) beats) rendering it in its entirety

from sam (the first beat in a rhythmic cycle) to sam. The great Ustad of the

Gwalior gharana (school of music) is one of the few living vocalists who are

able to render complete texts of the songs accurately over the complete

aavardi (one complete cycle) of a taal (rhythmic cycle). The drut (fast

tempo) bandish in Punjabi, Bhanwda Joban Yaar Da, Dooja Nazar Naeen

Aanwada (the youth of my beloved captivates me, I am unable to see

beauty in anyone else), is one that was composed by Shaggan Khan in his

youth after he listened to a Sufi saint sing the mukhra (opening text of a

bandish) at an Urs (death anniversary). Ustad Ji's rendition of Lalit is a

lesson in raagdari (the knowledge of raag), laykari (rhythmic virtuosity),

taankari (rendering of musical passages at high speeds), and roohdari

(spiritual component of music). This is the best piece of vocal music in the

entire set.

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A regal Behag by Ustad Rais Khan is the finest piece of instrumental music

in the album. One of the greatest sitar players of all times, Rais Khan is

hands down the most sureela (melodic) sitar player in the world today. The

maestro spent many years playing sitar for the Mumbai film industry.

During this period, he developed a remarkable ability to render extremely

beautiful, short but complex pieces, composed in specific raags, as

interludes in film songs. His facility in playing aesthetically pleasing,

technically accurate and musically complete pieces during a classical

performance adds immense beauty to his music.

Behag is an Audav-Sampooran raag which means that it uses five (5)

notes in aarohi (ascent) and seven (7) notes in avrohi (descent). Rikhab

(second) and Dhaivat (sixth) are omitted in aarohi, but such rules are for

novices; master musicians can always break them. Ustad Rais Khan

breaks one often using Dhaivat and Rikhab, in a subtle manner, on several

occasions in ascent. This adds a mysterious and romantic element to his

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rendition. Khan Sahib's expert use of both the teevar and shudh Madhams

adds beauty to his authoritative presentation of the raag.

Indus Raag includes an brilliant Nat Naraini by Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan,

one of the finest classical

vocalists in India and Pakistan

today. A student of Ustad

Ghazanfar Ali Khan and Ustad

Gajoo Khan, he is greatly

influenced by Ustad Amir Khan of

Indore and consciously follows

his style. The rendition of Nat

Naraini is masterful. The ancient

raag (melodic scale) is a part of

the Sikh tradition and mentioned in the holy Sikh scripture Guru Granth

Sahib. Two (2) of the ten (10) Sikh gurus, Guru Ram Das and Guru Arjun

Dev composed shabds (Sikh

religious songs) in Nat

Naraini. Khan's rendition of

the rang is serious, somber

and deeply meditative. He

unfolds the raag in vilambit

(slow tempo) ektala (rhythmic

cycle of twelve (12) beats) at

a leisurely pace, improvising

mainly in the madh and

mandar saptaks (middle and

lower octaves). He places emphasis is on expanding the raag and on

melody. The use of alankaar (embellishments) is restrained. He ends the

khayal with a short piece in drut teen taal focusing on taankari and the

singing of sargam (sol-fa syllable).

Bilaskhani Todi is one of the most important and beautiful morning raags. It

was invented and sung by Bilas Khan at the death of his father, Miyan Tan

Sen. The raag uses the notes of the Bhaiarvi thath but its structure is

derived from Todi. This is not an easy raag to sing and reserved for master

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musicians. Ustad Naseeruddin Khan Saami sings a beautiful Bilaskhani in

Indus Raag. The gandhar (third) of Bilaskhani is lower than that of Bhaiarvi

and known as ati komal gandhar. Saami Sahib's correct use of the note

sets it apart from Bhairavi, making his Bilaskhani a standard for the correct

intonation of notes. His meends (glides) creates a atmosphere of sadness,

loss, and pathos that is fundamental to the mood of Bilaskhani Todi.

Another good Todi in the set, is Kamal Sabri's Ahiri Todi on sarangi. The

promising son of the great Ustad Sabri Khan performs the raag in a

disciplined manner and maintains its unique identity by protecting it from

the diluting influences of Ahir Bhairav, Parmeshwari and other Todis.

Two (2) junior musicians make their mark in Indus Raag. The first is the

highly talented and tayyar (prepared) vocalist Akbar Ali who sings Darbari,

Saraswati and Madhvanti along with his less talented but more popular

brother Javed Bashir. At a very young age, Ali displays a keen

understanding of music, has a commanding stage presence and

demonstrates an noteworthy ability to engage the audience. His rich voice

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spans a full three (3) octaves and is

being cultured under the guidance of

Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan. Akbar

understands tabla and rhythm well and

finds it easy to demonstrate superior

layakari in his performances. Originally

from a family of qawwals, Akbar's

future as a competent khayal singer

seems to destined. Mumtaz Ali

Sabzal, a young musician from

Baluchistan, plays Behag and Basant

expertly on a modified version of the

African banjo. Sabzal has a keen

sense for improvisation and a

versatility not found often in classical

musicians. He plays a folk dhun

(composition) with the same gusto and

proficiency that he displays in his

classical pieces.

The set include three (3) tabla solos, each one important in its own right.

The first is a traditional solo of teentaal by Ustad Bashir Khan. One of the

finest players of tabla in Pakistan, Bashir Khan is a student of the Ustad

Karim Baksh Pairna who was a staff artist at Radio Pakistan in Quetta. The

solo is the one of the very few high quality solo recordings of Bashir Khan

available today and features some rare, heretofore unpublished,

compositions of Ustad Budhay Khan of Narowal, Ustad Nabi Baksh Khan

Kaalaria and Ustad Karim Baksh Pairna.

Ustad Karim Baksh Pairna was known for two (2) things in addition to his

mastery of tabla. One was his intense rivalry with Ustad Ahmad Jan

Thirakwa and the other was his knowledge of some exceedingly rare taals

including the twenty-five (25) beat Durga and the twenty-nine (29) beat Nau

Taal Ki Sawari. His student, Nazir Khan, plays a solo of Durga Taal in

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Indus Raag. Known more for his accompaniment for folk artist Abida

Parveen, Nazir Khan's handles the complex taal in a competent manner.

The third tabla solo in Indus Raag is a rendition of the ten (10) beat

Jhaptaal by Shahbaz Hussain. A student, among others, of Ustad Miyan

Shaukat Hussain Khan, Shahbaz shows the greatest promise amongst

Pakistan's young tabla

players. Shahbaz is

today the best

representative of Miyan

Sahib's style of tabla. His

solo is dignified, mature

and disciplined. He

proves that there is more

to playing tabla than just

ginatkaari (arithmetic)

and tezi (speed) by

placing an equal

emphasis on timing,

traditional compositions,

and the tonal quality of

his instrument. His bols

(tabla syllables) are

clean, crisp and accurate.

He plays authentic compositions of both Delhi and Punjab in the solo,

having learnt from masters of both gharanas. His pace is relaxed and

leisurely, giving listeners the time to assimilate and enjoy his music. A total

lack of gimmickry and artifice in the solo lends it maturity rarely seen in

Pakistani musicians of his age. Perhaps, the greatest quality of his tabla is

its tonal quality. The sound is rich and commanding, reminiscent of the

sound of the inimitable Miyan Sahib.

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The set features a competent Shahana Kanhra by Asad Qizilbash on the

sarod, a wonderful Shyam

Kalyan by Ashraf Sharif

Khan on the sitar, an

earnest Kafi in Sindh

Bhairavi by Shoukat

Manzoor, five (5) short but

earnest pieces by brothers

Jawad and Mazhar Ali

Khan, and a scintillating

Hemavati by Salamat

Hussain on the flute.

Not all items in Indus Raag are great. It has its share of lackluster

performances, most notably by Hamid Ali Khan of the Patiala gharana, and

some decidedly poor ones.

Hamid Ali Khan sings an

uninspiring Gunkali and a

jaded Kalavati in Indus

Raag. The performance is

unbecoming for a musician

of his lineage. One expects

singing of this caliber from

younger musicians with

significantly less experience;

not from a direct descendant

of the founders of the Patiala

gharana. A singer who showed tremendous promise a few decades ago,

Hamid Ali Khan disappoints thoroughly in Indus Raag.

Another musician of the Patiala gharana, Raza Ali Khan, fares much worse

in Indus Raag. The grandson of the doyen of the Patiala gharana, Bade

Ghulam Ali Khan, and the son of Ustad Munawwar Ali Khan, Raza Ali Khan

is a sad disappointment to make an understatement. His Purbi and Kamod

have no virtue other than brevity. Again, one expects a whole lot more from

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a musician of such great

lineage. What we get instead is

insipid recitations of great

bandishes (musical

compositions) of Bade Ghulam

Ali Khan without even a trace of

the intricate chaumukhia gaiyiki

(versatility in singing

encompassing multiple genres)

of one of the greatest musicians

of all time.

Its few shortcomings notwithstanding, Tehzeeb Foundation's Indus Raag -

Collector's Edition features a great body of work and bears testimony to

magic that is created by the confluence great musical performance,

accompaniment, listening and recording. A job well done.