Last September when the founder of the IFA announced at the end of Manna-Dey's concert that ustaad Zakir Hussain will be coming to Austin, I grew very exited and made up my mind not to miss the concert at any cost. Then the India trip happened and my parents decided to make a US trip and so on and I almost lost track of the concert. It was not till a couple of weeks ago when a friend of mine said he picked up his tickets, it again dawned on me and I hurried to get my tickets. I aimed for the lowest level for the tickets only to find out its all sold out and was forced to be bumped up to one level higher.
The concert started with a 3 men Bengali folk art team playing their version of drums. They played really well but I personally felt it went a tad too long. Once ustaad entered the stage he simply took over the show. Rest of the first half of the concert was dominated by ustaad and his younger brother Taufiq Qureshi, who has an amazing talent to modulate breath. The one most people would definitely remember was Taufiq's performance of husband and wife fight.
The way ustaad described the language of tabala was truly remarkable. He described a train, a canon and quite a few other things in the language of Tabala. Words just can't do justice for the performance. I am usually the kind who would look at the watch every now and then but during the first half of the concert (7:30PM-9:00PM) I didn't even think of my watch. A combination of Taufiq and ustaad's performance was truly mind boggling. During the first half it appeared as though the whole room was in a state of trance.
The way ustaad described the language of tabala was truly remarkable. He described a train, a canon and quite a few other things in the language of Tabala. Words just can't do justice for the performance. I am usually the kind who would look at the watch every now and then but during the first half of the concert (7:30PM-9:00PM) I didn't even think of my watch. A combination of Taufiq and ustaad's performance was truly mind boggling. During the first half it appeared as though the whole room was in a state of trance.
The second half started with subtle music of violin, the artists were great but I couldn't appreciate it much. I think I have a mental block for Indian classical music with violin. The second half gained momentum when ustaad and one other guy on mridangam joined the violin duo. There was one more artist playing another percussion instrument (I don't know what it is called), he was also wonderful. The concert ended with an amazing performance with all the nine artists on stage. In the end the artists got the well deserved standing ovation from the audience.
One thought came to me during the concert, the speed at which ustaad's hand moved and generated such fine and wonderful music, can I move my hand at 25% the speed let alone generate any pleasing sound in the process.
One thought came to me during the concert, the speed at which ustaad's hand moved and generated such fine and wonderful music, can I move my hand at 25% the speed let alone generate any pleasing sound in the process.
They truly were masters of percussion. It was worth every single penny and probably more. It was a memorable event. When I told my mom that we are going to a concert on Thursday of the previous week she was indifferent but after the concert she felt she would have missed something if she hadn't gone. We all were truly mesmerized.
This was my 2nd concert of ustaad in Austin and I loved both of them. Thank you IFA for bringing such a memorable event to Austin.
The day March 6th turned out to be special both for me and the IFA. IFA was celebrating the 15th anniversary and we were celebrating my parents 35th wedding anniversary.
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