Nikhil Banerjee

Nikhil Banerjee (Bangla: নিখিল ব্যানার্জী) (14 October 1931–27 January 1986) was one of India's most prominent sitar players of the second half of the 20th Century. He never achieved the glamour of Vilayat Khan or his gurubhai Ravi Shankar, but won great critical acclaim and the hearts of many music lovers. He is remembered as a musician's musician. Image File history File links Nikhil2. ... Image File history File links Nikhil2. ... This article is about the Bengali language. ... October 14 is the 287th day of the year (288th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... January 27 is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Premla Shahane playing a sitar, 1927 The sitar is probably the best-known South Asian instrument in the West. ... Vilayat Khan (Bangla: বিলায়েত খাঁ) (August 8, 1928–March 13, 2004) was an Indian virtuoso sitar maestro. ... Pandit Ravi Shankar, Sitar Maestro © www. ...

Along with Ravi Shankar, Vasant Rai, and Ali Akbar Khan, he was trained by "Baba" Allauddin Khan of the Maihar gharana (school). Ali Akbar Khan (born April 14, 1922) is one of todays most accomplished Indian classical musicians and known for his mastery of the sarod, a beautiful, 25-stringed Indian instrument. ... Allauddin Khan (Bangla: ওস্তাদ আলাউদ্দীন খান, also known as Baba Allauddin Khan) (1862-1972) was an Indian classical musician and one of the greatest music teachers of the twentieth century. ... In Hindustani music, a gharānā is a system of social organization which groups musicians who are linked by lineage and/or discipleship and who adhere to a particular musical style. ...

Beginnings

Nikhil Banerjee was born in Calcutta into a Brahmin family, where music as a profession was discouraged, although his father, Jitendranath Banerjee, an amateur sitariya, taught him on the instrument. Young Nikhil grew into a child prodigy, won an All-Bengal Sitar Competition at the age of 9 and soon was playing for All India Radio. At the time, his sister was a student of khyal great Amir Khan, who became a life-long influence. Jitendranath approached Mushtaq Ali Khan to take the boy as a disciple, but was turned down; instead Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, the zamindar of Gouripur in present-day Bangladesh, was responsible for much of Nikhil's early training. This article is on Calcutta/Kolkata, the city. ... A Brahmin (anglicised from the Sanskrit word IAST ; Devanagari ), also known as Vipra, Dvija, Dvijottama (best of the Dvijas), (god on Earth) is a member of an upper caste within Hindu society. ... Bengal, known as Bôngo (Bengali: বঙ্গ), Bangla (বাংলা), Bôngodesh (বঙ্গদেশ), or Bangladesh (বাংলাদেশ) in Bangla, is a region in the northeast of South Asia. ... // Overview All India Radio (AIR for short), officially known as Akashwani (Devanagari: आकाशवाणी, ākāshvānī) is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India), an autonomous corporation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. ... Khyal is the modern genre of classical singing in North India; its name comes from an Arabic word meaning imagination. Like all Indian classical music, khyal is modal, with a single melodic line and no harmonic parts. ... Ustad Amir Khan (1912-1974), born in a family of musicians in Indore, India, was a well-known Hindustani classical vocalist. ... Zamindar, also known as Zamindari, or the Zamindari System (Persian: زمیندار) were employed by the Mughals to collect taxes from peasants. ... Gauripur is a town and a town area committee in Dhubri district in the state of Assam, India. ...

In 1947 Banerjee met Allauddin Khan, who was to become his main guru. Allauddin played the sarod; Banerjee went to his concerts and followed him around, and in the end even went so far as to threaten to kill himself if he was not accepted as a disciple. Allauddin did not want to take on more students, but changed his mind after listening to one of Banerjee's radio broadcasts. The sarod is an Indian classical musical instrument which probably originates from the Senya rebab an Indio-persian instrument played in India to the 19th century. ...

Maihar gharana

The discipline under Allauddin Khan was legendary. For years, Nikhil's practice would start at four in the morning, and with few breaks continue to eleven o'clock – at night^[1] – a schedule which was naturally hard on his fingers. Among others, Allauddin also taught his son, Ali Akbar Khan, on the sarod; Ravi Shankar on the sitar; his daugther, Annapurna Devi on the surbahar, and Pannalal Ghosh on the flute. Ali Akbar Khan (born April 14, 1922) is one of todays most accomplished Indian classical musicians and known for his mastery of the sarod, a beautiful, 25-stringed Indian instrument. ... Pandit Ravi Shankar, Sitar Maestro © www. ... Annapurna Devi (born 1926) is a reclusive surbahar (bass sitar) player and music teacher in the North Indian classical tradition. ... The surbahar, also known as a bass Sitar, is a traditional stringed musical instrument from India. ... Pannalal Ghosh (1911-1960), also known as Amal Jyoti Ghosh, was a Bengali Indian bānsurÄ« player and composer. ...

Obviously, what Allauddin was passing on to most of his students was not playing technique but the musical knowledge and approach of the Maihar gharana (school); yet there was a definite trend in his teaching to infuse the sitar and sarod with the been-baj aesthetic of the Rudra veena, surbahar and sursringar – long, elaborate alap (unaccompanied improvisation) built on intricate meend work (bending of the note). Under his teaching, Shankar and Banerjee developed different sitar styles^{[2] [3]}, but to the uninitiated, Banerjee will sound like Ravi Shankar, similar but with a less buzzing sound. They played similar sitars, both with bass strings. In Hindustani music, a gharānā is a system of social organization which groups musicians who are linked by lineage and/or discipleship and who adhere to a particular musical style. ... Ustad Asad Ali Khan,Pandit Hindraj Divekar,Ustad Shamsuddin Faridi Desai and Ustad Bahauddin Dagar(Dagar Veena-a variation of the traditional Rudra Veena) are the surviving exponents of the instrument in India. ...

Career and legacy

After some five years in Maihar, Banerjee embarked on a concert career that was to take him to all corners of the world and last right up to his death. All through his life he kept taking lessons from Allauddin and his children, Ali Akbar and Annapurna Devi. Perhaps reflecting his early upbringing, he always remained a humble musician, and was content with much less limelight than a player of his stature could have vied for. For him, music-making was a spiritual rather than a worldly path.^[4] Even so, in 1968, he was decorated with the Padma Shri and posthumously received also the Padma Bhushan; at the time of his death by heart attack, he was a professor at the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music in Calcutta, but had not yet significantly taught any disciples of his own. Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... The Padma Bhushan is an Indian civilian decoration established on January 2, 1954 by the President of India. ... This article is on Calcutta/Kolkata, the city. ...

Although he recorded extensively, the studio environment made Banerjee nervous. Not so the concert hall; his live albums, many of which were brought out around the turn of the 21st Century by Raga Records in New York, are widely considered to be the finest documents of his playing. Today, he is regarded as one of the greatest traditional sitarists of the 20th century. Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ...

His interpretation of ragas was always highly traditional; at his very best, it was of the kind that would bring out wholly new ideas from a raga, ideas packing enormous surprise in that they were so clearly linked to tradition, yet so previously unthought of. He created a raga Manomanjari of his own, mixing ideas from Kalavati and Marwa.

Throughout his career, Nikhil Banerjee played a Hiren Roy sitar.

Partial discography

The following is a summary of some recent CD issues.

For a fuller discography see http://four.fsphost.com/ragamala/Nikhil%20Banerjee%20discography.htm

• Afternoon Ragas (1970)
• Live: Misra Kafi (1982)
• The Hundred-Minute Raga: Purabi Kalyan (live) (1982)
• Immortal Sitar of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Ragas: Purabi Kalyan, Zila-Kafi, Kirwa (1986)
• Lyrical Sitar (1991)
• Live at De Kosmos: Amsterdam 1972 (1995)
• The KPFA Tapes: Berkeley 1968 (1995)
• Rag Hemant (1995)
• Le Sitar Du Pandit (1996)
• Raga Patdeep (1996)
• Live in Amsterdam 1984 (1997)
• Genius of Pandit Nikhil (live) (1998)
• Berkeley 1968 (1998)
• Live Concert, Vol. 2: India's Maestro of Melody (1999)
• Pandit Nikhil Banerjee (live) (1999)
• Total Absorption (2000)
• Banerjee Live in Munich 1980 (2000)
• Morning Ragas: Bombay Complete Concert 1965 (live) (2000)
• Musician's Musician (2001)
• India's Maestro of Melody: Live Concert, Vol. 5 (2002)
• Alltime Classic, Vol. 1: Raag Bageshree (live) (2004)

1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Notes

↑ (Interview by Ira Landgarten, printed in the booklet for The Hundred-Minute Raga: Purabi Kalyan, Raga Records Raga-207)

↑ Interestingly, Banerjee made a sharp distinction between religion and spirituality in this context:

Indian music is based on spiritualism; that is the first word, you must keep it in your mind. Many people misunderstand and think it's got something to do with religion – no, absolutely no! Nothing to do with religion, but spiritualism – Indian music was practiced and learned to know the Supreme Truth. Mirabai, Thyagaraja from the South, Haridas Swami, Baiju – all these great composers and musicians were wandering saints; they never came into society, nor performed in society. (Interview by Ira Landgarten, printed in the booklet for The Hundred-Minute Raga: Purabi Kalyan, Raga Records Raga-207) Mirabai (मीराबाई) (1498-1547) (sometimes also spelled Meera) was a female Hindu mystical poet during the Mughal period of Indian history. ... Sri Tyagaraja (17??-1848), an ardent devotee of Sri Ramachandra, was one of the principal composers of Carnatic music, and is also regarded as the most important of the trinity of composers. ... South India is a linguistic-cultural region of India that comprises the four Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Pondicherry, whose inhabitants are collectively referred to as South Indians. ... Swami Haridas has a highly significant place in the music of north India, for the era in which he lived was an extremely active and productive one. ...

↑ Allauddin claimed he was teaching Banerjee the sitar "style of Nawab Kutubudaulla Bahadur of Lucknow", a player not otherwise remembered. (My Maestro As I Saw Him, essay by Banerjee printed in the booklet for Afternoon Ragas, Raga Records Raga-211) Nawab (Urdu: نواب ) was originally the subadar (provincial governor) or viceroy of a subah (province) or region of the Mughal empire. ... Lucknow (Hindi: लखनऊ; Urdu: لکھنو Lakhnau) is the capital city of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. ...

↑ San Francisco Chronicle: The San Francisco Chronicle, the self-described Voice of the West, is Northern Californias largest newspaper. ...

Banerjee's technique is a phenomenon, faster than cheetahs, more secure than the dollar. But he does not lean on that as most players do. It is there, at the ready, a strength to be called on when needed. It is his gentle playing that is so singular. The ease of it, highlighted by atypical (for Indian music) bits of literal reiteration create a kind of euphoric effect. The result is remarkably individual. One could spot a Banerjee performance on a radio broadcast or tape, a thing of great difficulty among Oriental musicians.

Further reading

• Swapan Bandyopadhyay: "The Strings Broke Long Ago", Ananda Publishers, Kolkata

  (IPA: [] Bengali: কলকাতা) (formerly  ) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. ...

External links

• A Documentary on Pandit Nikhil Banerjee
• Articles on Pt Nikhil Banerjee
• Site with many articles by and interview with Nikhil Banerjee