Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasiya - Page 2

Here's some pieces frm the book Romance of the Bamboo Reed

------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------

Uma Vasudev traces the musical odyssey of the renowned flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia in the biography Romance of the Bamboo Reed

THE little boy's father was the famed Chedi Lal Pehalwan, the wrestler. He wanted his three sons to be wrestlers like him. As a disciplined devotee he would sing the devotional hymns at the morning prayers. But that was far as music could go. No question of trying out the flute in front of him, thought Hari. But away from his father's watchful eye, away from the rituals at home and the school and the competitive yells of the wrestlings pit, he would sneak out whenever he could with his stolen flute. He would find a hidden corner and take delight in the few notes he could coerce out of the bamboo reed. In a family governed by a man obsessed with creating an ancestry of wrestlers, Hari realised that he dared not articulate his fascination with something as far removed and contrary as music. If his father felt that he harboured any ambitions other than to follow in his footsteps, Hari knew he would get a sound thrashing. His father packed a wrestler's punch.

* * *

Whenever Hari would ask anyone about his mother, he would be told, "She'll be back." The tragedy was never allowed to sink into his mind. The result was that their father came into his life in a bigger way. Not only as the idol they had to try and emulate, but as a concerned, doting but disciplinarian parent. He would cook all the meals. He would not let even his daughter enter the kitchen. He would make them eat well and pack the food for them to take to school. And at night they would all sleep together on a large cot. But Hari began to feel the emptiness, which in a sense never left him, the big void that he felt for a mother who was just not there. The house would look bereft when he came back from school. His sister would be busy with her tuitions. A tutor would come for him too. But he missed his mother. He kept waiting for her to come back. .. The one place that he could visit with impunity was the temple nearby where the priests would be singing the devotional melodies through which they also told the saga of the gods.

* * *

Originally posted by: Barnali

Yes anol he is my fav. Thanx anu fr starting this topic. I will surely contribute. hav lot of his recordings too. Try to upload thm all.

I have met this person many times. One thng abt him I can say is tht he is very simple, soft spoken and down to earth person. And whn he starts playing the flute he himself somehw luks like goes into tht music. At times it seems tht he maybe even dnt realise tht there r people sititng listening to him.

you are absolutely rt barnali di..

jab hum unke flute sunte hain toh mann ko ek sukun aur shanti milti hain.. When ever im disturbed, i listen to his flute and it takes away all the worries...

Baba Ustad Allauddin Khan, his daughter Annapurna Devi and Chaurasia

"I just have to learn from Annapurnaji," Hari said.

"Ma doesn't really teach anybody," Shubhendra said inviting him in. "But if you can persuade her, you're welcome."

When she saw him, she exclaimed impatiently, "You've turned up again! I told you I can't teach you."

He decided to be circumspect. "No, no, I haven't come for that. I've come to see Subho."

"Accha, accha," she relaxed immediately. "Don't come to learn, OK?"

"No, of course not, I won't."

He looked her son's age. "Have something to eat or drink," she said.

This cat and mouse game went on for a year. Sometimes, even Ravi Shankar would be there, but in his room, having a bath or preparing to practice.

"Do you want to meet him?" she asked.

"No."

"You didn't ever think of learning from him?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I wanted to learn only from Annapurnaji," he told her.

* * *

Annapurna was also unrelenting. "All that you did just now is useless. It is like a monkey's dance. You'll have to be like an elephant, slow and steady."

He understood. "I'm ready," he said.

"But you won't be able to give up your old follies."

"I'll give up everything."

"We'll have to start from the beginning, from sa re ga ma again."

"I'll do that."

He wondered how he could convince her. Suddenly he had an idea. "You can change my position," he said. "I'll start afresh. I'll hold the bansuri on the left side. I'll play with my left hand."

"You won't be able to do it," she said, quite startled, "You may say so, but you can't. If you do, I'll have full confidence in you."

"You'll see, ma."

"Next time you come, you must play the alankar, as it should be, in slow elaboration, gradually increasing the tempo and then....He vowed to himself that he would do it all. He would not give up anything. But he would do what she had asked or challenged him to do. I'll do it all. I'll not leave my film recordings, I'll not let my earnings drop, I'll play my ten -second bits for the orchestra and even while the composer gives instructions for the next item, and the mike is being tested, and the playback singer is rehearsing, I'll go to another corner and practice shifting the flute from the right and holding it on the left. I'll do it and show her.

* * *

* * *

East blends with West: Hariprasad Chaurasia and George Harrison

"The qualities that a guru must have are not related to sangeet or music alone. He should have lagav, a concern, for the world's traditions or parampara. He should have concern for nature, for the family, so that he should be able to teach a child how to respect human kind. Even more than music he should be able to reach the disciple to have regard for older people, how to honour the gurujan, the teachers, those who represent knowledge and wisdom. In fact, a guru must teach you how to live..." — Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia

Annapurna brought a glass of water and a plate of sweets for Hari. She always did. He took a sip of water.

"Alright, play," she said.

So Hari played, holding the big flute on the left and traversing the notes with his left hand. He played the scales the way she had wanted, evoked the approved tone from the flute and even the difficult, repetitive, guttural sounds of the gamak. She was impressed. She was herself an artist and an exponent of the surbahaar. She realised what it must have taken to habituate the left hand to this kind of expertise. It was unprecedented.

* * *

It was soon after this that Hariprasad faced his first major challenge. He was invited to play at the prestigious Harvallabh Festival of Music at Jalandhar in November, 1967. It is always held in the freezing winter of Punjab nights, out in the open. But it has one of the most discerning audiences for classical music in India. It is attended by established connoisseurs, gurus and ustads of music, theorists, performers and critics and above all, ordinary men and women from neighbouring towns and villages, honed to expertise by the experience of listening to the finest musicians every year. It is their reactions more than anything else which make or unmake the newcomers ...

One should plunge into it. Arey bhai, I didn't participate in those wrestling matches despite my father's repeated exhortations, but now at least I can do battle, jump into the fray. This time the fight is for what I want, meri iccha ka kaam ho raha hai! He would not let go such an opportunity. He had the confidence. After all, behind me, backing me, is the teaching of a great guru. His similes, when he was thinking, came despite himself from his years of growth against a background of wrestling.

He set himself a gruelling regimen of practice sessions, a concentrate of riyaaz and tayyari. The evening before the performance, he sat up the whole night practising, wondering which raga he should finally choose. His hand began to tremble. He was filled with such overwhelming love for the people out there who could sit through nights like this with such passion in their love for music that he put his heart and soul into his performance. The notes began to flow with practiced ease along the air and through the fog into the heart of the audience. When he finished, they burst into applause. .. Soon he was surrounded by critics and the press. His doubts were dispelled the next day when he saw the papers. They proclaimed him "the rising son of the bamboo reed...."

That very evening, Hariprasad went to the temple and offered his homage to the Goddess Saraswati. Somehow the image of Annapurna Devi seemed to appear from within it.

* * *

With increasing recognition came the frenetic pace of his assignments, and the even more propelling desire to show that he deserved them. His music began to take on a sense of urgency, like a bottled genii, waiting to leap out of its confines.

And yet when in 1992 itself Anuradha had to undergo a serious abdominal surgery, Hariprasad dropped all his assignments. He just stayed by her side. He got special permission to be present in the operation theatre even during the operation. He just never left her. She kept wondering where he could have put away his bansuri...? He looked at her drowsy face and his mind went back to his days in Orissa. he had never had any doubts about how much he had wanted her. Nor had music stood in the way. In fact that was what had brought them together. It was she who had made the fruition of his obsession possible. Always understanding his compulsion to reach out for the sun.

* * *

On April 6, 1992 the prestigious President's National Award of India, the Padma Bhushan, was bestowed on Hariprasad Chaurasia by the then President of India, R. Venkatraman. The Ashok Hall at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, the Presidential Residence in Delhi was ablaze with chandeliers. The glitterati of the capital of India were gathered there for the award ceremony. Hariprasad had his kurta sewn specially by his favourite tailor. Luckily, this time, the man had stuck to the measurements he had given. "That man too has a habit of singing his own alaap in stitching a kurta," mused Hariprasad as he walked up to the President of India.

The citation was read out in Hindi.

The applause was music to his ears.

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia

by Mohan Nadkarni

Unquestionably the best-known flutist of the present day India, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia does not come of a musical lineage in the conventional sense. But he was still a teenager when he started out as a singer under the tutelage with Pandit Raja Ram, a vocalist based in his home-town Allahabad. A year later, the budding vocalist chanced to hear a woodwind recital by Pandit Bhola Nath of Varanasi. That changed the course of his future musical career and, in time to come, there emerged a flute maestro known as Hariprasad Chaurasia.

In the early years of his career, Panditji had to work his way up the hard way. Joining the staff of All India Radio, Allahabad, in 1957, when he was only 18, Hariprasadji made his mark both as a soloist and as a composer of uncommon caliber. But he gave up his salaried job after five years to pursue music as a profession. This marked the beginning of his steady rise to fame. And he has not looked back ever since.

His quest of excellence took him to Annapurna Devi, worthy daughter and disciple of the great Acharya Allauddin Khan of Maihar, and it was from her that his music received its magic touch. It would be true to say that Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia picked up the thread where Pandit Pannalal Ghosh, the great pioneer of woodwind music left it, following his sudden and untimely death in 1960. Under the guidance and inspiration of Annapurna Devi, he has carried forward Pannababu's mission towards widening the horizons of his instrument beyond the strictly classical form. Thereby, he has acquired a perfect command over a variety of light classical tunes from thumri to lighter and folk variety.

A classicist by temperament and training, Panditji is also modern in outlook and susceptible to new ideas. he has successfully scored the music for several films in partnership with another great virtuoso, santoorist Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. But the base has inalienably Indian. A recipient of Padma Bhushan and Sangeet Natak Akadami award, he has won unstinted acclaim in major musical events in India and abroad.

Discography

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia's discography encompasses over three hundred compact discs and albums that include classical, light Hindustani and integrated/fusion music.

As is well known, Panditji is equally at home with folk music and East-West integrated music as he is with his pure classical style. His cadre of alumni is drawn from all parts of the world. Pandit Chaurasia has composed several new ragas, music for several Indian films, and also concertos for East-West integrated music and jazz ensembles.

Pandit Chaurasia has not only brought new techniques, and his unique expressions of the nuances of Indian classical music with such unsurpassed elegance to playing the bansuri, elevating it to a new level as a concert instrument but has also experimented with fusion music in the international arena. He has collaborated with Western musicians like John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Mickey Hart, Louis Banks, John Handy, Amareesh Leib, Bendik Hofseth, Larry Coryell, and many others. He has received wide acclaim from celebrities such as Yehudi Menuhin, George Harrison, Professor Jean-Pierre Rampal, Patrick Moutal, and others. Pandit Chaurasia has performed extensively with "Shakti".

He has performed widely throughout the world from the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Israel, Korea, Japan, Brazil, to Australia, Middle East, Mexico, South America and Europe, including performances at the Royal Prince Albert Hall in London, the Bolshoi Theater and Kremlin Conservatory, the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, City Hall- Concert Hall in Hong Kong, at the Nobel Award Ceremonies in Oslo, Norway, and other prestigious locations. A very hard working man, he divides his time between his Gurukul at Mumbai and Rotterdam and in between flits from place to place around the globe, performing concerts.

A

"Maharishi Gandharva Veda" -

Mid Night Melody - v- 9 No.7

Flute - Hariprasad Chaurasia

Tabla - Subhankar Banerjee

Raga Abhogi

Maharishi World Center of Gandharva Veda 1995

"Maharishi Gandharva Veda" -

Midday Melody - v- 16 No.3

Flute - Hariprasad Chaurasia

Tabla - Subhankar Banerjee

Raga Ahiri Lalitha

Maharishi World Center of Gandharva Veda 1995

B

"Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia at the Royal Festival Hall"

Flute - Hari Prasad Chaurasia

Tabla - Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari

Ghatam - T. H. "Vikku Vinayakram

Raga Bageshri

Navras Records Pvt. Ltd. 1995

" Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia , Flute Virtuoso "

Flute - Hari Prasad Chaurasia; Tabla - Subhankar Banerjee

Raga Bhupali

King Record Company - 1994

"Maharishi Gandharva Veda" -

Sunrise Melody - v- 9 No.1

Flute - Hariprasad Chaurasia

Tabla - Subhankar Banerjee

Raga Bhairav

Maharishi World Center of Gandharva Veda 1995

"Maharishi Gandharva Veda" -

Sunrise Melody - v- 16 No.5

Flute - Hariprasad Chaurasia

Tabla - Subhankar Banerjee

Raga Bairagi Bhairava

Maharishi World Center of Gandharva Veda

"Great Jugalbandis"

Flute - Hari Prasad Chaurasia

Vocal - Kishori Amonkar

Tabla - Subhankar Banerjee

Raga - Bhoopali

The Gramphone Company of India, Ltd. 1997

"Moon Light Moods - Flute Recital"

Flute - Hari Prasad Chaurasia

Tabla - Anindo Chatterjee

Flute Sangat - Rupak Kulkarni

Ragas - Bihag; Kirwani; Mishra Khamaj

Dhun

Venus Records & Tapes Pvt. Ltd

"Maharishi Gandharva Veda" -

Sunrise Melody - v- 16 No.1

Flute - Hariprasad Chaurasia

Tabla - Subhankar Banerjee

Raga Bairagi Bhairava

Maharishi World Center of Gandharva Veda 1995

"In Concert - Vancouver , B.C." v. I

Flute - Hari Prasad Chaurasia

Vocal - Pandit Jasraj

Tabla - Zakir Hussain

Violin - Kala Ramnath

Ragas - Behag, Kafi, Bhairavi

Emam for Pandit Jasraj School of Music

1996

"Murali Prasadam" - Jugalbandi

Flute - Hari Prasad Chaurasia

Vocal - Balamurali Krishna

Tabla - Subhankar Banerjee

Violin - Purnachander Rao

Mridangam - Bombay Balaji

Raga - Bhupali/Mohanam

Navras Records, 1994

"Eternity"

Flute - Hari Prasad Chaurasia

Tabla - Zakir Hussain

Ragas - Bhopali; Chandrakauns

EMI - The Gramophone Company of India, Ltd.

Will keep updating it

Thanks Anu - for starting off a great topic... Will be reading it thoroughly... Looking fwd to Barnali'dis collection 😊

Padma Vibhushan Pundit Hari Prasad Chaurasia

As a world-renowned virtuoso of the Indian bansuri, Pundit Chaurasia is known for his outstanding contributions to the popularization of Indian classical music abroad. He is a flautist extraordinaire! His consummate artistry has distinguished him as the greatest living master of the North Indian bamboo flute ("bansuri") - a legend in his own time. He has delighted and enthralled audiences around the world with his versatility and inimitable style. In Europe he is hailed as the "Chopin of the flute." He is the recipient of several major awards. In the Year 2000, the President of India bestowed upon him the title of Padma Vibhushan (living national jewel), the second highest civilian honor awarded to an Indian national. He is one of the few musicians to have been so honored and the only flautist. He is also the recipient of highly prestigious awards such as the Hafiz Ali Khan Award (2000), Kalidas Samman (1999) and the Rajiv Gandhi Ekta Award (1998) for outstanding contribution to the field of music in the national and international arenas. Other similar prestigious awards include the National Award by the Sangeet Natak Academy, Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar, and the Konarak Samman. He has produced several CDs in the promotion of world peace, love and harmony, including a double CD album with Pundit Shiv Kumar Sharma, under the title "Love, Peace and Harmony." He has also recorded a series of sixteen albums for meditation for the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Ashram in Holland. His discography consists of over three hundred CDs and albums.

Pundit Chaurasia typically performs the classical music of India (a culture with a two thousand-year musical tradition). He plays the Indian bamboo flute (bansuri), an unpretentious, unsophisticated instrument made from a piece of hollowed out bamboo, with six finger holes. By an uncanny development of breathing and blowing skills and techniques, Pundit Chaurasia can produce an astounding four and a half octaves on this simple instrument with no frets or keys to define notes! His playing has been variously described as haunting, melodic, playful, flirtatious, mesmerizing, evocative, emotional and spiritual. He has also been described as one who plays "celestial music to temporal audiences."

Punditji is equally at home with folk and East-West integrated music as he is with his pure classical style. His cadre of alumni is drawn from all parts of the world. His extensive discography encompasses well over three hundred compact discs and albums - classical, light Hindustani and integrated music. He is the busiest and most sought-after contemporary musician in the world today. He travels extensively throughout the world, taking on the role of an ambassador for the promotion of peace, love and harmony in the world, focusing on children and youth. Pundit Chaurasia has composed several new ragas, music for several Indian films, and also concertos for East-West integrated music and jazz ensembles.

Pundit Chaurasia was born in Allahabad, India to a family of wrestlers. Young Hariprasad began training as a wrestler until one day he picked up a bansuri - the Indian bamboo flute. That single event changed the entire course of his life and the history of music. He then blossomed under the tutelage of maestros like Raja Ramji, Pundit Bholanath and finally Guru Annapoorna Devi, the daughter of the famous Ustad Allauddin Khan and the sister of Ali Akbar Khan. Pundit Chaurasia has not only brought new techniques, and his unique expressions of the nuances of Indian classical music with such unsurpassed elegance to playing the bansuri, elevating it to a new level as a concert instrument but has also experimented with fusion music in the international arena. He has collaborated with Western musicians like John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Mickey Hart, Louis Banks, John Handy, Amareesh Leib, Bendik Hofseth, Larry Coryell, and many others. He has received wide acclaim from celebrities such as Yehudi Menuhin, George Harrison, Professor Jean-Pierre Rampal, Patrick Moutal, and others. He has performed widely throughout the world from the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Israel, Korea, Japan, Brazil, to Australia, Middle East, Mexico, South America and Europe, including performances at the Royal Prince Albert Hall in London, the Bolshoi Theater and Kremlin Conservatory, the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, City Hall- Concert Hall in Hong Kong, at the Nobel Award Ceremonies in Oslo, Norway, and other prestigious locations. Punditji is the Artistic Director of the World Music Department at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory in the Netherlands. A very hard working man, he divides his time between his native Mumbai and Rotterdam and in between flits from place to place around the globe, performing concerts.

The mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, was so enthralled with Pundit Chaurasia's performance that he bestowed upon him an honorary citizenship of the City of Baltimore. The Mayor of the City of San Francisco proclaimed July 25, 1998, as Pundit Hari Prasad Chaurasia day in San Francisco. Pundit Chaurasia tours the U.S. on a regular basis.

Punditji's life's mission - to globally popularize the bansuri (Krishna's flute) and make its sounds and melodies as immortal as Krishna himself. His dream - to establish gurukul styles of schools throughout the world to accomplish his mission. He recently opened his official Vriandaban Gurukul & Academy in Mumbai, India, where he instructs his students and provides them free boarding and lodging and music instruction. He has a similar organization in the San Francisco Bay area for which funds are being sought for the construction of a similar gurukul.

Rakesh Chaurasia

Rakesh Chaurasia is the nephew and front-ranking disciple of Padma Vibhushan Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia. Rakesh started training with the maestro from the age of seven and has accompanied him the world over since the age of thirteen. Like his illustrious uncle, Rakesh is known for his strong phoonk and clarity of notes. Rakesh also gives solo performances and has toured many countries. He was on a jugalbandi tour recently with Rahul Sharma (son of santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma) on the santoor. Rakesh has also made a foray into ghazals and film music and is a regular featured artist in Pankaj Udhas' troupe. He tours the U. S. on a regular basis.

ICMCA rasikas had the pleasure of listening to Rakesh and Rahul Sharma in 2001.

Vijay Ghate

Vijay Ghate is considered by vocalists, instrumentalists, and by classical dancers as one of the best young tabla players of India today. Originally from Jabalpur (MP), Vijay learned his art at a very early age. He then moved to Mumbai, and for over twelve years underwent intensive training with none other than Pundit Suresh Talwalkar, one of the most creative and dedicated teachers. Even at the age of 16 Vijay became well-known for his scintillating solo performances as well as providing accompaniment to high-ranking vocal and instrumental musicians and kathak dancers. Vijay is known for clarity, dexterity, accuracy, and purity of various complicated tabla compositions.

During the past ten years or so he has accompanied almost all of who's who in Indian classical music such as Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute), Sangeet Martaand Pandit Jasraj (vocal), Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Ram Narayan (sarangi), D. K. Datar (violin), C.R. Vyas (vocal), Rajan & Sajan Misra (vocal), Kala Ramnath (violin), Shahid Parvez (sitar), Ronu Mujumdar (flute), Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (guitar), Birju Maharaj (kathak), and many others. He has accompanied many of these artists on their tours of Japan, Germany, Netherlands, France, Canada, the U.S.A., Africa, and various countries of the former Soviet Union.

Originally posted by: Dawn05

Thanks Anu for starting this topic and Thanks Barnaliji for further addition 👏
Anol I am not able to download file
will try again later

yes anolda, even im having problems downloading it