MAestros de Tapan Bhattacharya
-Late PANDIT ASUTOSH BHATTACHARYA-
Nació, el 17 de marzo de 1917, hijo y nieto de una familia de famosos doctores bengalíes, en medicina ayurvédica. Desde niño
mostró un interés especial por los instrumentos de percusión, por lo que comenzó, a los ocho años, su formación musical en pakhawaj, instrumento de percusión del sur de la India. Unos años después, escucha en un concierto a Ustad Kanthe Maharaj, uno de los grandes intérpretes de tabla de Benares Gharana, y decide que quiere aprender tabla con él. En 1938, a los 21 años, comienza a ser reconocida su gran destreza como tablista, realiza su primera actuación como acompañante del gran maestro Ustad Allaudin Khan, llamado «el abuelo de la moderna Música Clásica India» y conocido en occidente por ser el guru de Pt. Ravi Shankar (de quien Kaviraj fué compañero en la escuela), al igual que Ali Akbar Khan (hijo de Allaudin) y Nikhil Banerjee.
Siguiendo los pasos de la tradición familiar, viaja a Delhi para atender sus
estudios de medicina Ayurvédica, en el Ayurvedic College, durante 5 años.
Al mismo tiempo que acude a clases, estudia y hace prácticas en la clínica de su maestro, mantiene su practica de tabla, da clases los domingos, además de
actuar en conciertos y en la All India Radio con Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan y Vilayat Khan, entre otros…
Después de completar su carrera, regresa a Varanasi, donde abre su propia
consulta médica. Allí continua profundizando en el aprendizaje de la tabla con su Guru, practicando alrededor de 6 horas diarias, además de seguir dando
conciertos e impartiendo clases, de tabla, a un gran número de discípulos.
En este momento de su vida es cuando decide que la medicina será su profesión y la música su pasión, por lo que nunca recibe dinero por sus actuaciones. Por ello no ha realizado ninguna grabación profesional, aunque quizás, se puedan encontrar algunas grabaciones en los archivos de All India Radio.
Una de sus creencias es que la música debe ser una experiencia divina, que
sólo puede surgir después de años de intensa práctica y devoción. La música
debe ser como una ofrenda a Dios y hay que dejar que la inspiración aparezca espontáneamente, lo cual, solo puede ocurrir cuando uno esta completamente
libre y en comunión con su instrumento, debido a una práctica intensiva y una devoción intensa. A menudo comenta que la música clásica India actual es muy ostentosa, rápida y difícil, pero carece de la profundidad de antaño…
-Late PANDIT SHANKAR GHOSE-
Hailed as one of the all-time greats of Indian Classical Music, Pandit Shankar Ghosh has, for more than four decades now, regaled audiences all over the world with his unique «baaj» of Tabla playing. Universally regarded as an innovative genius, he has, besides, performing with the greatest of master musicians of this century, added a whole new dimension to the art of solo Tabla playing. His many compositions have become an intrinsic part of classical Tabla playing.
Pandit Shankar Ghosh trained mainly with the great Guru of the Tabla Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh. His other teachers included Ustad Feroz Khan, Pandit Anath Nath Bose and Pandit Sudarshan Adhikari.
Pandit Ghosh’s illustrious career has had many highlighted moments. One such moment, which marked a major movement in his musical life, was when; in 1962 he visited the United States of America with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. From then onwards, for the next ten years he was to experiment with the percussion form with a variety of great musicians in the west. All the while, as he toured with Ali Akbarji, he also musically joined hands with immortal bands like the «Grateful Deads»(whose drummer Mickey Hart was Shankarji’s student) and performed with the renowned saxophonist John Handy. In fact it was during this phase that the germ to create the all-drum orchestra Music of the Drums (later re-christened as the Calcutta Drum Orchestra) took seed in his mind.
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The concept of an all drum orchestra was unique in itself though especially Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh had previously conducted before, experiments with drums. However, the form was the ensemble and not the orchestra. The orchestral dimension was brought in by Shankarji who created such a wonder that his orchestra held audiences mesmerised for three hours, drum-struck in the world woven by the master percussionist. Memorable performances of the orchestra were the 1982 ASIAD finale and the performance at the Royal Albert Hall, London for the BBC PROMS 100th year celebrations.
Listing the great artistes that Shankarji has accompanied over the last forty odd years would read like a who’s who list of the Indian Classical Music world. It would be enough to say that there was no area of our music, be it instrumental, vocal or dance that Shankarji did not excel in and which was not enriched by his keen sense of artistry.
Throughout his career he has been bestowed with awards galore. The latest to hold pride of place are the ITC award and the Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan award.
Shankarji has innumerable recordings available worldwide. Of late he has ventured into composing music for stage productions as well as theme albums.
Finally, Shankarji has secured a place for himself among the greatest Guru’s of all time through his wide influence as a teacher of Tabla all over the world. This is amply exampled by the sheer number of students of his that are top rung tabaliyas today.