Ragas, anyone?

He would walk four miles to the community centre. On the way back, he would be rescued occasionally by a passing bullock cart. But Lalgudi Jayaraman didn't mind the trouble as long as he could catch his favourite maestros on the All India Radio (AIR). The big black radio set was, according to him, kind of a teacher for aspiring musicians in his village, Lalgudi (in Tamil Nadu). Far away, in Lahore, Ustad Bade Ghulam juggled with performances to be aired at AIR's popular segment called Live From Lahore during the late 1930s. “It was,” according to santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, “a matter of pride to perform at Live from Lahore.” He says, “AIR helped people know that ragas could be played on santoor apart from the sufi compositions.”

In the 1930s, there were other maestros, who disliked the idea of recording for private labels. Says santoor maestro Pandit Bhajan Sopori, “These maestros preferred to record for AIR rather than making musical treasure sell on the roadside through records.” Things are sadly different now. L K Pandit, one of the few senior maestros from the Gwalior Gharana, awaits patiently for his next recording at AIR Delhi. “I have seen an era when musicians would get between 12 to 14 recordings in a year. Now, I hardly get four.” Then, there are musicians down South, who “refuse to comment” on AIR. Vidwan T K Govind Rao, who served at AIR Chennai and AIR Delhi as the chief producer till 1991, feels the broadcaster is “supposed to be the custodian of music.” But the mandarins of AIR think differently. “What the artistes have said about AIR is completely baseless,” says Karuna Srivastava, deputy director general, music and archives, AIR, “we have to be choosy, we have to see the competence level of artistes before inviting them for performances. AIR is not a disk producing factory.”

Even the top grade maestros are expected to prove themselves all over again.

This is the age of a “mad” market flooding with, Kamasutra melodies (based on the Hindustani tradition), shelf space crunch and concert DVDs. It is the age of the next generation artistes, who don’t mind going by the producer’s choice at recording studios — unlike the days when Ustad Bismillah Khan would choose a melody at the HMV studios according to his mood and the producer would gleefully agree to it. Unfortunately, alongside this decline in recordings at the AIR studios has been a tremendous drop in recording and archiving work at HMV (now known as SaReGaMa) which had served as a custodian of Indian music, aggressively, for about five decades. Also, according to a representative from HMV, the company is using only “four per cent of its archives at present.”

Gone are the days when companies like HMV, could afford paying artistes the recording fee in lump sum. However, it was in the 1970s, says Sopori, that the music scenario changed completely. “A number of mediocre artistes, who did not have access to banners like HMV, got their work recorded at private studios elsewhere. They would hand over these records to music companies and sub-standard work floated in the market. That’s when music started going down the drain. Artistes lobbied for circulation and royalties.” The trend of embarrassing royalties (like the royalty of Rs 2.35 that Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra had received from HMV SaReGaMa last month) makes artistes lose hope further. However, according to Sopori, “few exceptions like the T-Series, knew how to respect artistes. Late Gulshan Kumar, the owner of T Series did not expect artistes to keep track of their royalties and paid the total amount.”

Today, “concept music” helps companies push sales. Old recordings lying with music companies are re-used in themes or “concepts” (like, rare varnams, romantic ragas, night ragas etc), owing to “low demand of Indian classical music.” Artistes feel, they are “not only being cheated, but are being deprived of the deserved royalty this way.” Most of them are not even aware of such “recycled albums”. “What do you expect us to do? Companies don’t even inform us on the re-use. Why do they avoid recording new tracks?,” asks a renowned vocalist. Well, it’s not the musicians alone who are feeling cheated. The All India Radio has been cheated, says Srivastava — by WorldSpace, the radio station. According to Srivastava, Worldspace has been running tracks from records released by the All India Radio, including some remarkable collections of Carnatic music. “They have bought these albums from retail outlets in Chennai and Bangalore and have been playing these on Shruti, their Carnatic music channel, without informing us.”

Music companies have been claiming “low demand” for classical music over the years.
But that hasn’t really stopped artistes from “experimenting, researching and documenting”. So, to continue with independent projects, artistes have come up with their own record labels. Renowned violinist Dr L Subramaniam's Viji Records, named after his late wife, vocalist Vijayashree Subramaniam, inspired others. A couple of years ago Pt Bhajan Sopori launched SaMaPa; the label has managed to preserve the fading folk forms of Kashmiri and Dogri music. We have already recorded five albums with another company,” says Sopori. Then there is Carnatica’s Sound of Silence, a recording studio in Chennai, where N Shashikiran, strives to give musicians the “right Carnatic setting”, including the latest software for a “natural non-studio like output” and a room where musicians can relax with massages in between strenuously long recording sessions!

But is the demand for Indian classical music really low? Well, not really if you go by the popularity of WorldSpace, the 24 hour radio station which has robbed AIR of many loyal listeners. Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar, from Kolkata’s Sangeet Research Academy, tunes into Gandharv and Shruti, the channels for Hindustani and Carnatic music on WorldSpace. “What more can you ask for? It’s 24 hours of ragas,” he chuckles. Interestingly, the radio station gets a good share of tracks from “archives of private collectors.” According to Geeta Sahai, programme director, Gandharv, Worldspace is planning to play rare ragas from both traditions, including special projects like “women Dhrupad artistes and fading gharanas”. Ironically, music companies are trying to look the other way. “We are not aggressively recording the traditional Hindustani and Carnatic concert format anymore. They don’t sell. The Carnatic-Hindustani jugalbandis have no buyers. Only world music has a future,” says a Delhi based senior representative of a leading music company.

The fact is, AIR and the music companies are losing out to iPods and 24-hour radio stations.

copyright: The New Indian Express