By Kelli Eagan
Club Passim was filled with the sounds of Indian classical
sitar on the occasion of an afternoon concert featuring sitar artist, Vinayak
Sharma from Jaipur, Rajasthan, Ph.D. in Music and Gold Medalist in Bachelor‘s
and Master‘s of Music. Under the tutelage of
Pandit Rajeev Janardan of the Imdadkhani gharana, Vinayak studied sitar and
developed the intricacies of 'gayaki' (vocal technique) and 'tantrakari'
(instrumental technique). As part of his first US tour to perform Indian Classical
sitar concerts, Vinayak shared a variety of music accompanied by, Ajit Acharya who is a marvelous local tabla artist, scientist with a wonderful personality. He learned tabla from his
guru Pandit Samar Saha.
The performance began with the afternoon raag, Shuddha
Sarang. Sharma notes that “It is very rare to play Shuddha Sarang on sitar
because it is a vocal raag. It is very appropriate for vocals, and is rarely heard on sitar.” His raag performance consisted of Alaap, Madhya Laya Teen Taal
(medium tempo), some alaap taans, varieties of fast taans and concluding with
jhala. Following Shuddha Sarang, Sharma performed a completely original dhun
(semi-classical composition) in raag Mishra Pilu. It was a beautiful original
that clearly shows Sharma’s natural gift and talent for composing music and
evoking the essence of the raag. Listeners also got a taste of classic Bollywood
with the song, “Piya Tose Naina Lage Re” from the 1965 film “Guide.” When asked
about the song choice, Sharma stated, “It is a general tendency that sitar is
for classical and semi-classical music. But I played the film song to just let
the audience know that sitar is for any kind of music and you can play anything
on sitar. I also play in Hindi rock (electric sitar “Zitar”). I want to let
people know about sitar’s scope. Sitar is a very versatile instrument and we
can use it in any kind of music.”
The afternoon concert was concluded with the light classical
composition “Naina Milayake Main Pachatai” in raag Sindh Bhairavi. It was
originally played and sung by Ustad Shujaat Khan.
In addition to performing Indian classical sitar, Sharma
also plays the “Zitar” (electric sitar) for the rock band Rudraksh in Jaipur.
During his visit to the Boston area, his concerts have included a sitar
demonstration/performance at the Berklee College of Music on April 18 as part
of this year’s LearnQuest Music Conference.
