Reza Sohrabi brought an additional sparkle to Diwali in Atlanta this year when he showcased the talents of three master musicians, Shujaat Khan, son of legendary sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan, Kayhan Kalhor, who has single handedly revived the Persian instrument Kamanche and Sandeep Das, the man with the magical hands that shone on the tabla at Rialto Center for the Arts on 25th October.
The concert Persian and Indian Improvisations a collaboration between Shujaat and Kayhan, is the offspring of the 1997 formation of their group Ghazal. Their debut album tracks were recorded in one night and Ghazal hasn’t looked back since then. (They performed in Toronto in January this year.)
The beauty and spontaneity of rendition, the mutual appreciation that the three artists had for each other was obvious in the way they collaborated on the phrases of the ragas they performed together. Shujaat weaved a magical musical spell with his voice and his fingers. As he sang in his rich velvety voice, the sitar sang with him.
Kayhan Kalhor, a classically trained legend from Iran has created a link between the various musical instruments in Iran that were affected by cultural and generational changes. He has also composed for Iran’s most illustrious vocalist and collaborated with many musicians. He harmonized beautifully with Shujaat and Sandeep, exchanging fiddle and fingers as the situation demanded. Sandeep Das is perhaps one of the most gifted tabla players today. He started playing tabla at the age of eight and is the disciple of the Kishan Maharaj of the Benaras gharana. He has accompanied master musicians and can make his instrument talk and sing just as well as maestros much senior to him.
The Iranian crowd at the show was mesmerized and the trio got several standing ovations at times, at others there was pin drop silence as people watched Shujaat’s, Kayhan and Sandeeps’s fingers sprinkle magical notes all around like stardust.
Don’t miss them whenever they are in your neck of the woods.
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Shujaat Husain Khan, son and disciple of the master sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan, is one of the great artists of North Indian classical music of his generation. He is scion of the greatest families of Hindustani (North Indian) music, the Imdad Khan gharana (school) of the sitar, and is the seventh in an unbroken family line that has produced many musical masters.
Shujaat started playing sitar at the age of three and by the time he was six he began making public performances. He performs regularly at all major musical festivals in India and throughout the world.
He is currently teaching at Indian music at UCLA and divides his time between India and California. In 2001, he was awarded the Rashtriya Kumar Gandharva Samman, India’s highest honour for a classical musician under the age of 45.
Kayhan Kalhor is a master of the kamancheh, the traditional fiddle of Persian classical music, who has performed with and composed for some of Iran’s greatest artists. His daring interpretations of the traditional Persian repertoire, and his virtuosity on the kamancheh and sitar, have brought him worldwide acclaim as a musician and composer. Kayhan’s search to develop his own improvisational language based on traditional Persian music makes him one of Iran’s most exciting musicians.
Kayhan began his music studies under Master Ahmad Mohajer at the age of seven. A child prodigy on the kamancheh, he was invited at the age of thirteen to work in the National Orchestra of Radio and Television of Iran, where he performed for five years.
At seventeen, he began working with Shayda Ensemble of the Chavosh Cultural Center, the most prestigious organisation for art s at the time.
He has spent much time in different regions of Iran, and has absorbed regional repertoires and styles. He has composed works for Iran’s most renowned vocalists, including Mohammad Reza Shjarian.
His recent commissions include works written for the Kronos Quartet, and for Yo-Yo Ma’s “Silk road Project,” with whom he has toured around the world. He has just been nominated (October 2002) for a BBC’s Radio 3 World Music Award.
Sandeep Das, a rising star of the younger generation, and one of the most respected young tabla players of his generation, accompanies them on tabla. He began playing tabla at the age of 8 and is a leading disciple of Pandit Kishan Maharaj, the doyen of the Benares Gharana. He has accompanied many of India’s top artists throughout India and abroad, including Ravi Shankar, V. G. Jog, Girija Devi, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Shujaat Husain Khan.
Sandeep is an integral part of the Ghazal Ensemble. He is also a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble with whom he has recorded and toured.