By Kavita Chhibber
Photo : Ajit Acharya
After the sold out highly successful inaugural concert starring
Shiv Kumar Sharma and Zakir Hussain, ICMS presented their 2nd
concert on May 8th at Emory University’s White Hall. The artists
were Kushal Das who seems to be making quite a few waves as a
sitar player whose music a lot of people like immensely.
 A
friend of mine flew in especially from out of town to hear him
play. Das comes from a musical family, with grandfather Late
Bimal Ch Das playing the esraj and both his father and uncle
Shri Sailen Das and Sri Santanu Das both well known sitarists.
It was but natural for him to be involved in musical pursuits.
Kushal Das began the concert with the devotional rag Marwa. I
remember reading an interview with Nayan Ghosh where he said
“Marwa has a different flavor; some people say it is vira
(heroic), but no, it's more karuna (longing). There is a feeling
of loneliness in Marwa because the 'sa' (tonic) is used in such
little quantity; you feel something is missing! and finally you
get it ..but as soon as you get it, it's gone again from you!
It's fleeting. So Marwa makes you feel lonely.” I’m not sure if
that was entirely true in this concert, but the alap created a
mood of meditative stillness, when many members of the audience
seemed to close their eyes and lose themselves in the notes.
Kushal Das has often been compared to the legendary Nikhil
Banerjee and the touch of the maestro is evident in the richness
of his play, though I never seen any sitar player hold the sitar
so close to his body.
Ajit Acharya, a musician, who flew in especially from out of
town, to hear Das play said that the posture notwithstanding,
Das has immense technical mastery over his instrument. His notes
were crisp, even at the fastest speeds. He also showed flashes
of creativity in his improvisations, sliding from one note to
the next with soft, lyrical touches. Following the unaccompanied
alap, jor and jhalla, Abhijit Banerjee announced his entry with
a restrained tabla solo. The first composition in Jhaptal, a 10
beat rhythmic cycle, alternated many passages of interplay
between sitar and tabla. The artists then began with a faster
composition in Teental, a 16 beat rhythmic cycle. As the pace
sped to a frenetic tempo, both Das and Banerjee remained in
sync. They concluded with an exciting crescendo before the
intermission, and the small audience roared its appreciation.
Marwa was followed by Bageshree and a beautiful dhun in raga
Mishra Pahadi that had everyone swaying with with joy. Abhijit
Banerjee and Das seem to be very comfortable with each other and
their jugalbandi seemed to flow pretty well. Banerjee has an
interesting background. Apart from being the favorite table
player among vocalists, and jazz musicians he has a degree in
journalism.
The concert was sparsely attended, and people in Atlanta who
chose not to show up missed an evening of rich melody and some
truly beautiful music. Its about time people in Atlanta who
spend so many dollars going to innane Bollywood shows patronise
organizations like ICMS that works so hard to host stellar
artist throughout the years.
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