Kajri bandishes inspired by Bismillah Khan preserved on CD
(No Ratings Yet)A die-hard traditionalist, late shehnai ‘doyen’ Bismillah Khan took many years to accept using technology to promote his music and his instrument.
He was known to create a fuss when his stage was cluttered up with microphones, fold-backs and other hi-tech gizmos.
Today however his “manasputri” Soma Ghosh has released two CD’s on traditional Indian styles of the Benaras Gharana to “provide sustenance to those of the younger generation seeking knowlege and research in these areas”.
Ghosh, who spent last four years of her singing career in close contact with Khan, said her CD’s are aimed at preserving streams of music which “did not have the benefit of recording facilities in earlier years”.
“So many great artistes and concerts have been lost to later generations because so many artists those days refused technology… Many artists of yesteryears even refused microphones”, she said.
“It is now necessary to preserve at least the little that we have left”, she told PTI yesterday.
Ghosh’s CD’s, centre on the semi-classical forms of “kajri, hori and chaiti” took three years to make and were released in Varanasi last week.
“Kajri was a favourite of Bismillah and he played it everywhere and some of the bandishes recorded on the CD’s are inspired by him,” she said.
— PTI
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