Timeless Harmony

Jai ho," he says, as his eyes crinkle up with laughter. And that's all you need to hear. His simple greeting is resonant with four generations of music. You can hear the years of riyaaz. It is a voice that can scale all three and half octaves effortlessly. It is also the sound of the Mewati gharana. The unchanged voice of Pt Jasraj, who may have turned 70 last weekend, but still talks of his childhood -- spent training under his father -- as though it were only yesterday. As clearly as he can hear the instructions of his brother and guru, Sangeet Mahodhyaya Pt Maniram.

Pt Jasraj is also thankful to the courtesans who kept alive the tradition of music at a stage when "courts couldn't afford to patronise it and the masses did not want any truck with it". Just as he is thankful to modern music -- enjoying what it is doing for classical music. "Music in general, and classical music in particular, is seeing major upheavals. There is a new found love in the masses for their roots." And while he hasa problem with "one-album-wonder besuras" mushrooming all over, "the cacophony that passes off as music will separate the truly timeless from the momentary". He also feels that increased awareness level among the audience has put pressure on the artist to deliver only the best. "Gone are the days when people sang garbled and no one had a clue about what the words meant. How can words be sacrificed? They give bhava to go with the sur.

Which is why he is dismissive of the current trend of fusion. "How can they call it fusion when they simply have two singers or musicians doing their own thing together? It can be called almost-fusion maybe. Though repeated attempts of this kind may bring out a new genre of its own and even cultivate its own audience, I fail to understand how any of these forced experiments with fusion will suceed when veterans like Ravi Shankar have failed." To prove his point, Jasraj does a tongue-in-cheek rendition of "Please leave me alone", in Raag Multani.

PtJasraj's greatest contribution to Hindustani Classical music, however, has been his conception of a unique jugalbandi based on the ancient system of moorchanas, where both the female and the male vocalist sing different ragas in their own scales -- at the same time. Today, as a tribute to his role in this form of singing, the duet is known as the `Jasrangi Jugalbandi'.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.