Ninad Daithankar & Saurabh Vartak – A Duet of Santoor and Bansuri

Recorded at Darbar Festival on 4 Apr 2010, at London’s King’s Place. Musicians: - Shivkumar Sharma (santoor) - Anindo Chatterjee (tabla) - Roopa Panesar (tanpura) Raag Jog; Thaat: Kafi; Samay: Night “Before I started playing santoor, I was trained as a vocalist and a tabla player and I feel that has helped me a lot...I tried to balance melody with rhythm.” (Shivkumar Sharma) Shivkumar Sharma is one of very few Indian instrumentalists who has near-single-handedly put their instrument on the classical map. Born in the Himalayan state of Jammu to a Dogri family, his father Uma Dutt Sharma was an esteemed singer who inducted him into vocal music and tabla from a young age. But his path deviated at age 13, as his father recommended that he took up the santoor - a 100-stringed hammered dulcimer traditionally used in Sufi folk music. Shivkumar estimates that it took almost two decades from his controversial 1955 debut to win over "the die-hard connoisseurs…and purists." He attributes his santoor style to blending the melodic turns of vocal music with his two-handed percussive training on tabla (he maintained his tabla study for decades, becoming proficient enough to accompany Ravi Shankar at one stage). International collaborators have included electronic producers as well as a successful stint with Indo-jazz heavyweights Remember Shakti. Today he takes keen interest in therapeutic music, and teaches dedicated students for free at his ashram during breaks from touring with his santoor-playing son Rahul, who carries his lineage forward. Anindo Chatterjee is one of the most accomplished tabla players of the modern age, known for breathtaking speed and extraordinary clarity of stroke. Aged five he became All India Radio's youngest artist, and studied with Jnan Prakash Ghosh guru for three decades, learning the intricate grammar of the Farrukhabad gharana before then branching out to others. Jog describes a ‘state of enchantment’. Commonly played in the late evening, it has a finely balanced mix of major and minor phrases, and is popular among Western listeners due to its almost bluesy tension. Its wide interval jumps give a spacious melodic feel. It ascends as SGmPnS, but descends with a characteristic ‘Gmg zigzag’ to form SnPmGmgS. It favours strong phrasings, often starting on Ga, and Pa is usually considered to be the vadi [king note]. Subscribe to the Darbar Player to access the full, uncut performance.