We are Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad

Weekly meeting of HaLoH

As usual, the weekly meeting of Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad was held on Sunday morning at Indira Park. We are uploading some of the pics which were taken at the park.

Shri Vinayak giving harmonica lessons to a harmonica lover at the park

Avinesh Singh a fan of Big B(handari) fully engrossed in playing a tune on his harmonica.

Harmonica lover Inderjit Singh Soni playing “La Paloma” tune on the harmonica. Raj Kumar seen listening to the music.

The Sax is silent today

Harmonica lover Shri V.S.Shirali on whom HaLoH published an article recently in this blog, has sent us this sentimental piece of poetry written by him on renouned Saxophone player ShriManohari Singh who breathed his last this week. Manohari da was a guru and guide to many musicians including Shri V.S.Shirali. Many harmonica players follow Manohari da's renditions to play the same music on their harmonica. Manohari da's demise has left many people in film and music industry in grief.

“The Sax is Silent Today” 13 July 2010

You were the Guru and a guide

musicians and singers

loved to have you by their side

As you blew magic into your saxophone

casting a spell with each melodic tone

Your sax made us laugh and made us cry

The romance in your sax made us sigh

Can we ever say you are no more

Even as you have passed through heaven’s door

For great artistes like you

Can never really die

Even though decades may pass by

Your music will live on in every heart

Never to depart

Every time we hear a sax play

We are sll bound to say

East or West

Manohari da will always remain the best

-v.s.shirali

The maestro of Saxophone-Manohari Singh.

Saxophonist Manohari Singh (March 8, 1931 – July 13, 2010) who was a close associate and music assistant of legendary music composer R.D.Burman, died on Tuesday following cardiac arrest. He was 79.

He got his first break in 1958 with Sachin Dev Burman as a saxophonist for the movie Sitaron Se Aage.In addition to playing the alto saxophone, Manohari Singh was also the music assistant and arranger for R. D. Burman. He has played the saxophone in many R. D. Burman compositions including the well-known hit "Gaata rahe mera dil" from the movie Guide. He has also played for songs in the recent movies Chalte Chalte (2003) and Veer Zaara (2004).

Born in Kolkata in a family of musicians, Manohari Singh watched his father - originally from Nepal - and uncle play in music studios for films and in night-clubs. After trying his hand at the English keyflute, the clarinet and the mandolin, Manohari Singh finally chose the saxophone as his forte. He has also released an album titled Sax appeal containing saxophone renditions of various Hindi movie music tracks

Manohari Singh is said to deeply cherish his gold-plated Selmer saxophone (bought in New York in 1969) and tries to avoid getting even his own finger-prints on it

He was also awarded with "Memorable Contribution to Music Award" at the Tata Indicom Radio Mirchi Music Awards function held on 27th March 2009.

He also played in a Telugu movie named "Raavoi Chandamama", music composed by Manisharma and Nagarjuna acted in this movie and Jayanth C. Paranjee directed it.

"A very good saxophone player, great arranger and a fabulous human being...Manohari da passed away...Our heartfelt condolences to his family and the music lovers”

-Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad

Harmonica Lover of the week-Rameshwaram Bhardwaj

Meet Rameshwaram Bhardwaj, a 36 yrs old businessman from Katni (MP). Rameshwaram deals in computer hardware and its maintenance. His journey with harmonica started in 1995 during his college days but it didn't last long. He developed passion for this instrument 2 yrs ago and started playing again. He likes harmonica because he feels that it is compact and it is possible to play all the notes of his favourite Bollywood songs on it.

Rameshwaram always tries to play a particular song in different keys on a 'C' harmonica. He feels that trying to play a song in different keys on the same harmonica is a good way to practice on a chromatic harmonica. He has four chromatic harmonicas of HOHNER make. They are CX-12, 270, Larry Adler 12 and Super 64. Needless to mention that they all are in the key of "C". His all-time favourites are Hohner 270 and Larry Adler 12.

His mentor is Shri S.G.Helkar, an engineer at BSNL Jabalpur. He has learnt a lot about harmonica, especially blowing/drawing techniques to get clean round notes from his mentor. His favourite harmonica players are Shri Milon Gupta and Shri Gautam Choudhury.

Rameshwaram is a regular follower of this blog and keeps in touch with HaLoH members. He has sent us his rendition and we are uploading the same here. Enjoy his video of the song-"Zindagi ka safar" from the movie "Safar". This popular number was sung by KIshore Kumar and picturised on Rajesh Khanna.

HaLoH wishes Rameshwaram all the best in improving his harmonica skills.

Harmonica Our Passion!

V.S.Shirali: A fabulous harmonica player

Most of the harmonica lovers must have already read about the Pune harmonica concert which took place recently. I met Shri V.S.Shirali, a fabulous harmonica player at Pune recently. He is one of the persons who inspires me to play the harmonica. After listening to the harmonica played by Shri V.S. Shirali at Pune concert, I became his die hard fan.Here are some interesting facts about Shri V.S. Shirali given below.

Shri V.S. Shirali is a 69 yrs old retired airlines manager. He is a self –taught musician who started playing the harmonica at the age of 4. He gave his first public performanc at the age of 5. He took up the Guitar at the age of 17 and had played with Pankaj Udhas and Manhar Udhas in the early part of their career. He started playing the keyboard after the age of 50 and has performed in many countries as a one man performer.

He was invited by the Indian Association Tokyo Japan for keyboards concerts in 1997 and 98 with Indian singers and local resident singers. He was also invited by the Indian Association in Baku, Azerbaijan for a joint Indo Azerbaijan music concert in 2000. He has accompanied Mr.Ramesh Shah (son of the late legendary music director Kalyanji bhai to Hongkong as a solo keyboards instrumentalist in 2001.

Ironically his first love the harmonica was lying unplayed in his cupboard for more than 30 years .About 6 years back an organisation called Golden Greats needed a harmonica player at short notice. He played that favourite Hai apna dil to awaara and finally started playing regularly from then onwards but never considered it seriously. Then about 4 years ago he got a chance to perform in an acoustic show with the great saxophone legend Shri Manohari Singh who advised Shirali to take up the harmonica seriously as he had the talent and there was a great future for him as a professional harmonica player. After that many shows on the harmonica followed.

The next step was the recording studios with his harmonica. Shri V.S. Shirali recorded the following using his harmonica.

Recorded for an Oriya movie. Singers Udit Narayan and Anurdha Paudwal

Recorded for a private album. Singer Shweta Pandit (niece of music directors Jatin Lalit)

Recorded a track for Ekta Kapoor/Sunil Shetty's yet unreleased movie The Little Godfather,

music director Viju Shah.

Recorded for a Kannada movie.Singers Shreya Ghoshal and Kunal Ganjawala

Recorded for a Thumri track. SingerGaurav bangia (Sa re ga ma pa winner)

Please watch the video attached below.. Shri Shirali played harmonica pieces for a Kannada movie called “Jothegara”, a sensational hit in Karnataka. Music is composed by Sujeet Shetty. The song is sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Kunal Ganjawala.