Raga Bageshwari 02 Amjad Ali Khan Samta Prasad

Raag Bageshwari
Alaap, Jor and Jhala
I have always been fascinated by rhythm. In fact, many of my compositions have sometimes been based on the structure of the rhythmic time cycles. As a child, I took to the Tabla very naturally, sometimes more than the Sarod! My father got very worried about this and hid the Tabla from our Gwalior house for a period of time. I am very fortunate to spent time and performed with some of the greatest Tabla players that the country has seen. I also had very memorable interactions with the musical icons Kanthe Maharaj and Ahemad Jaan Thirakhwa.

I have had the maximum number of concerts with Samta Prasad and Kishan Maharaj of Varanasi. In fact, I got to know them both on a very personal level. These two tabla legends were the hero's of every music festival of India. They were stars and I was a very young and struggling Sarod Player. I am indebted to their helping hand in my career. I have had some of the most memorable concert of my life with Samta Prasad. In fact, I still remember that when I was in School in New Delhi, I had once gone to him to request him to perform on the founder's day event for Rs.50. Without batting an eye lid, he graciously agreed. There were so many concerts with him in Mumbai, Kolkata, Banaras, Bihar and New Delhi there after. The last time we played together was in 1993 in Vrindavan. His death the following year was a great loss to the world of music and to the world of Tabla. This recording is a testimony of this great master musician. I was very fortunate to share the stage with him on so many memorable occasions.

In the early seventies, The Educational Resources Centre of India had a director by the name of Mr. Henry Ferguson who used to learn South Indian vocal music. His wife Joan was a disciple of mine. They use to attend all my Delhi concerts in the most prestigious and popular concert halls at that time. A few times Joan and Henry organized my private Concerts at their huge residence in Delhi (this was a trend then). They were my friends and well wishers too. This is a recording of one of the private concerts in their home in 1970. Henry had once organized my USA concert tour for two months in 1971. I performed mostly at Universities including Wesleyan and Berkley.
Historically, in the thirties and forties, importance was always given to compositions but from the late fifties onwards, importance was given to elaborate improvisations of the Ragas. This recording captures that era and that time.

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