It goes without saying that when Jagjit Singh performs live in the city, tickets will be booked out well in advance. On Sunday evening, the Sir Mutha Subba Rao Auditorium had a full house of music lovers, eager to witness in the flesh, the golden voice of the one and only, ‘Jagjitji’, as he is fondly called. Clad in a deep crimson kurta, and surrounded by his team of musicians adorned in contrasting white kurtas, Jagjitji was a vision of timelessness. He said, “This year will be my 70th birthday, and as part of the celebration, I have promised 70 concerts across the country. Chennai is concert number 38 and who knows, perhaps I will be back soon, what say you?” he queried to rapturous applause. Not one for decorum, the lively Chennai audience paid the man with the golden voice a tribute with theirs: a large chorus of ‘Happy Birthday to you...’ broke out and to their delight Jagitji joined in with his harmonium. Jagjitji began with a few sentences of introduction in a calm, measured tone of voice. As conversation flowed into songs, climbing crescendos and soothing streams of poetry, this was one concert where it was evident, there was no necessity to be requested to ‘turn your mobile on silent’.While the first half featured more recent ghazals, and only a solitary, Yeh daulat bhi le lo, from one of the artist’s older recordings, the second half proved more rewarding to those who wanted to take a trip down memory lane. Some of the highlights of the evening included Hothon se chulo tum, Chithi na koyi sandesh, Jhuki jhuki sey yeh nazar and Hosh waalon ko... (Sarfarosh). And although, the practice of fans singing along is uncommon at a concert such as this, looking around, it was easy to spot members of the audience mouthing the lyrics, nodding their heads back and forth and even, twirling their wrists in tune with the ghazals to quite literally ‘feel the music’, flowing through. For Tum etna jo muskura rahi ho (Arth), Jagjitji was joined by an entire auditorium of fans singing along. Towards the end, after repeated requests by the audience for one of his more recent album hits — Ahista Ahista, the ‘ghazal king’ finally obliged, to much applause.While no words can truly do justice to soulful harmonies that come with a wealth of experience such as that of this great artist, not to mention a nation-wide following, it is safe to say that in his 70th year, music in it’s purist form still reigns supreme. No gimmicks, just a golden voice that lingers, long after the concert is through.
Comments
0 comment