24.9.13

Bangalore Harmonica Festival- 2013

Namma Bengaluru!

Bangalore Harmonica Lovers in association with Sonido Musicals organised “Bangalore Harmonica Festival”, the first ever harmonica festival in Bangalore with the sole aim of promoting the harmonica. This event was dedicated to Shri Milon Gupta-The Father of Indian Harmonica.

This day-long  harmonica festival started with the lightening of  lamp by Chief Guest film actress Shubha Poonja, Shri Chenraj Jain, Shri Saket Jalan of Sonido Musicals and the core members of HaLoH Mr Vinayak and Ramana K.



Carnatic Flutist Shri Mysore A. Chandan Kumar came as a Special Guest to this event

Mr Debashish Dutta, seniormost core member of Bangalore Harmonica Lovers navigated the event while Mr Sanjay Datta was the anchor.
There was an interesting audio-visual presentation consisting of various subjects related with harmonica like -Early History and development of harmonica, Indian harmonica history,Types of harmonicas, Vintage and rare harmonicas, World popular harmonica players in different genres..(videos played in the Gallery embedded here for the benefit of visitors of this blog)

Larry Adler

Jerry Murad's Harmonicats

Most popular Indian harmonica players-past and present 

Milon Gupta

Sumanta Basu

Gautam Choudhury


Women in harmonica

Michal Adler

Christeller Berthon

Women in Indian Harmonica

Dr Babita Basu

Children in harmonica


Children in Indian harmonica.

Shubronil

Harmonica recitals started with “Hamsanadha”  a 50 Children's choir from Ravi Shankar Vidya Mandir, Vidyaranyapura whose performance left the audience spellbound.


This was followed by Carnatic Classical by Saitejas Chandrashekhar.



There was a short workshop on types of harmonica and routine maintenance of harmonica using Audio-Video presentation by Shri Debashish Dutta.


There was a narration on the versatility of the instrument along with demonstrations by members of Bangalore Harmonica Lovers. Videos showing Symphony, Trio and One-man show were played for the audience. 
 One-man shows were presented by Bangalore Harmonica Lovers Stany Prasanna, Ishan Bakshi, Hari Shankar and Mr Allen Rego.




Later, there was an introduction on Western Music-Blues on Harmonica by Shubham Harnal, "by2blues" Vasudev Prabhu and Anant Menon.

This was followed by a narration on Bollywood songs using harmonica.


There were performances by club members on Bollywood tracks.

Deepak Tahilramani

Karthik

CM Khare

S J Prasanna

Ramana


Remaining videos will be posted soon.. please watch for the space! 

Not only was the program Informative and Entertaining but it also involved the audience by conducting an interesting QUIZ by Shri Debashish Dutta on entire day’s proceedings and the winners got precious gifts like Hohner harmonicas, Harmonica Educational books and Commercial Harmonica CDs by popular Indian artistes.


Initiators of Bangalore Harmonica Club Mr Avinash Kulkarni and Mr Kapilesh were honored with flower bouquets.


Bangalore Harmonica Lovers conveyed their special thanks to Messrs Debashis Dutta,Sanjay Datta,Ashok SenGupta and Nidhi Mohta with out whose involvement this programme wouldn’t have been a Grand Success.



HaLoH congratulates Bangalore Harmonica Lovers for successfully conducting the program and wishes them a grand success in all their future endeavours.

We Breathe Harmonica!

22.9.13

Indian Mouthorgan Players’ Meet-2013, Delhi.


Harmonica Brotherhood of Delhi takes pleasure in announcing the 2nd IMP Meet at Delhi on 28th & 29th September (Saturday & Sunday) which should suit to those who are office workers.

Venue: ‘Hari Ram Rameti Devi’ (Bhiwani Wale) Banquet Hall B.D. Block (Behind Power House), Pitam Pura, New Delhi-110085.It is a well constructed and spacious multipurpose hall. Pitam Pura, which is on the way to Rohini Township, is well connected from New Delhi Railway Station, Old Delhi Railway Station and Delhi Airport by Metro Rail network and other modes of transport. The Metro Rail station is Pitam Pura and the bus stop is Madhuban Chowk

Important Information/Guidelines

1) A large number of participants have enquired that, as they would be arriving on 27th September, will accommodation on that day at the programme venue be available to them . This was not planned originally, as this called for extra expenditure beyond what was budgeted. However, considering the genuine hardship the participants will encounter in case they are to stay in an alternative accommodation at their expense, we have cut corners and hired the venue on 27th also at additional expense to provide relief to the participants. But, they will have to arrange meals etc at their expense. There are good eateries around the venue.

2) Those who wish to stay at their expense in the hotel identified by us as mentioned in the earlier post, are requested to inform the dates for which they require the hotel accommodation .The concessional tariff of Rs2500 per day is available provided an entire floor having nine double occupancy rooms is booked. A third bed can be provided at additional charge of Rs 250 per day. They are further requested to remit the estimated tariff to the bank account in which the registration fee was remitted.

3) We understand, some of the participants have friends/relatives in Delhi with whom they will be staying. All such participants are requested to inform us about this so that we may cut down on the arrangements.

4) All out station participants must carry valid proof of identification such as: Voter Card/PAN Card/ Passport.

5) Though the weather is not very cold in Delhi at the end of September, but like so many glorius and inglorious uncertainties in life, the weather of Delhi is unpredictable. For their own comfort, participants are advised to carry light woolens. 
6) Participants are requested to inform their travel plan i.e. the date /time of arrival and departure, the name of the train/ flight number to enable us to guide them to the venue.

7) In the next update information about connectivity from railway station(s)/airport/ Interstate bus terminus to the venue will be detailed out.

8 For proper coordination, participants are requested to address their queries and transmit all information to the email: rajeev.baisantry@gmail .com (Tel: 07428433177)

The list of confirmed participants whose registration fee has been received, is as under:

S/Shri
1) Jagjit Singh Isher, Jammu
2) Pritam Chandel, Solan ( H.P.)
3) Harish Nayyar, Amritsar
4) Doordarshi Singh, Patiala
5) Gopal Sharma, Haridwar
6) Raman Khandelwal,Jaipur
7) Anand Lal Mathur, Jaipur
8. Madhur Bhatia, Agra
9) Rajesh Goswami, Agra
10) Brijesh , Aligarh
11) Sanjay Aggrawal,Lucknow
12) Yogesh Tamta, Lucknow
13) S K Shreshtha, Lucknow
14) Ashish Mathur, Lucknow
15) Ashok Bhandari, Delhi
16) Rupak Talukdar,Delhi
17) Naresh Sachdev, Delhi
18) Rakesh Yadaw, Delhi
19) Chandra Prakashh (Channi) Chawla,Delhi
20) Rajeev Ranjan Baisantry, Delhi
21) A P Mukundan, Delhi
22) Shashank Bibhu,Delhi
23) Surrendra Pal Banga, Delhi 
24) Rajendra Kotwal, Delhi 
25) Gurmukh Das Jawaharani (G D ), Delhi
26) Rakesh Chowdhary, Delhi
27) Alok Srivastava, Delhi
28) Group Captain Pramod Wankhade, Delhi
29) Provir Mookerjee, Delhi
30) Sumitabh Chowdhary, Delhi
31) Abhinav Sahay, Delhi
32) Prabh Singh, Gurgaon, Haryana
33) Dr Raghvan Iyengar, Indore
34) Dr Pramod Bansod,Indore
35) Dr Mahendra Agarawal , Indore
36) Girish Deshpande,Indore
37) Dr Pravin Jadia,Indore
38) Srinivas Tatacharya,Indore
39) Satyanarain Joshi,Indore
40) Chandrakant Mansata,Indore
41) Sumeet Thakkar,Indore
42) R S Bankura, Indore
43) Nakul Dhagat, Bhopal
44) Vijay Trivedi, Bhopal
45) Nitin Dhagat, Bhopal
46) Arunav Chowdhary, Bhopal
47) Suresh Kr Soni ,Bhopal
48) Ajay Vijh ,Singrauli (MP)
49) Gautam Laha, Annapara (MP) 
50) S G Helkar,Jabalpur 
51) Rameshwaram Bharadwaj, Katni (MP) 
52) Rajeev Shrivastava, Dubai
53) Madan Kumar, Pune (Guest of Honour) 
54) Nandu Belvalkar, Pune
55) Hemant Gadre, Pune
56) Sunil Patil, Pune
57) Amaresh Deshpande, Pune
58) Dr A G Chandele, Pune
59) Rahul Joshi, Pune
60) Mahadeo Chaudhari, Pune
61) Manohar Vaidya, Ahmedabad
62) Yogesh Bhatt,Ahmedabad
63) Apoorva Bhatt, Baroda
64) Amjad Khan (Babu Bhai), Baroda
65) Nitin Bhai, Baroda
66) Rupesh, Baroda
67) Dr Shailendra Kumar, Muzzafarpur
68) Ajay Krishna, Patna
69) Anupam Pal , Kolkata
70) Kajal Chakraborty, Kolkata
71) Sumanta Basu, Kolkata
72) Sukanto Ghoshal, Kolkata
73) Tanmoy Shankar Choudhary, Kolkata
74) Suhas Mitra, Kolkata
75) Dr Debasis Banerjee, Kolkata
76) Alok Kumar Das, Kolkata 
77) Tuhin Subhra Bhaumik, Kolkota
78) Aseem Bannerje,Jamshedpur 
79) Ujjal Dutta,Jamshedpur 
80) Krishnan Reddy, Chakradharpur
81) Debojyoti Gupta, Malda (WB)
82) Swaroop Mitra, Raniganj 
83) Saurav Debnath, Asansol
84) Sumit Guha, Asansol
85) Bal Bhadra Haigjer,Guwahati
86) Dr Tapan Maharana, Orissa
87) Himanshu Charan Sadangi, Bhawanipatna (Orissa)
88) Deepak Dubey, Korba (Chattisgarh)
89) Saitejas Chandshekhar, Bangalore 
90) Ramana K , Hyderabad
91) Vinayak Bhosekar, Hyderabad
92) Avinesh Singh, Hyderabad
93) Mahendra Premji Gala, Hyderabad
94) Vivek Upadhyay, Hyderabad
95) G Ravi Babu, Hyderabad
96) Vishwanath. S. Rao, Bangalore
97) Avinash Kulkarni, Bangalore
98) Debashish Dutta, Bangalore
99) Kapilesh Kale, Bangalore
100)Sanjay M Datta.Bangalore
101)Sanat Kumar, Chennai
102)Abel Varghese , Chennai
103)G Rajkumar,Hyderabad.
104)Ashok Pandit, Trivandrum

In addition, there are a couple of remittances in the event account whose remitters could not be identified in the absence of their particulars. Therefore, their names do not figure in this list. In case a participant who has remitted the registration fee does not find his name in this list, he is advised to please bring this to our notice by e-mail (rajeev.baisantry@gmail.com) along with the details such as: date / place/bank /branch of remittance, mode of remittance i.e. by cash or cheque or NEFT/RTGS.
`
Organizers are overwhelmed by the response. However, considering the duration of the event during which it be will be an extremely uphill task to manage staging performance of all the participants, coupled with the limits to the resources and overall logistics required to organize the event, registration of participants stand CLOSED ON AUGUST 22nd 2013.

How to reach the venue:
From Nizamuddin Railway Station: Nearest Metro Rail station is Jangpura. From here, board the train for Central Secretariat station. From there, board the Yellow Line train for Kashmiri Gate station. From there, board the Red Line train heading to Rithala station. De board at Pitampura station

From New Delhi Railway Station: Metro Rail Station is outside the station complex. From here board the Yellow Line train for Kashmiri Gate. From there, board the Red Line train heading to Rithala station. Get down at Pitampura.

From Old Delhi Railway Station: Come up to Chandni Chowk Metro Rail station. From here, board yellow line train for Kashmiri Gate. From there, board Red Line train heading to Rithala. Get down at Pitampura. 

From IGI Airport: The Airport Metro Rail will take you up to New Delhi Railway Station. From here, board Yellow Line train to Kashmiri Gate. From there, board Red Line train heading to Rithala and get down at Pitampura station
The venue is not more than 500 meters from the Pitampura Station. In case you are not carrying heavy luggage you may consider walking up to the venue. Otherwise, engage an auto rickshaw. The venue is adjacent to the BD Block Powerhouse (It is actually a Substation, but commonly known as Powerhouse). After de boarding at Pitampura, head in the direction of the movement of metro train till you reach the traffic junction. Take right turn. As you reach the next traffic signal, the Power house, which is on your right hand side, will come in your view. At the traffic signal, take right turn. Keep moving. You will come across a small shopping centre. Take the lane on the right hand side to reach the venue.

In case of difficulty in locating the venue, please call Shri Channi Chawla or Rajeev Ranjan on their cell phone.

Guidelines for Performers

These guidelines take into consideration 
i) available time, 
ii) number of participants and 
iii) time required for the technical sessions.

1) There will be an orchestra on both the days to give accompaniment.

2) Each performer will be given opportunity to play one song limited to two stanzas of the song. 

3) Those who prefer playing along karaoke tracks must mail their karaoke track(s) to the e-mail: rajeev.baisantry@gmail.com before 24th September. This is required for sequencing all the performances in advance. Tracks received after this date will not be accepted for performance and the participant(s) in question will have to resort to some other private alternative. Participants may mail up to two tracks identifiable by their own names and not title of the song. In case of two tracks, both the tracks must be numbered as: name of the participant 1) &2). Two tracks cannot be combined to make one song/track /performance. Tracks must be in MP3 format only. Tracks in other formats will not be accepted.

4) Senior/reputed players recognized for quality of their playing /technical perfection will be allotted more time. Listening to their performance will be a good learning experience for those participants who are at beginner and intermediate level of playing. Such participants should not resent this arrangement.

5) The organizers reserve the right to determine the order in which the participants will perform and how much time will be allotted for their performance.
Indian Mouthorgan Players’ Meet-2013, Delhi (Update 20th September 2013)

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

28th September:

9:30AM to 10:30 AM: REGISTRATION & BREAKFAST

10:30AM to 1PM: Inaugural Session
# Welcome of Shri Madan Kumar
# Lighting of Lamp by Shri Madan Kumar
# Welcome Address
# Carnatic Music Recital on Harmonica by Saitejas Chandrashekar
# My Journey as Professional Harmonica Player: Madan Kumar
# Future of Harmonica in India: Views by Senior Players. (To be invited on stage on the spot)

1 PM to 2 PM: L U N C H B R E A K 

2 PM to 3 PM: Technical Session: Analyzing a song for playing on Harmonica: Nandu Belvalkar

3PM to 5 PM: Performance by the Participants

5 PM to 5:30 PM: E V E N I N G T E A B R E A K 

5:30PM to 9 PM: Performance by the Participants

29th September

9 AM to 10 AM: B R E A K F A S T

10 AM to 11 AM: Technical Session: Dealing with Feelings in Playing: Shri Sumanta Basu 

11 AM to 12:30 AM: Technical Session: My Focus In Playing : Madan Kumar, Anupam Pal, Kajal Chakraborty, Manohar Vaidya, Ashok Bhandari, Vinayak Bhosekar 

12:30 to 1 PM: Technical Session: Experimenting with Indian Classical Music on harmonica: Shri Sunil Patil

1PM to 2 PM: L U N C H B R E A K

2PM to 2:45 PM: Technical Session: Maintenance & Repair of Harmonica: Rajeev Ranjan Baisantry

2:45PM to 3:30 PM: Open House Question & Answer Session

3:30 PM to 5 PM: Performance by Participants

5 PM to 5:30 PM: E V E N I N G T E A B R E A K

6PM to 8PM: Performance by Participants

8 PM to 8:30 PM: Winding Up

--------------

Note: The Programme Schedule May Be Changed To Accommodate Additional Topics Requested By The Participants. In The Process, Duration Of The Scheduled Sessions May Be Reduced Or One Or More Sessions May Be Substituted.

Guide Lines for the Participants:
1) Any sort of videography of the event and audio recording of the performance will not be allowed. If despite this, any member of the audience does video graph or audio records the performance, it shall not be uploaded by him in YouTube/Face Book or any other internet social network.
2) Smoking will not be allowed in the auditorium nor will the inebriated state of any participant.
3) Sequence of performance and the time allowed to the participant(s) for their performance will be decided exclusively by Harmonica Brotherhood Delhi.
4) Audio and video contents of this event will remain the property of Harmonica Brotherhood Delhi.

9.9.13

A lady, a doctor and a Harmonica Lover- Dr Babita Basu


HaLoH is proud to publish an article on a Lady Harmonica Lover this week. This is an interesting write-up by Dr Babita Basu in her own words.
        I was born in a middle class family where music was a part of life. My uncle was a composer and a guitarist ; my cousins were either a vocalist or an instrumentalist. Me being a girl, was supposed to learn vocal music though I was passionate about instrumental music as my elder brothers used to pursue. When I was of  5 to 6 years of age I  was admitted to Geetobitan Institution  to learn Rabindrasangeet ànd Hindustani Classical . I continued there for 8 to 9 long years as a vocalist . But as my soul always wanted to be an instrumentalist I quit my music school giving the reason that my academic career is suffering because of music. That was the time when I came across a very cheap quality harmonica and started playing songs on it ; always missing the chromatic notes ! Then I asked my father to buy me a chromatic harmonica which he promised to buy if I could clear my Combined Joint Entrance Examination. So I cleared it and achieved ranks in both Engineering and Medical stream. I opted for Medical and also got a Hero chromatic harmonica from my father as a reward!
         I was admitted to N.R.S Medical College And Hospital and from there my career as a harmonica player started to bloom . Innumerable programmes that I participated over there enriched me as a performer. That was the time when Sir Milon Gupta became my virtual guru. I used to buy his cassettes and learn the technique of playing though I never got any chance to meet him in person!
          As soon I completed giving my final MBBS examination I got married . My mother-in-law happened to be herself a vocalist and insisted on further training of mine both in academics and music.I did my post graduation in Anaesthesiology after marriage and at the same time started learning keyboard under Mr Rana Dutta. It is he who made me feel the divine power of music. I learnt everything from him ; starting from notation reading ,performance , composition , difference in playing lead and part , jamming ---- everything . In the meantime I went to Mr Bhaskar Choudhury to learn the intricacies of techniques while playing harmonica . I was there for five years. I won the best performer award from Indian Harmonica Association whereby I got my first superchromonica harmonica from my mother -in - law as a gift !
          In the meantime Raga Music came up to produce my album LOVE IN HARMONICA in the year 2008 and perhaps it is the first documentation of harmonica playing by a lady player in an album form in SOUTH EAST ASIA . It was followed by three more ; HARMONICA OFFERING , CONFLUENCE and FREEDOM THROUGH HARMONICA . Among these CONFLUENCE is a DVD where I played simultaneously keyboard and harmonica ,doing the chordings with one hand and playing the part music and harmonica with the other . After these ; offers came flooding in both as a composer and as a harmonica player . I have played part music in albums released by a lot of vocalists , have also played in a Bengali movie LATTOO , have composed and played several commercial jingles . Critical appreciation of my work have been published in reputed newspapers of Bengal like ANANDABAZAR PATRIKA , BARTAMAN , AJKAAL , HINDUSTAN TIMES . I was fortunate enough to be considered to give an interview in ASHABARI - a reputed musical journal of Bengal . I got the opportunity to voice for harmonica in several interviews arranged by All India Radio , Kolkata Doordarshan , Tara music and ETV Bangla .The greatest moment of my life as a performer was , when I was felicitated by KOLKATA VIVEK on the same stage along with PANDIT AJOY CHAKRAVARTY . Nowadays ; I even became very much selective in choosing my live performances on stage . Ours is a joint orchestration and I have stopped performing with accompanists whom I do not know , because I believe all our presentations need a lot of thought and practice and would be impossible to deliver properly without a good homework involving all the members of the team . My team members are also very reputed musicians of Kolkata.
        Now , as regard my future plans I believe in breaking in one hand and creating on the other. My next album will not have any similarity with the one already released my next television show will have no resemblance with the previous one . Yes , that is me .Fortunately  Raga company is very much impressed by my work and they assign me with all the basic works on Harmonica , saying that there are lot more to play film songs ! Through Indian Mouthorgan Players Group on facebook I came to know that there are so many good players in all over India . I would like to request them to play popular regional tunes of their particular state on harmonica and post them so that we can enrich ourselves with different melodies of India . Good melody actually doesn't require any language!
            Before I end this write up , I would like to convey my gratitude to all my harping friends,from the core of my heart to include me to the community . I promise to give my best to harmonica and when the time would come that ,

MY SOUL CAN BREATHE NO FURTHER

I SHALL PASS MY HARP TO SOMEONE STRONGER !

-Dr Babita Basu ,


Embedded below are the videos of LIVE programme by Dr Babita Basu at “GANBHASHI” Programme  by TARA MUZIK,  A popular Bengali TV Channel on 14th August 2013.



We breathe harmonica!