Three Princes: Hidayat Hussain Khan, Indradeep Ghosh & Enayat Hossain

You don’t get much more blue blood in Indian classical music than this trio. Hidayat Hussain Khan is the youngest son of the man many hold up as the greatest sitar player India has ever produced, Ustad Vilayat Khan. He is also the brother of Shujaat Hussain Khan who is a frequent star of Harmonium.

Indradeep Ghosh is a new generation classical violinist who like Hidayat Hussain Khan, travel the world extensively (Houston Texas has even declared an Indradeep Ghosh Day–October 15, 2017) and often collaborates with non-Indian artists.

Enayat Hossain is a Bangladeshi-American tabla master.

All three princes’ family roots are in Bengal and they are imbued with the incredibly rich culture of that eastern part of the subcontinent.

Please read the bios. They have impressive CVs, all three.

01, Raga Jhinjhoti [Alaap]

02 Raga Jhinjhoti [Gat in Vilambit Teental]

03 Raga Jhinjhoti [Gat in Drut Teental]

04 Dhun [Folk Melody]

HKIGEH

Jugalbandi: Himangshu Biswas and Dulal Roy

I love the way these two gentleman play together. They made a couple of LPs together (this is the second) in the late 60s/early 70s which were very popular with people who did not necessarily enjoy the more longwinded ragas. This is a jugalbandi (instrumental duet) of bansuri (bamboo flute) and santoor. Their first album was a jugalbandi of flute and jaltarang. This music has a bright, friendly and beautiful aura to it so it’s easy to see why.

The santoor, played by Roy, is an Indian version of the dulcimer whose most famous exponent is Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma. This article traces the history and development of the santoor in Indian music.

Try to tell me you don’t like this!

Jugalbandi

The Bauls of Bengal: A Man of Heart

I’m lying on the couch (in, I must confess, a not very comfortable position) listening to this record. My wife just walked through and said, ‘My that’s nice music.’

And indeed it is.

I’ve been down with Covid for a week now and feeling better everyday, even in the face of my doctor brother-in-law telling me ‘you’re not out of the woods until day 9 or 10’. I feel depleted of energy and want to take a nap every couple of hours.

As I scrolled through my music I spied this stunning album (made in Italy in 1996) with a fantastic name: A Man of Heart. I need heart. The world needs heart. And like a dollop of honey on the tongue the intense singing on the Bauls do provide a bit of restorative peace.

The title of this recording is a reference to a key Baul concept, maner manush (মনের মানুষ) – man of my heart. Rabindranath Tagore, India’s first Nobel laureate and giant of Bengali culture, wrote about his own strong attraction to the Baul philosophy and a more authentic spiritual experience than the Brahmo Samaj tradition he was raised within. “About this time, one day I chanced to hear a song from a beggar belonging to the Baul sect of Bengal…What struck me in this simple song was a religious expression that was neither grossly concrete, full of crude details, nor metaphysical in its rarified transcendentalism. At the same time it was alive with an emotional sincerity. It spoke of an intense yearning of the heart for the Divine which is in Man and not in the temple or scriptures, in images and symbols.” [Dasgupta, Atis. “The Bauls and Their Heretic Tradition.” Social Scientist 22, no. 5/6 (1994): 70–83. https://doi.org/10.2307/3517903.%5D

Like their mystical brethren in other traditions the Bauls have a way to cut right through all artifice, intellectual fog, and pretence and prick the soul and heart of man.

Peace. Om.

BoB