PLAY ON!

Music stores strike the revamp chord

MUSIC EQUIPMENT SHOWROOMS in town are reinventing themselves to woo customers. t2 takes A LOOK AT the booming business of ROCK’N’ROLL

For every professional musician lighting up a pub stage in town, there are a hundred teenagers waiting in the wings to take up music as a serious career. And these aspirants know their equipment — a thousand websites have taught them all about every make and model of guitar, every drumhead, every customised amplifier, every effects rack. And even in Calcutta, they are going in search of the best in global gear.

And music stores around town are playing their tune. They have taken the revamp route, updating their offering, bringing the best equipment and service to the city. A far cry from the dusty stack of violins, guitars or unkempt drums that have long marked Calcutta shops, they are now adopting swanky displays in the style of stores such as Musicians Mall in Mumbai or OnStage, New Delhi.

Revamp road
Even the 101-year-old J. Reynold & Co on Mirza Ghalib Street is looking to change its offering. “We plan to redesign the entire upper floor of the present store area and turn it into a 1,200sqft rehearsal space/testing room. For that, we need to find an alternative storage space for much of the equipment that is shipped to us from Mumbai, but we’ll be converting soon,” says Peter Remedios, chairman of J. Reynold & Co.

Reynolds has already updated itself with the plush Roland Planet adjacent to its existing store. It was an expansion from Roland’s lone showroom in Kankurgachhi. Both the outlets stock choice single-unit guitar effects from the Boss line, professional amplifiers, the hot-seller all-in-one wonder electronic drum, the HandSonic, Roland V-Drums and top-of-the-line Roland workstation keyboards.

Braganza & Co. off Mirza Ghalib Street, long known for its excellent post-sales service in violin and piano repairs, has also pumped up the jam, transforming its dusty storefront to an air-conditioned area with neatly stacked guitars, drumsets and keyboards. The shop is also looking to expand to another outlet soon.

The extent to which the business of music has grown in the city can be gauged by the more recent entrant Guitar Center @ Tolly, a property owned by Iqbal Ahmed. The group owns two more stores — Roland Pro Music Shoppe at Kidderpore and Music Messe at Esplanade, both fairly recent additions to the music store roster.

Guitar Center @ Tolly is the newest venture by Ahmed, which opened doors in February. The SP Mukherjee Road address (near the Tollygunge Phari crossing) has already acquired an adjacent space to accommodate a Plexiglass-built guitar/amp testing room, more rack space and even a drummer’s pedestal to test new arrivals. The display is a musician’s delight, not to mention the readily available top-of-the-line equipment and good after-sales service.

“In this business, investment equals profit. It’s very simple: if you keep a wider range of options for your customer, you are bound to sell more equipment,” explains Ahmed.

But the display and design aspects are equally important and both Remedios and Ahmed visit equipment expos abroad, particularly Musicmesse Frankfurt and other fairs in Japan and Hong Kong. “You really get a very good idea about delivering the goods from these expos,” says Remedios. Translating these concepts to a Calcutta storefront is the next step.

Professional musicians and those aspiring to take up a career in music are happy at the greater availability of gear. While the younger lot would like better stocks, more options — and “better prices”, they emphasise — most pros in town welcome the post-sales service offered and the availability of basics like drumheads, guitar strings, cables, sticks and stands. “The fact that new shops are coming up and the older ones are sprucing themselves up is a definite sign of improvement on music in the city,” says drummer Chiradeep Lahiri.

Guitarist Amyt Dutta (Skinny Alley/Pink Noise) feels there really cannot be any comparison between the equipment market three decades back, when he was starting out, and now. “We had next to nothing in terms of equipment and had to make do with whatever was locally available. Now, the market has opened up manifold,” he says. With the influx of imported equipment now available, Amyt feels that local brands should up the ante about the quality of manufacturing. He also suggests stocking up on accessories and improved after-sales service.

The younger lot is ready for more: “There should be jam pads, like in stores abroad!” suggests Yudhajit Biswas, bassist for the budding band Black Rose.

The downturn has not really turned the volume down on sales. “Things may have changed in Delhi and Mumbai, but shows keep happening in Calcutta. And as long as musicians are playing regularly, the recession doesn’t really affect our business,” says Ahmed.

Spread the music
There are also plans to widen the scope of these musical instrument retailers. While Guitar Center @ Tolly often organises performances by up-and-coming bands, J. Reynold & Co. has plans to promote music through an academy. Among other things, the chain wants to start a music school which will teach how to play instruments as well as related arts like DJing, and dancing, host workshops and roadshows by professionals to highlight product capabilities, offer live performances and tie up with schools for musical education programmes involving small wind instruments like flute and clarinet, along with percussion.

Youngsters get an opportunity to showcase their talent, the stores get to flaunt their equipment, professional musicians acquire endorsement deals — it’s a win-win situation for all.

GETTING GEAR

ELECTRIC GUITARS: The big names include Fender, Ibanez, Epiphone, ESP/LTD and Washburn. Starter prices at Rs 9,000, while on-demand orders for particular models can see the price exceed Rs 1 lakh.
ACOUSTIC GUITARS: Fender and Ibanez are the more common brands. Of late, some stores are also bringing in more expensive brands like Taylor and Takamine. And most shops manufacture their own brands of acoustic guitars, Reynolds and Braganza being the pioneers in the field. Prices start at Rs 1,200. Once again, special orders can cost Rs 1 lakh-plus.
KEYBOARDS: The Roland stores have cornered a chunk of keyboard sales. Other brands include Yamaha, Korg and even the ubiquitous Casio. Prices start at
Rs 25,000 approximately.
DRUMS AND CYMBALS: Tama, Mapex and Basix had been dominant drum brands till this year, when Japanese heavyweight Pearl also entered the Indian market with its full line. Prices for acoustic drums begin at Rs 20,000. American and Canadian cymbal majors Zildjian and Sabian are more prevalent than the Swiss brand Paiste. Starter packs (of four cymbals) come for Rs 15,000. The electronic drums market is more or less a Roland monopoly, with its V-Drums line starting from Rs 50,000.

WHERE TO SHOP

J. Reynold & Co. (Mirza Ghalib Street)
Roland Planet (Mirza Ghalib Street and Kankurgachhi)
Roland Pro Music Shoppe (Kidderpore)
Music Messe (Esplanade, near Chandni Chowk)
Guitar Center @ Tolly (SP Mukherjee-Tollygunge Phari crossing)
Braganza & Co. (off Mirza Ghalib Street)

Arka Das

Published in t2, The Telegraph, September 2, 2009 

MOON OVER MEHRANGARH

Scales are grand in Rajasthan. The weather is extreme and so are ways of life: the royalty on one end of the spectrum; tribal farmers living hand-to-mouth on the other. But the Maharajahs of this desert state have been legendary patrons of the arts. Every October since 2007, that lineage is reflected at the Jodhpur Rajasthan International Folk Festival (J-RIFF), hosted at the breathtaking Mehrangarh Fort looming high above in Jodhpur city. An initiative of the Jaipur Virasat Foundation (JVF) and the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, the five-day festival is aimed at preserving Rajasthan’s heritage and its rich folk culture. 
With collaborations between Rajasthani folk musicians and international artistes being the focal point — this year’s big names were British-Tamil neo-soul diva Susheela Raman, world percussion maestro Pete Lockett and Brazilian DJ Maga Bo, along with local legends like manganiyar singers Chanan Khan and Pempe Khan, Gulam Hussain’s qawwali troupe, percussionists Chugge Khan and Nathu Solanki, among others — J-RIFF 2010, held from October 21-25, offered an exciting blend of sounds in a stunning setting.

Day 1

The mood of the first day leaned towards the traditional, with Maand artistes Ali Mohammad, Pt. Chirenji Lal, Moinuddin Khan and Zaffar Khan opening the 2010 festival and a soul-stirring performance from Jaipur-Atrauli khayal exponent Ashwini Bhide. A colourful polka dance by the Warszawianka dancers of Poland concluded the evening.

Day 2

While a silver moon set behind the royal crematorium at Jaswant Thada, the golden glow of the dawn sun slowly stirred the Blue City into life with bhajans and spiritual poetry by Jamuna Devi and Mali Devi, from Charanwasi village, Shekhawati. Called the Dawn Devotional, these 5.45am recitals offered a fitting start to the day; a magical witching hour of music that set the mood for all that followed.
Daylong activities included fort festivities where one caught glimpses of folk music and performing arts at the Mehrangarh fort. Percussion plays a pivotal role in the Rajasthani folk music and the festivities showcased the hourglass-shaped derun (akin to a talking drum with similar pitch modulating principles), the bhapang (akin to a khamak but double-barelled), the chang, usually played on Holi in Shekhawati, the large clay pot-like maante, the nagara (played with sticks) and of course, the ubiquitous dholak. The fort festivities also showcased artistes performing on the rare mashak, the Rajasthani counterpart of the bagpipe, while performing arts like the ger martial art dance, the balancing act called the chhatar kotli, the bahurupiya and the kachhi ghodi (which literally translates into ‘false-horse rider’) bloomed in a riot of colours, movements and music. The Kalbeliya, followers of Lord Krishna and wandering performers known as snake-charmers and jugglers, added excitement to the festive mood.
The Meghwals of Marwar ushered in the dusk with the Sunset Devotional at Jaswant Thada – yet another performance that set the tone for the moon-soaked evening. At Moti Mahal in the fort, in the first of the Living Legends series of recitals, Manganiyar ladies Rukma, Akla and Dariya sang to a small audience. Manganiyar women are barred from performing in front of men or in public; Rukma Devi was expelled from the community when she flouted that tradition. When she began to receive acclaim from all over Rajasthan, she was joined by her sister Akla and their childhood friend Dariya Manganiyar. The stained glass doors of Moti Mahal were thrown open to the audience to witness a performance that seeped soul in every note sung and played.
With Pakistani draw Mekal Hasan Band’s participation cancelled at RIFF 2010, it was left to Susheela Raman to light up the main stage at the Old Zenana courtyard. With hubby Sam Mills on guitar, Georgie Pope on harp and a band of Rajasthani folk musicians including Rana Ram on narh, Gopal Ram on the algoza flute, Chanan Khan on the folk sarangi called kamayacha and Nathu Solanki on nagara, Susheela – dressed in black and flaunting a cape with a blood-red inlay – was in her element from the word go. She started with two devotional songs that did justice to her raspy husk of a voice before launching into the raucous chorus of Murguan vail, joined by the vocalist/percussionist duo of Chugge Khan and Kutle Khan. Under the silver moon, the chant in Tamil to Lord Murugan – sung with surprising conviction by Susheela’s Rajasthani band – underlined the collaborations that RIFF 2010 was all about. Kutle Khan was exceptional on the bhapang; Chugge Khan sang his heart out and both played the morchang and wooden kartal (akin to Spanish castanets) with a fluid brilliance. The surprises didn’t end there: Susheela was joined on stage with the eight-member qawwal party of Gulam Hussain. Rendering songs in praise of Allah and Lord Murugan on the same platform with equal soul, the groove got a seated audience up close to the stage to dance in no time. There couldn’t have been a more apt set-closer than the funky Raise Up Your Hands, bringing the house down in a unique rendition.

Day 3

The new morning offered Baul and fakiri music at the Dawn Devotional, with Khejmat and Khaibur Fakir, Shasthi Das Baul and Nikhil Biswas on percussion. With the moon setting on one horizon – the festival is scheduled to coincide with the brightest full moon of the year in north India (sharad purnima) – and Mehrangarh fort in the distance bathed by the first light of the day, it was surreal listening to the ektara and khamak accompanying Lalan Fakir’s songs. Being the devotional recital, the wandering minstrels only offered songs based on the atmatatwa philosophy, like Barir pashey aarshi nagar.
A visit to the uppermost room of the fort, watching and listening to multi-percussionist Pete Lockett rehearse with 28 Rajasthani folk musicians, was a rare delight. If views were fascinating from various points within, the top offered a vantage point that displayed the Blue City in all its sunny splendour. At 5pm, it was time to witness Manganiyar magic in Moti Mahal again as Pempe Khan Manganiyar and Patashi Bhopi sung about life and loss at the second Living Legends recital.
Later, there was promise of more magic with Sona Mohapatra’s “desi soul” sound at the main stage. RIFF 2010 brought Sona’s partner Ram Sampath – variously known as ace producer/experimental songwriter/Colourblind frontman – on stage with her band for the first time, manning laptop and keys. With a broken ankle and irksome technical glitches, the Oriya lass still delivered her pop-tinted set and got the audience on their feet, singing songs by Bulle Shah to Amir Khusrau to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Piya re. Singer Bhanwari Devi and her entourage joining Sona’s band was the high point of the evening. With the morchang, dhol and sarangi adding flavours of the soil to Sona’s sound and Bhanwari Devi’s voice that seemed to reach out to the fort’s ramparts, the repertoire’s rendition of Dum mast qulandar closed the set.
Next up was perhaps the most scintillating performance of J-RIFF 2010. Roots Reunion brought together flamenco guitarist Augustin Carbonell “Bola” and his quintet (Antonio “El Negro” on vocals, Pedro “Brekon” on percussion, traditional flamenco dancers Tamar Gonzalez and Karen Lugo) with Abdul Rashid Khan Langa (vocals), Zakir Khan Langa (kartal), Eklash Khan Langa (sarangi), Sadiq Khan Langa (dholak) and Kalbeliya dancer Aasha Sapera. Augustin – who has collaborated on several albums with flamenco legend Paco de Lucia – and his band rendered flamenco standards with élan. As the set rolled, they were joined by the dancer duo of Gonzalez and Lugo, offering a blend of sensual music with grace, poise and passion in movement. As the local folk artistes took stage to add layers to the music and Asha Sapera joined the dance, the choreography turned more colourful, more joyous. Under the bright full moon, sitting near the fort ramparts, this was an experience in itself; the first RIFF 2010 performance that brought His Highness the Maharajah Gaj Singh II of Marwar-Jodhpur up on stage to shake a leg.  
The party continued till the wee hours with Club Mehran at Chokelao Mahal, with the street beats of DJ/producer Maga Bo from Rio de Janeiro. A percussionist himself, the man with the turntables got the exclusive crowd swinging within the spacious open-air courtyard with his street beats and quirky remixes, fusing traditional samba and hip-hop with local voices and strains of folk instruments. Even wallflowers danced.  

Day 4

Partying late the night before, those who did catch the next morning’s Dawn Devotional were offered a rare opportunity to listen to Ustad Bahauddin Khan Dagar usher in the new day with his rudra veena. The morning devotional recital remains a personal favourite, given the ambience and the setting of Jaswant Thada.
Later in the evening, the third and last of the Living Legends recitals brought the two legendary singers of the same name – Chanan Khan Manganiyar – artistes who have elevated the status of their art within their community and inspired generations to follow in their footsteps. At 8pm, the main stage was lit up for the Italian Festa, featuring Francesca Cassio on vocals and Giuliano Modarelli on classical guitar, collaborating with local artistes playing the sarangi, kartal and other percussion. Trained both in Western and Indian classical music, Cassio offered a unique performance with her take on traditional compositions, based on a combination of Italian folk tunes and Rajasthani melodies. It was a delight to witness the collaboration: where one knew the other’s language and thus wove an eloquent story or two in song. 
The final, formal set at the main stage was Pete Lockett’s Percussion Party. With a team of 28 folk musicians, vocalists and dancers to lead – including Gopal Geela’s change troupe and Manphula Ram’s derun brigade – it seemed like quite a task for the Academy Award-winning mutli-percussionist/producer to manage. Once the performance began though, it was all about textures seamlessly flowing from one to the other: the Japanese taiko drum to the Carnatic kanjira to Latin bongos and cajun to the Rajasthani bhapang, morchang and derun, ably supported by vocal segments. Moods swayed from the reflective to the exhilarating in accordance to the music on offer; the tunes offered enough scope for individual brilliance yet were sewn as a whole with invisible hands. Things got funkier with Pete and his troupe being joined by the flamboyant Murali (a multi-percussionist from Chennai), Ram Sampath and DJ Maga Bo at RIFF Rustle – the closing jam of the 2010 festival. 
RIFF 2010 truly ended the dawn next, with the Haveli Sangeet Sankirtan presented by Pandit Chandra Prakash of Ajmer, offering temple music from the Nathdwara tradition.

ARKA DAS

PAINT A SCROLL, STRING A TUNE, TELL A TALE

Luminescent yellows come from powdered saffron. Vivid blues arise from the aparajita flower; the fruit of the lotkom plant offers crimson that literally leaps out of the page. Burnt paddy grains and charcoal provide black and shades of grey, ground atop chaal (plain rice) and ghusum clay make white; seempata (bean plant) offers shades of green and diluted cowdung creates a shade of brown.

As the world screams organic, Swarna Chitrakar and her family — including her husband and five daughters — paint ancient tales and their take on the here-and-now using pigments that are 100 per cent natural.

The pigments are mixed with bel glue to retain their adhesive quality and also to protect the scroll from insects. The paper that creates these scrolls gets a protective back cover of cotton saris dipped in indigo to keep insects at bay.

Working from her West Midnapore village home, Swarna is one of a handful of patuas (pat painters or scroll painters) who continue a centuries-old family trade — creating scroll paintings using traditional methods before moving from village to village, adding tunes to the tales that the pictures tell.

Swarna’s scrolls are not limited to traditional content, though; her art offers a unique perspective on the urban milieu and the trappings of a world outside her idyllic setting, but always with a touch of tolerant humour. Even city kitsch emerges fresh through this approach.

Swarna stands out because of her dynamic expression, which seamlessly straddles the modern and the traditional. Suffused with a rare sensibility, her work is at the cutting-edge of contemporary art in the country. She has broken the mould of being just a folk artist with several successful shows to her credit within the country and abroad. One of the most-sought after contemporary artists from Bengal on the CIMA Gallery (Centre for International Modern Art) roster, this 40-something artist continues to infuse modern elements into her work and thus find new expression within a traditional style.

As we make ourselves comfortable on the small courtyard at Swarna’s residence, she spreads out a handful of scrolls. There are tales from the Puranas, the age-old Manasamangal Kabya, a humorous prachalita (traditional) gaan on the hierarchy of fishes, and an episode from the Ramayan. Simultaneously, there are scrolls on a monkey in a zoo discovering a camera and its experiments with the gadget in the company of its jungle brethren — and finally, setting up an exhibition with his newly found passion of photography! Relevant social issues also feature in her work: the ecological dangers of deforestation, the harassment of women as well as HIV/AIDS.

Articulate lines and vibrant tones characterise Swarna’s style; a mesh of rural pat painting, Kalighat pat traditions and Madhubani motifs. A large portion of her subjects are essentially from the Hindu pantheon, although Swarna and her family are Muslims. It’s a fascinating overlap of socio-religious boundaries, one where art subjugates everything.

“The history of scroll painting in my family goes back to Tagore’s times,” says Swarna.

She also claims that the Kalighat patuas were her ancestors. While that remains debatable, stylistic similarities are apparent between the present-day patuas and their 19th century counterparts. The Kalighat pats were not scroll art — those were smaller in size, and songs didn’t accompany the paintings. In Swarna’s tradition, the ditty and the display are almost inseparable.

As we settle down for a lunch of fish, rice and vegetables, Swarna talks of the beginnings. “I was the first daughter after a son. As my father would paint, I would hold the end of his scrolls and also mix colours for him,” she recalls. “Girls were not allowed to paint pats at that time. The trend was broken by our mentors Gauri Chitrakar and Dukhushyam Chitrakar, my maternal uncle.”

“The tradition of women patuas painting is relatively new. They were all trained by Dukhushyam Chitrakar, who took the initiative in the 1970s,” says Frank J. Korom, associate professor of religion and anthropology at Boston University and an authority on the patuas of Bengal.

Swarna travelled to Sweden in 2003 along with her brother to participate in a folk art festival. “He painted on 9/11; I did a piece on the Titanic,” smiles the artist.

She has also exhibited at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Brown University. Swarna’s art was also featured in a 2008 Sotheby’s auction. “What makes Swarna unique is that she is one of the few who can both sing and paint. But she has also moved beyond traditions. So aesthetically, she is a cut above most of the rest,” says Korom. 

Arka Das

As appeared in The Telegraph Metro, April 16, 2010