"If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be
free to follow wherever that search may lead us"
free to follow wherever that search may lead us"
Supreme Knowledge is knowing the supreme self. The quest for knowing the supreme self culminates in the recognition of the fact that "That I am" tat thvam asi, becoming one with the self and thus the knower becomes the known.
A boy of 11 had this courage to pursue what his being recognized to be real knowledge. For Pt Bhimsen Joshi, nAdha was the Brahman, the supreme self. His pursuit which then commenced ended on the day of Bahula Panchami when Pt Ji became Music itself, from being a musician.
Leaving behind the mortal coil Joshi ji got unmanifest as the all pervading nAdhabrahma.
Bhimsen Joshi - The Personality
Joshi Ji, the legend had his seed for life in Ron Village of Gadag District, Uttara Karnataka. His 'Swara Pradhan' music germinated with Bhajans that reached him from his surroundings. Joshi Ji's grandfather Bhimasenacharya was an exponent of Keertana form of music. Joshi Ji's inclination towards Music grew leaps and bounds after he listened to Ustad Abdul Karim Khan's Thumri in Jhinjhoti "Piya Bin Nahi Aavat Chain". This inclination made Joshi Ji a wanderer in pursuit of his music Guru. Joshi Ji traveled for three long years during which he visited Delhi, Kolkata, Bijapur, Pune, Lucknow, Gwalior, Rampur and Punjab. He had a short tutelage under Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan at Madhav School of Music in Gwalior.
Joshi Ji's unending quest for music tutelage made him approach Shri Rambhau Kundgolkar alias Sawai Gandharva, one of the chief disciples of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. Sawai Gandharva was an eminent Khyal Vocalist and torch bearer of Kirana Gharana, unique school of music developed by Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. Sawai Gandharva agreed to be his Guru.
Since 1936, Joshi Ji had found his Guru and his meticulous training had begun after 18 months. The training adopted all the rules of the Guru-Shishya Parampara. Bhimsen Joshi was sparkling with great musical intricacies imbibed from his Guru. Joshi Ji continued training under Sawai Gandharva till 1940.
Joshi Ji impressed by the presentation of rAg natmalhAr by guru Mushtaq Hussain, followed him to Rampur. Joshi Ji stayed at Rampur for 6 months. Joshi Ji then moved to Lucknow, where he met Begum Akhtar. Begum was impressed by Joshi Ji's rendering of cheez in rAg Bhairav. Begum then led Joshi Ji to AIR Lucknow with a job offer as an artiste. Joshi Ji came across Ustad Bismillah Khan as his colleague at AIR Lucknow.
Bhimsen Joshi imbibed Kesarbai Kerkar's open-mouthed voice production and laya bound treatment of khyAl with tAn patterns from Ustad Amir Khan with his own style and creativity to enrich his presentations.
Joshi Ji's first break came from his presentation of rAg MiyAn kI malhAr at the 60th birthday of his Guru. Joshi Ji's presentation enthralled the audience and the excellence in Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was recognized.
Joshi Ji was a simple man. Some of his interests included driving car at greater speeds as his drut presentations. He also enjoyed swimming to take care of his breath control.
Pandit Joshi's approach to music was learning music for music's sake by listening to great masters and total devotion of life to the art. Joshi Ji laid emphasis on singing with faith in the notes and said that 'invoking a raag is like invoking God'. These were some other points that he constantly stressed on:
Joshi ji - the Stellar Musician and his Music
Here is a childlike attempt to count the musical waves deluging out of ocean in our joshi ji.
Though not bestowed with a melodious and fine voice, Joshi ji had a deep, penetrating and resonating voice. He generally sang in D, still could comfortably traverse across atleast two and a half octaves. That he put his heart and soul while rendering a Khyal could be realized from his full throated singing, in fact straining his vocal cord without retorting to false voice singing.
Joshi ji had a very huge heart and was a very humble and modest person. Joshi ji never expressed any of the arrogance which his artistic genius would entitle him to. On the dias he would sit erect, his eyes looking up as if inviting and invoking the God of music and getting submerged in the divine inundation of his own music, performing the tapas.
Joshi ji never tried to be gimmicky but never refrained from being acrobatic and virtuositic. Dazzling tans, superfast thihais were regular parts of his performances but they were supremely spontaneous and impromptu and never a precalculated artithmetic. He astutely maintained a perfect balance between innovation and tradition. He never compromised on a purely classical rendition of a Khyal for the sake of mass appeal or to make his presentation sound unconventional. At the same time brought several innovations to vocal singing which was until then alien to his lineage of music, the kirana gharana.
Joshi ji brought an element of forcefulness and aggression into the otherwise serene kirana gharana. Bursting taans, andolans, highly speedy but closely packed and knit swaras were characteristic of Joshi ji's music. No matter how electrifying his presentation was, the elements of poignancy and devotion were never compromised. His was always an emotive rendition and always bhava laden.
A very important aspect of Joshi ji's style was his singing of s r g m p d n as ss rr gg mm and so on or ssss rrrr ggg mmm in the drut segments. Such a pattern is called Jhantai in carnatic music system.
Listen to a musical sample of Pt ji singing a taan in drut teental in raga Brindavani sarang.
Singing such structurally simple yet extremely speedy briga laden passages demand terrific practice and voice culture.
Such patterns of singing for which Ali Brothers of Pakisthan were very famous became a trend in vocal singing and a stamp of kirana gharana for the posterity to practice and perform.
Another stunning aspect of joshi ji's music was his breath control. Listen to an audio clip that stands as one of the several examples for his breath control.
Pt ji did experiment with new ragas and improvised his own ragas. Lalit Bhatiyar, Kalashree Kambhavathi, Ramkali, Chaya Malhar, Sur Malhar, Savani, Shudh Malu were some of the rare ragas he immortalized. Nevertheless Joshiji preferred elaborating on popular ragas for the bada khyal. Ragas like todi, darbari, Puriya, Puryadhanashree, Yaman, multani remained his favorites. His bada khyal or the main segment of a presentation would be a very thorough exposition of a raga starting from the lower segment of the octave, exploring the raga note by note gradually unfurling the beauty of the raga. Once the raga swaroop is firmly established in the minds of the listener, faster passages would follow where dynamic vocalism and briskness are exhibited.
Pandit ji was a musician for a connoisseur and for a layman simultaneously. While his raga elaboration and purity in shruthi alignment silenced even his critics, his bhajans tumris and abhangs enchanted even the laymen. Joshiji popularized the devarnamas (compositions of Saint Purandharadasa, Kanakadasa etc) and marathi abhangs and performed in several concerts and inundated the listeners in wave of divine intoxication.
Listen to the abhang Pandaricha vaasa Chandra baghe snan that would bring incessant tears of bhakthi.
Joshi ji did justice to his role both as a guru and as a shishya. Celebrating his guru Pt Sawai Gandarva Joshi ji organized Music festival every year since 1960 in the name of Sawai gandarwa Music festival at Pune, attracting thousands of listeners across the globe and artists to perform. As a teacher, he has brought up several students under his tutelage, some of them include his son Srinivas Joshi and others like Anant Terdal, Ramkrishna Patwardhan, Srikant Deshpande, Vinayak Torvi, Madhavi Gudi and Sripati Padigar. It is a point beyond doubt that there can be no vocalist who was not influenced by Pandit ji's style and his music will continue inspiring many more musicians and aspirants in years to come.
A boy of 11 had this courage to pursue what his being recognized to be real knowledge. For Pt Bhimsen Joshi, nAdha was the Brahman, the supreme self. His pursuit which then commenced ended on the day of Bahula Panchami when Pt Ji became Music itself, from being a musician.
Leaving behind the mortal coil Joshi ji got unmanifest as the all pervading nAdhabrahma.
Bhimsen Joshi - The Personality
Joshi Ji, the legend had his seed for life in Ron Village of Gadag District, Uttara Karnataka. His 'Swara Pradhan' music germinated with Bhajans that reached him from his surroundings. Joshi Ji's grandfather Bhimasenacharya was an exponent of Keertana form of music. Joshi Ji's inclination towards Music grew leaps and bounds after he listened to Ustad Abdul Karim Khan's Thumri in Jhinjhoti "Piya Bin Nahi Aavat Chain". This inclination made Joshi Ji a wanderer in pursuit of his music Guru. Joshi Ji traveled for three long years during which he visited Delhi, Kolkata, Bijapur, Pune, Lucknow, Gwalior, Rampur and Punjab. He had a short tutelage under Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan at Madhav School of Music in Gwalior.
Joshi Ji's unending quest for music tutelage made him approach Shri Rambhau Kundgolkar alias Sawai Gandharva, one of the chief disciples of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. Sawai Gandharva was an eminent Khyal Vocalist and torch bearer of Kirana Gharana, unique school of music developed by Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. Sawai Gandharva agreed to be his Guru.
Since 1936, Joshi Ji had found his Guru and his meticulous training had begun after 18 months. The training adopted all the rules of the Guru-Shishya Parampara. Bhimsen Joshi was sparkling with great musical intricacies imbibed from his Guru. Joshi Ji continued training under Sawai Gandharva till 1940.
Joshi Ji impressed by the presentation of rAg natmalhAr by guru Mushtaq Hussain, followed him to Rampur. Joshi Ji stayed at Rampur for 6 months. Joshi Ji then moved to Lucknow, where he met Begum Akhtar. Begum was impressed by Joshi Ji's rendering of cheez in rAg Bhairav. Begum then led Joshi Ji to AIR Lucknow with a job offer as an artiste. Joshi Ji came across Ustad Bismillah Khan as his colleague at AIR Lucknow.
Bhimsen Joshi imbibed Kesarbai Kerkar's open-mouthed voice production and laya bound treatment of khyAl with tAn patterns from Ustad Amir Khan with his own style and creativity to enrich his presentations.
Joshi Ji's first break came from his presentation of rAg MiyAn kI malhAr at the 60th birthday of his Guru. Joshi Ji's presentation enthralled the audience and the excellence in Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was recognized.
Joshi Ji was a simple man. Some of his interests included driving car at greater speeds as his drut presentations. He also enjoyed swimming to take care of his breath control.
Pandit Joshi's approach to music was learning music for music's sake by listening to great masters and total devotion of life to the art. Joshi Ji laid emphasis on singing with faith in the notes and said that 'invoking a raag is like invoking God'. These were some other points that he constantly stressed on:
- An artiste should aim for the audience's hearts, their minds.
- He did not approve of overenthusiastic youth taking to music just to give programmes and earn a fan following.
- Aspiring musicians should spend at least 15 to 20 years mastering the art and should refrain from beginning their performing careers until they are at least 30 to 35 years old. Allow the artiste in them to mature,
Joshi ji - the Stellar Musician and his Music
As the dark clouds gather to shower manna on earth...
As the breeze wifts through every leaf in the tree....
As the bee picks up nectar from the flowers...
As Natural as Pure as Straight as Resonating his Music can be...
Only as our Joshi Ji unfurls his purest music...
As the breeze wifts through every leaf in the tree....
As the bee picks up nectar from the flowers...
As Natural as Pure as Straight as Resonating his Music can be...
Only as our Joshi Ji unfurls his purest music...
Here is a childlike attempt to count the musical waves deluging out of ocean in our joshi ji.
Though not bestowed with a melodious and fine voice, Joshi ji had a deep, penetrating and resonating voice. He generally sang in D, still could comfortably traverse across atleast two and a half octaves. That he put his heart and soul while rendering a Khyal could be realized from his full throated singing, in fact straining his vocal cord without retorting to false voice singing.
Joshi ji had a very huge heart and was a very humble and modest person. Joshi ji never expressed any of the arrogance which his artistic genius would entitle him to. On the dias he would sit erect, his eyes looking up as if inviting and invoking the God of music and getting submerged in the divine inundation of his own music, performing the tapas.
Joshi ji never tried to be gimmicky but never refrained from being acrobatic and virtuositic. Dazzling tans, superfast thihais were regular parts of his performances but they were supremely spontaneous and impromptu and never a precalculated artithmetic. He astutely maintained a perfect balance between innovation and tradition. He never compromised on a purely classical rendition of a Khyal for the sake of mass appeal or to make his presentation sound unconventional. At the same time brought several innovations to vocal singing which was until then alien to his lineage of music, the kirana gharana.
Joshi ji brought an element of forcefulness and aggression into the otherwise serene kirana gharana. Bursting taans, andolans, highly speedy but closely packed and knit swaras were characteristic of Joshi ji's music. No matter how electrifying his presentation was, the elements of poignancy and devotion were never compromised. His was always an emotive rendition and always bhava laden.
A very important aspect of Joshi ji's style was his singing of s r g m p d n as ss rr gg mm and so on or ssss rrrr ggg mmm in the drut segments. Such a pattern is called Jhantai in carnatic music system.
Listen to a musical sample of Pt ji singing a taan in drut teental in raga Brindavani sarang.
|
Singing such structurally simple yet extremely speedy briga laden passages demand terrific practice and voice culture.
Such patterns of singing for which Ali Brothers of Pakisthan were very famous became a trend in vocal singing and a stamp of kirana gharana for the posterity to practice and perform.
Another stunning aspect of joshi ji's music was his breath control. Listen to an audio clip that stands as one of the several examples for his breath control.
|
Pt ji did experiment with new ragas and improvised his own ragas. Lalit Bhatiyar, Kalashree Kambhavathi, Ramkali, Chaya Malhar, Sur Malhar, Savani, Shudh Malu were some of the rare ragas he immortalized. Nevertheless Joshiji preferred elaborating on popular ragas for the bada khyal. Ragas like todi, darbari, Puriya, Puryadhanashree, Yaman, multani remained his favorites. His bada khyal or the main segment of a presentation would be a very thorough exposition of a raga starting from the lower segment of the octave, exploring the raga note by note gradually unfurling the beauty of the raga. Once the raga swaroop is firmly established in the minds of the listener, faster passages would follow where dynamic vocalism and briskness are exhibited.
Pandit ji was a musician for a connoisseur and for a layman simultaneously. While his raga elaboration and purity in shruthi alignment silenced even his critics, his bhajans tumris and abhangs enchanted even the laymen. Joshiji popularized the devarnamas (compositions of Saint Purandharadasa, Kanakadasa etc) and marathi abhangs and performed in several concerts and inundated the listeners in wave of divine intoxication.
Listen to the abhang Pandaricha vaasa Chandra baghe snan that would bring incessant tears of bhakthi.
Joshi ji did justice to his role both as a guru and as a shishya. Celebrating his guru Pt Sawai Gandarva Joshi ji organized Music festival every year since 1960 in the name of Sawai gandarwa Music festival at Pune, attracting thousands of listeners across the globe and artists to perform. As a teacher, he has brought up several students under his tutelage, some of them include his son Srinivas Joshi and others like Anant Terdal, Ramkrishna Patwardhan, Srikant Deshpande, Vinayak Torvi, Madhavi Gudi and Sripati Padigar. It is a point beyond doubt that there can be no vocalist who was not influenced by Pandit ji's style and his music will continue inspiring many more musicians and aspirants in years to come.
Joshi ji’s Musical Career:
Pt Ji had a fairly long performing career. It was in his 19th year that Pt ji gave his first public performance and since then he never looked back. Right from his 20s Joshi ji had a flurry of concerts and series of LP recordings. As was the case of getting several other contemporary maestros recorded, HMV released Joshi Ji’s first LP and that was a roaring success. The first LP record released had Todi, Darbari and Malkuans sung by pt ji and they saw unprecedented public appreciation. Since then it was queue of recording houses thronging joshi ji making him probably highest recorded musician of the country. Joshi ji had extremely hectic recording and concert schedules across the country and was in-fact termed as the flying musician of India. GN Joshi of HMV who was instrumental in getting some of the all time greats of pt ji recorded in LP notes that Pt ji had an unbelievably flexible voice that enabled him to traverse at terrific speeds, a great range of three and a half octaves.
Ever since the 40s until 2007 when Pt ji gave his last surprise concert at the sawai gandarva, Pt ji rode the crest of popularity enthralling the audience worldwide. His musical acumen was recognized by people all around the globe and not surprisingly awards and accolades showered on Pt ji. But it took about 30 long years, after Pt ji embarked on his musical journey, for the government of India to recognize our Joshi ji’s music to award Padmashri in his 50th year!! Even worse were delayed Padmabhushan in the year 1985 and Padmavibhusahan in the year 1999. As an atonement to these delays Joshi ji was awarded Baratharathna - the hightest civilian award in the year 2008. It is not an overstatement that Joshi ji felicitated the government by getting conferred the title, for no award would commensurate the reverence we discerning rasikas hold in our hearts for our Pt Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi
PURIYA DHANASHRI – Proof of the Pudding
We shall relish in a rendition of raga Puryadhanashri, recorded in early 50s.
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This recording bear testimony to the fact that joshi ji was a confident performer and never doubted his capacity. Barely in his 30s with stalwarts seated ahead, musical career under test, a presentation as this vouch safe for the maestro's musical genius.
The concert starts with a very poignant vilambit khyal "pAr karO". First few minutes of the rendition revolves around Nishad of the lower scale which is also the sam and slowly progresses to firmly establish the mood of the raga. Around 8 min into the vilambit we can hear some sargam being presented.
At this juncture it is noteworthy to mention about Pt ji's sargam singing ability. Sargam singing was not a popular aspect in Hindustani music system until Ustad Bade Gulam Ali khan Sahib and Ustad Amir Khan popularized it. Pandit ji probably under the influence of these contemporaries introduced sargam singing early in his musical career but abandoned later. Artists from Jaipur, Agra Gwaliour etc totally abstain from singing the sargams or sing very occasionally. While artists from few other gharanas like Rampur, Indore, mewati etc include sargam singing but it is generally monotonous and lacks spontaneity. The burst of sargams at around 25 min into the vilambit, makes us think, in fact regretfully, why Pt Ji chose not to continue presenting sargams for the rest of his career.
As the rendition proceeds at around 14 min some rapid taans are introduced. Pt ji effortless traverses upto the Upper Pancham and sings some breath taking taans leaving the listeners spell bound. Some taans as long as upto 15 seconds. At 27.30 a stunning koot taan ggg nnn ggg(upper) nnn ggg(upper) showcases Pt Ji vocal prowess.
After a 28 min vilamit Khayl, drut khyal "pAyaliyan Jhankar" is taken up which is simply beyond any vocabulary brilliance. The ati drut passages with its flurry of lightning speed sapat, gamak and koot taans are just evidences that Pt Ji was a man with every cell, nerve and vein filled with nothing other than pure music.
Wonderful article. It is one of the best tributes, perhaps the best, that we have read on Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.
ReplyDeleteBest Wishes,
Jeyaraaj and Jaysri
nice article and nice recordings thank you for posting nice picture of panduranga and rukumaiefrom hemalatha
ReplyDeletelike this.... pls write on pt. madhav gudi regards...
ReplyDeletemaalathi...