Harmonica Lover of the week- Noteworthy harmonica player Arijit Mukherji

At his endeavor to popularize harmonica, Mr Arijit Mukherji played few tunes on harmonica for Tara TV “Experts” in 2008. More details about Arijit da can be seen at the following link.

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/arijit-mukherji-noteworthy-harmonica.html

We do hope you'll enjoy watching these videos

Harmonica our passion!

HaLoH meeting with Debashis Dutta

After a vacation at Mysore, on way back to Hyderabad, our member Ramana halted at Bengaluru for a few hours. He met Mr Debashis Dutta, a popular harmonica player of India at his residence. No wonder, without harmonica session, any harmonica enthusiast's vacation is incomplete. Though it was a working day, Mr Debhasis deferred his official meeting and spent about 3 hours with Ramana on discussing and enjoying harmonica session.

Mr Debashis Dutta, an Aerospace and Materials engineer by profession, is 55 years old. He is based at Bangalore where he had lived and worked for the last 30 years. He did his B.Tech in Metallurgical Engineering from BHU-IT and then followed it up with an M.Tech degree each in Aerospace Engg (IIT-Madras) and Materials Engg (IISc Bangalore). He currently works in a senior engineering position for a US based aerospace MNC in Bangalore. He is a member of harmonica Club of Bangalore.

He is a self-trained mouthorgan player. He got introduced to this instrument when he was about 14/15 years old in high school by his maternal cousin Mr. Satinath Mukherjee who was an accomplished harmonica and piano professional and a contemporary of the great Milon Gupta. His cousin gifted an old Hohner mouth organ to him which he still possesses. What interests him about the instrument is that it is quite versatile, user friendly, a constant companion for every season and every place and produces music that pleases his ears along with everyone else’s ears. Moreover, anyone with an ear for music can learn the instrument on his/her own and give performances.

This is what Mr Debashis Dutta says about his harmonica playing style and preferences: “My playing style is basically single note playing but I do resort to Octave playing depending on the requirement of the song. For that matter I also resort to tongue slapping once in a while depending on whether that style would best suit the particular line of the song in a given situation. I try to get into the emotion or "feel" of the song rather than concentrating too much on accuracy of individual notes, lyrics or grammar. This approach according to me brings out the best from a harmonica or any wind instrument. I prefer playing Indian music, i.e., old meldious Hindi or Bengali songs with beautiful tunes composed by legends like Salil Chowdhury, Pancham Da, SD, Naushad, Madan Mohan etc. I prefer to play Chromatic harmonica of Suzuki and Hohner brands.”

Embedded below is a rendition by Mr Debashis Dutta.

Harmonica lover of the week: Ravibabu

Ravibabu, a harmonica lover of Hyderabad, is ex-servicemen in Indian Army and is currently working in a multinational telecom company. He is our harmonica lover of this week.

First Love for Harmonica:

When Ravibabu was studying in 9th Std at Gorakhpur (UP), his school-mate (a Nepali) used to play the harmonica. At that time he was attracted to the harmonica because of its sound and tiny size. He became desperate to feel the harmonica but it was'nt available anywhere in the surroundings. His brother used to own a guitar. He gave the guitar to that school-mate and borrowed his harmonica. That was his first experience with this instrument. Within a very short period, he picked up few numbers like "Kanchi re kanchi" and "Hai apna dil to awara".

Experience at HaLoH:

After he joined Indian army as a wireless operator, harmonica gradually disappeared from his life for about two decades. One fine day, he happened to know about HaLoH and joined our group. Now, he is a full fledged harmonica player. He has a huge list of songs which he enjoys playing on his collection of harmonicas which includes Suzuki SCX56,Suzuki SCX48 in A,G,Hohner Super hromonica in D,F,Super Chromonica Deluxe,Hohner CX-12 in C,Swan 10 holes chromatic,Suzuki pure harp diatonic, Suzuki pro-v diatonic,Hohner puck and a silver song diatonic in G. He always expresses his thanks to HaLoH members, especially Vinayak and Ramana who inspired him to use chromatics and octave playing on harmonica. He feels HaLoH has motivated him to play a wide range of songs on harmonica and is a proud Harmonica Lover of Hyderabad. HaLoH wishes Mr Ravibabu all the best in all his future endeavours in his career and passion.

Please watch Ravibabu's video. He's playing "Lakhon hain nigahon mein"

Harmonica lover Chandrashekhar Khare visited HaLoH

Few days ago, another harmonica lover from Banglore Mr Chandrashekhar Khare visited HaLoH. The atmosphere was really graced with his presence. We enjoyed listening to the renditions by Mr Khare on his Hohner Super 64X. HaLoH members present there had played harmonica one by one.

Banglore based Mr Chandrashekhar Khare an electronics engineer by qualification is working in IT industry for the past 17 years and a core member of Bangalore Harmonica Club.

Mr Khare picked up harmonica at the age of 10, he was introduced to this instrument by some of his kid friends who bought it as a toy. But he took it more seriously and started playing songs. That is when his father bought him a Hero make harmonica. Since last 24 years Mr Khare continues to play Hohner make chromatic harmonicas.

Given below are his views and feelings about harmonica.

“This instrument is portable, sounds beautiful, and has a wonderful range in terms of the kinds of music you can play. Above all, it gives you a chance to be a solo player and allows you to come out of the shadows of the vocalist. A harmonica player will generally not be seen accompanying. Even so, then his music will stand out during performance, Till date, I have learned on my own without any formal training. My ears have been my gurus. I keep taking tips from fellow players on improving the techniques. Now with internet and youtube around, learning has become easier. In India, many players of the past generation are stuck with Bollywood and just one style of playing. They have lot of notions regarding what can not be done with Harmonica. As a result, they tend to plant these beliefs in the mind of youngsters. This approach needs to be rooted out if anything good was to happen on the harmonica scene in India. We should let the oxygen of fresh ideas flow and see the instrument evolve. The youngsters have the talent and capacity to work miracles. So help them unleash their potential”

--- Chandrashekhar Khare,Banglore.

HaLoH looks forward to meet more harmonica lovers from BHC in the days to come.

Megha chhaye adhee raat-Avinesh Singh

Harmonica lovers' sunday meeting on 26th Dec' 2010

This week, two harmonica lovers from different states visited HaLoH meeting at Indira Park.

Raman Khandelwal from Jaipur (Rajasthan), and Sanath Kumar from Chennai attended the meeting yesterday.

Raman Khandelwal is a virtual member of HaLoH and is one of the publishers of this blog. This was his first meeting at Indira Park. He was very enthusiastic to meet all the HaLoH members. His prime wish was to play the harmonica under the "Bodhi" tree in (as we popularly call it) in the presence of other harmonica lovers.

After watching some harmonica related videos of Kolkata harmonica artistes at on laptop, all the players played their favorite numbers one-by-one. This was followed by herbal tea and sweets before calling it a day.

Harmonica Lover of the week- Sanat Kumar

I am a Structural Engineer. I had done my Bachelors in Civil Engg. from College of Engineering, Kakinada & M. Tech (Structural Engg.) from I.I.T Kharagpur. I am presently working with an MNC in Chennai. My interest in instrumental music was generated from the intermittent melodious instrumental tunes which used to be played during Binaca Geet Mala and other radio programmes of yesteryears. I came across a Hero diatonic instrument quite accidentally on a pavement in the then Bombay during my college industrial tour. At first, I did a fewexperiments with the little instrument by myself and did succeed in being able to play a few easy tunes although not so accurately. One fine day, while I was studying in my hostel room in I.I.T Kharagpur, I heard the tune "Jaago Mohan Pyaare Jago....." being played brilliantly by somebody in the other wing. I just couldn't believe that this song could be played on the Mouth Organ so well. I at once tried my best to play this on my diatonic Hero instrument but soon discovered that it was beyond me. At that time, I knew nothing about the Chromatic or any other types of mouth organ. After this, I gradually got busy with my job and hardly found time for this hobby. It was only about eight years ago when I travelled to Germany that I bought a Hohner Mouth Organ and my interest began to revive. Four years back, I bought a Chrometta 14 Hohner. I recently bought Suzuki SCX-64 & Hohner Puck. I am ignorant of music theory and cannot read any notes. I play only by the ear. My first interaction with other Harmonica playes, like in the case of most others, happened through the net from Youtube postings. This is how I first came across HaLoH which was luckily being formed almost at the same time as my rising interest in the little instrument. My first visit to HaLoH happened when I visited Hyderabad during 2008. I was very thrilled to meet so many like minded Harmonica enthusiasts at one location for the first time in my life. I wished to visit more often but due to very busy work schedule, my second visit had to wait till DEC 2010. I thank all the members of HaLoH for sharing some very memorable time with me. I wish all the members a great time ahead and A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Please do convey my regards to all the members of HaLoH.

Thanks & Regards,

Sanath Kumar,

Chennai

Harmonica our passion!

Shri Inderjit Singh Soni, Visits harmonica lovers meeting regularly to improve his harmonica playing skills and also encourages others to play the harmonica.We are uploading his video clipping this week.

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.

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!

Salaam Pune

I'm sure most of you must have heard about the recent harmonica concert “Melodies on Harmonica” in Pune on 22nd May 2010. I was lucky to attend that concert. Thanks to harmonica lover from Pune-Mr Amaresh Deshpande who arranged me the front row tickets on my requisition through a phone call.

I often heard there is no encouragement for harmonica in India, but I changed my opinion after seeing the crowd outside Yeshwantrao Chavan Natyagruha before the programme. I was surprised to see the crowd, that too for a "ticket" programme! Yes, the programme was not free-of-cost and the people had purchased the tickets for the show. I was one among those curious harmonica lovers waiting impatiently to listen to the harmonica live by the great harmonica players like Shri.Madan Kumar, Shri Nandu Belvalkar, Shri Upendra Laxmeshwar, Shri Shamkanth Suthar and Shri Vishwanath Shirali. The auditorium was almost full with more than 700 people and the most awaited programme started sharply at 9.30 pm as per the schedule.

Programme started with "Papa kehthe hai bada nam karega by master.Sarang Rajguru followed by

"Yehi woh jaga hai" by female harmonica player Miss Girija Shirurkar, "Maine tere liye hi sath rang ke", Titanic theme songs by students of the harmonica institute of Pune, "Aaa Chalke tujhe" by Shri Bhupendra Kumar, "Ye mere dil pyar ka diwana" by Shri Pratap Basale, "Gore gore" by Shri Hemanth Gadre. These are few numbers I can recollect.

Some songs were really good and got standing ovation from the people. They were,-"Inteha ho gayi intezaar ki" (Sharabhi), "Oh hansini", "Gulabi ankhen" by Shri VS Shirali, "O mere sonare sonare" by Shri Madan Kumar accompanied by Shri Nandu Belvalkar on the chord harmonica, "Kya yahi pyar hai" solo by Shri Nandu Belvalkar played with 10 holes Swan chromatic harmonica, "Chakke pe chakka"( Brahmachari) by Shri Upendra Laxmeshwar, "Disla ga bai disla" (A marathi song from film: Pinjara), "Mere yaar shabba khair" played by Shri Shamkanth Sutar and "Apsara ali" (Another Marathi song from film:Natarang) played by Shri Amaresh Deshpande.

Special attraction in the programme were saxophone accompaniment by Shri Anil Karmarkar and the Anchor Shri Sidharth Bendre.

My cousin Mr Ganesh, a software engineer in Pune and I enjoyed our weekend in the harmonica concert by the great players. As a break from all the writing stuff, I thought I'd share a few of my photos with you...

Rendezvous with Shri Michael Pokish, Shri Nandu Belvalkar and Shri VS Shirali :

The next morning, I met Shri Micheal Pokish at his DO-Say restaurant. (He does whatever he says :-)) I was amused when he asked me in Telugu -“challani majjiga thraguthara?" (would you like to have butter milk?). He had stayed in Hyderabad for about 10 years. We went to his home and he showed his grand collection of harmonicas and played few tunes for me on harmonica.

Then I went to "Belvalkar's Anand Dham" to see Mr Nandu Belvalkar in person. Here, I got an opportunity to meet another renouned harmonica player Shri VS Shirali. We had a great time discussing harmonica as well playing some tunes.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing my visit to “melodies on harmonica” photos. If you've never been to Pune Harmonica concerts, I highly recommend it in future for a relaxing break from your work pressure. The climate is warm, the food excellent, the beauty stunning and the people are genuinely welcoming towards their guests.

Salam Pune!

Rustom Karwa rocks in Hyderabad

"Ramannaa? This is Rustom Karwa here. See, I am coming over to Hyderabad tomorrow, we can meet” I got this call in the evening on 8^th June ’10. I was overjoyed by his call. I was longing to meet him face-to-face for quite some time. Rustom ji is so kind that he gave me his complete itinerary for the 9^th of June.

Rustom ji is a well known personality in Bollywood and has been a favourite of many music directors for playing the harmonica in their films. He is also famous for his whistling which he does in movies. I also got the opportunity to listen to his whistling during my interaction with him.

I met the harmonica maestro Shri Rustom Karwa at a 7 star hotel in Hyderabad, where he was going to perform on the harmonica along with his huge 21 piece acoustic instrumental orchestra from Mumbai for a private gathering in Hyderabad. The moment I saw him I touched his feet to seek his blessings “Hey, please don’t do that….. I am still alive” said Rustom Ji by holding my shoulder.

I had little inhibition to enter the hotel and I wanted to leave the place without giving any trouble to Rustom ji but he (Rustom ji) took me into the hotel and offered me a seat. He introduced me to the event managers as a harmonica friend. For a moment, I forgot myself by seeing the arrangements of the stage.

I enjoyed myself throughout the concert. I got an opportunity to watch a 45 minutes non stop musical recital by world famous “Maske electrical strings trio-Australia” on the same stage, in between the musical concert by sitting next to Shri Rustom Karwa :-) I’m uploading the video of “Maske electrical strings trio” (Not recorded by me) It was a memorable moment for me.

Rustom ji was kind to share his experiences with me for almost an hour while sitting in the Hotel. He was delighted on learning that HaLoH possesses his original EP which was recorded in 1970 by Polydor Company. Thanks to Rustom Ji for presenting me the copy of the same EP in CD with his autograph.

Please enjoy the video of Rustom ji’s live performance which I had captured using my mobile phone. Please excuse me for the poor video quality.

Rendezvous with Arijit Da

Recently, Shri Arijit Mukherjee- a great player and the nephew of harmonica legend Late Shri Milon Gupta, visited Hyderabad. HaLoH members Shri Vinayak B., Shri Vijay Konda, Shri Ravi Babu and I (Avinesh Singh) got the opportunity to meet Arijit Da at Tata guest house in Jubilee hills. Thanks to Shri Vinayak B. for coordinating the meeting.

After a brief chat with him, we quickly realized that he was very polite, straight forward and a nice human being. We all played our favourite songs in front of him and he explained our strengths, weaknesses and ways to overcome those weaknesses. This was very interesting part of the meeting. On our request he started playing Hohner 270. He explained facts by demonstrating the same on his harmonica using examples of appropriate songs. He played many famous classic songs. All of us had many clarifications on harmonica and he was very co-operative, supportive and happy to answer all of them.

He explained us a very systematic approach towards learning the harmonica and emphasized on using proper notations, ragas and clear single notes. Of the many things which he explained, few of the important things were- when to play chords and when not on a harmonica, how to hold harmonica properly, which songs are suitable for playing on a harmonica and which are not suitable, how to simplify notes without losing the essence, which harmonica should we use in Hindi Bollywood and Western songs etc.

To conclude, I have to say that we met a very nice, technical and professional human being who was totally impartial in exchanging ideas for the benefit of harmonica community. On the lighter side, he promised us a good party when he meets us in Hyderabad next month.

NOTE: MORE INFO ON ARIJIT DA CAN BE READ IN THE DETAILED WRITE-UP ON HIM WHICH WAS POSTED RECENTLY IN THIS BLOG.

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/arijit-mukherji-noteworthy-harmonica.html

- Avinesh Singh

Hello HaLoH!

It was a very warm day with hot current of air blowing on the roads of Hyderabad, the city of Nizams. Being a harmonica enthusiast from Jaipur and a virtual member of HaLoH, I was desperate to meet some harmonica lovers for the first time. I first met Ramana Illaiyaraja at Abids. It was my second meeting with him after we met at Jaipur. Then, Shri B. Vinayak, a senior harmonica lover was just in time. Very soon, I saw Shri Avinesh Singh driving at Abids. We all went to Nampally station to meet Shri Vijay Konda. I was impressed by the way these guys coordinated and gathered in a very short span of time. I relished my favourite Vijaya buttermilk during our casual meeting before saying good bye to Vijay Konda.

All of us travelled to Avinesh ji's residence and had a musical session. I was impressed by the harmonica skills of these people. Each one had their own speciality. Avinesh ji showed his collection of harmonicas and played the harmonica. A few of his styles reminded me of Big Bhandari Ashok ji. Vinayak ji's harmonica recital reminded me of Milon da. Ramana too impressed me with his latest recording and he played a song using a karaoke track on his favourite mobile handset. I took valuable tips on playing the harmonica from Vinayak ji. We never felt that we were meeting for the first time. In fact, we felt as if we knew each other very well. After savouring some snacks at Avinesh ji's place, it was time to say good bye to each other.

Before leaving Hyderabad, I enjoyed my supper at 'Kamat' with my friend Ramana. Though I could not meet other harmonica lovers, I made it a point to talk to Shri Kailashnath over phone. On my request, even though it was dark, Ramana showed me the gate of Indira Park where HaLoH meeting takes place every Sunday morning. I wished to see the "BODHI" tree under which HaLoH members achieved "Nirvana" after playing the harmonica under it ;-) I wish to visit Hyderabad again to meet other harmonica lovers under that tree in Indira Park.

-Raman Khandelwal, Jaipur.

"Mere naina sawan bhadon" by Big B(handari)

This is a very emotional song played by Shri Ashok Bhandari on the harmonica. This song was sung by Kishore da in 1976 for the film Mehbooba. It was picturised on the romantic hero of those times -Rajesh Khanna. "Big Bhandari" has done justice to this song. He has also played it in different octaves. The sound in lower octave really gives that emotional touch to this song. Here are both the clips attached for your listening pleasure. HaLoH thanks Shri Ashok Bhandari for recording this clip for this blog.

Harmonica lover of the week-Inderjit Singh Soni

Shri Inderjit Singh Soni invited all HaLoH members to his residence. Hence, this week, instead of meeting at our regular venue-Indira park, Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad Mahendra gala, Kailashnath, Shivraj, A Rajkumar, Avinesh Singh, Dharmendra Jain, Ravibabu and Ramana assembled at Shri Soni’s residence. We had a great musical session for 2 hours blended with all kinds of tunes on harmonica followed with tasty Punjabi snacks :-P

HaLoH thanks Mr Soni for his warm reception and hospitality

In the following video I have used a western harmonica tune played by anonymous player :-)

Aajare pardesi- Avinesh Singh

Hi Friends,
This is my second attempt with Karaoke.
Although this song is relatively difficult I have tried it hard and dedicating it to MY Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad (HaLoH)
I have selected a song from film Madhumati. Aaa Jaa Rae Pardesi... I am really inspired by the way Ashok Bhandari Ji has played it.
My sincere thanks to Ashok Bhandari the Big B(handari) of Indian Harmonica, who has provided me the original Karaoke track which he had recorded for the same song when he played it in Harmonica. Hope you all would like it.

-Avinesh Singh

Harmonica lover of the week-Ramana

Today I'm delighted to publish my first recording on harmonica “Pyar hua iqraar hua from Shri 420” and I am dedicating this song to My friend,guide,philosopher and harmonica lover of Hyderabad Shri Vinayak on his birthday.

Vinayak Sir,

Many many happy returns of the day.

With Love

Ramana

Passion for harmonica continues..

Hi all, This week end I have come up with a new version of the song from film Shor - Ek Pyar Ka Nagma Hai... A very famous and ever green song. Hope you would like it . My sincere thanks to Keyur Shah Ji from Ahmadabad for giving me all support and knowledge to create this video and for doing the mixing.

-Avinesh Singh