The Palace of Harmonicas: Live life King Size

I'd like to express my deepest thanks to Rajah of Pithapuram (ROP) Shri RVMR Ratna Rao for his love and affection towards me during my recent visit to their palace in Pithapuram. I thought I would take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about him, and share a few videos and photos I took. Just wanted to share with you the exciting (for me, anyway!) experience.

As some of you know, Pithapuram is a historical place in AP which was ruled by the grand fathers of existing Rajah Shri Ratnarao for centuries. Few colleges like Pithapuram RajahGovt College,Kakinada and Rangaraaya medical college, Kakinada were donated by them.

I was delighted when I was invited by him to their palace. I was very much curious to visit the palace not only to see the antiques, riffles but harmonicas as well. Yes… to see the grand collection of harmonicas.

As soon as I entered the palace, ROP had offered water and a soap to wash my hands. I told, “Sir I just finished my breakfast!” ROP answered with smile: Please wash your hands to have a musical feast and there was a beautifully carved leather pouch in front of me. I thought it could be a pistol, because collecting riffles and guns is one of his hobbies. ROP asked me to open the pouch and to my surprise it was a harmonica (SUZUKI SCT-128). No doubt it’s quite expensive to own. It’s a combination of chromatic and tremolo harmonicas built in a single body. ROP asked me to inaugurate it by playing because it arrived just a few days ago. I felt like a harmonica virtuoso at that moment :-P and thanks to ROP for honoring me in such a way.

His Harmonica collection comprises more than 100 premium class harmonicas like Hohner Super Chromonicas 270 in all scales, 30years old Larry Addler, 280, Super 64x, Marine band deluxe set, Special 20s set, Meister class, Cross harp MS, SUZUKI-total sets of Firebreath, Bluesharp, Folkmaster, Overdrive300, Manji, Harpmaster, Pipe humming harmonica, SCX chromatic in all scales, SCX-64, Gregory Marett, SCT-124 harmonicas etc. Apart from harmonicas, he is also a proud owner of Roland Fantom-G8 Music Workstation(keyboard) worth 2.25 lacs and a Gold plated Gibson Les Paul custom guitar which he purchased and received directly from the hands of (Late) Mr Les Paul who is the founder of Gibson guitar company during his visit to USA in early 90s. After seeing all harmonicas I could not resist myself asking a question: “Sir, what is your favorite harmonica?” Immediately, he went to his bedroom and brought a 56 years old Hohner Marine Band 10 hole diatonic harmonica which was gifted to him (on his persuasion) by his uncle when he was just 6years old in Madras (Chennai). That’s how harmonica entered in his life at avery tender age.

Then, began our musical session. ROP is a great fan of Hendrix , Mark Knopler and Eagles a great classical guitarist, lyricist and a composer. We feel proud of him because he is a harmonica lover too.

You’ll love to watch two videos of ROP which I shot at Pithapuram

I hope ROP don't mind me posting this video here for others to enjoy. Of course, if I receive any objections, I'll take it straight down.

It was 3 0 clock then. Both of us were hungry and ROP offered me a great lunch with all my favorite non veg. dishes. The dining table was bigger than my master bedroom :-P

ROP and I enjoyed my visit to their Palace and would like to go there again but along with all HaLoH members!

Give me some sun shine- 3 idiots

Harmonica lover of the week Mr Avinesh Singh:

I love playing Harmonica. I had started learning it when i was in college. My friends would definitely remember me for this (not for studies he he he). After playing for a couple of years I almost left playing because of my job pressure. But one fine morning I saw Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad blog. I joined the group immediately. And it was a rebirth for my Harmonica skills. I am learning a lot from them and sharing my knowledge too. I normally play with HOHNER SUPER 64X.

This time i have selected a song from the film 3 Idiots. Give Me Some Sun Shine.Hope you all would like it

I am trying out a couple of songs, hope you would enjoy!

You can also catch me on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Avineshutube

with love.. Avinesh Singh

Tribute to Shri Milon Gupta

Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad pays tribute to the Indian harmonica legend (Late) Shri Milon Gupta who breathed his last on Feb 18th in the year 1995.

may his soul rest in peace.

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Tears of Joy- Kailashnath

As we shared with you a few weeks ago that internet makes new relations, there is yet one more example to illustrate this point. We came across harmonica lover Mr Kailashnath through a social network on the Internet platform. Within very short span of time Mr Kailashnath became very close to everybody and became a key member in HaLoH activities. Currently, he is the Joint Secretary of Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad (Regd).

Mr Kailashnath is a technical manager in ECIL , living with his better half, a son who is a software engineer at Hyderabad, and a Daughter who’s a Bio Medical Engineer now settled in USA. He is always a cheerful person and attracts everybody with his “Do not expect anything in order to avoid getting disappointed” philosophy.

Mr Kailashnath during his 11 years of age suffered from severe typhoid fever and was reluctant to get admitted in hospital. His father, (late) Shri Kedarnath Who was a self taught sitar player cum harmonica player convinced him to take the treatment after promising him a harmonica as a gift. As per the promise his father presented him a Hohner CG Comet harmonica on the hospital bed itself. He also gave some tips to play the hearmonica.That’s the beginning of harmonica in Kailashnath’s life with National Anthem Janaganamana. Being an elder son in the family, his responsibilities grew up and harmonica disappeared gradually from his life and he also lost that CG Comet harmonica.

Recently Mr Kailashnath’s daughter DOLLY came to India with a surprise gift for her beloved father. This gift was none other than a Hohner CG Comet harmonica. After almost 3 decades, Kailashnath touched a CG Comet. Both Dolly and Kailashnath visited HaLoH at Indirapark. His eyes were filled with tears of joy when he played that harmonica and shared his feelings with us.

Valentine’s day performer-Shri Amaram Raj Kumar

Shri Amaram Rajkumar, executive member of Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad (Regd.), a man of simplicity and one of the senior harmonica players of Hyderabad was born in a Royal family of Secunderabad. He’s a retired employee of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, but still serving the AP state Govt in the same Dept where he retired. Mr Rajkumar was inspired to pick harmonica by his friend Late Shri. Cyrus Mehta, a sailor who always used to carry a harmonica in his pocket in the early 60’s. Shri Rajkumar has been playing the harmonica since his college days has performed many a times in various prestigious auditoriums including Ravindra Bharati. Several news papers have written lot about his talent. Apart from harmonica playing Mr Rajkumar also has a grand collection of rare LPs, EPs and cassettes of his favorite artistes like Shri Milon Gupta, Shri Madan Kumar and also some western artists.

Mr Rajkumar, another front runner of HaLoH, never waits for any invitation to play the harmonica. When he plays the harmonica, at least 10% of Indira Park can feel the vibrations of his harmonica and he can manage a huge audience without a mike. This is one of the reasons why we usually start and end our harmonica sessions with him.

This Sunday, we were all awaiting Mr Rajkumar and he appeared in a cool pink T-shirt with charming looks. No wonder we realized that it was Valentine’s Day and he played all LOVE songs on harmonica. The session started with the song ‘Oh Maria’ (from the film ‘Sagar’) by me followed by other players. Finally, it was Shri Rajkumar’s turn to say ‘SAYONARA’ on his favorite Hohner Chrometta14 (from the film ‘Love in Tokyo’) for the day. Please watch this video.

Happy Valentine's Day

Love from the land of melody

I believe, every human being on this earth has an attachment to a place which could be his birth place, the place where he grew up or studied, the place where he fell in love with someone or may be a place related to his religious beliefs. Shri B. Vinayak, the backbone of HaLoH (Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad) has a similar attachment to the city of joy-Kolkata. I believe the reason behind this attachment can be best described by Shri B. Vinayak himself. I request him to describe his bonding with Kolkata and his experiences at this city in his recent trip. Vinayak ji, are you reading this?

On learning about Shri Vinayak’s trip to Kolkata, I had given him a piece of paper with a name and a mobile number jotted on it and requested him to meet that person to convey regards on behalf of HaLoH and me. Wonder whose name I wrote on that paper? It was the name of one among those persons whose exuberant harmonica playing on esnips influenced me to take my Chromatic harmonica seriously. He’s none other than Mr Sumanta Basu from Kolkata.

Sumanta Basu-A brief introduction:

Sumanta Basu, aged 35 years from Kolkata is a very popular harmonica artist on eSnips. No wonder, most of us must have come across his profile at some point of time. He is a self-taught Creative Designer working for the web media since last 13 years, and working for a large range of clients who are really big players...He has been playing the harmonica for the last 19 years.

He says : “I love my friends, who are pretty serious about their careers, shouting lovingly at a crazy boy they are talking to. What to do, I like to spell my own words... and there is no cause behind it. I love to see... I love to read... I love to listen... I love to write songs... to take photographs... I love to do what ever I feel like... I love to find as many ways I can, to tell you my tale, to explore various languages to communicate with... I love to play the Harmonica... Like other composers, I have a special attraction for Rabindranath and his compositions. The more I play him, the more I realize, that he was the first composer of our country, who have composed modern, and such smart tunes for all times to come. I’m jealous of the precision with which he has made application of all the major and minor notes…”

His favourite musicians are Kabir Suman, Salil Chowdhury, RD Burman, SD Burman, Naushad, OP Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishan, Jim Rives, Pat Boon and BoB Dylan

Please listen to this number played by Mr Sumanta Basu

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SONG window

After 6 days long trip to Kolkata, Shri Vinayak returned back to Hyderabad and met me this Sunday at Indira park. Affectionately he gave me a CD “Those were the days ” which was sent from Mr Sumanta Basu with his autograph on it. The moment I saw the autograph, I kissed the CD because I felt it like an honour for me from my favorite artist. Unlike other Sundays,I left Indira park a little early as I was very much desperate to listen to Mr Sumanta’s latest western numbers. After listening to the album, the hangover still continues in me. Given below are the songs which he played in this album.

Those were the days

1.Guantanamera

2.Besame Mucho

3.The Banana boat song

4.Que Sera Sera

5.Tequila

6.Never on Sunday

7.500 miles

8.Summer Holiday

9.Sounds of Silence

10.Lara’s theme-Dr.Zhivago

11.Those were the days

12.Speak Softly Love-Godfather

13.Rivers of Babylon

14.Que viva Espana

The CD was recorded by Mr Sumanta Basu himself at his home. Quality of recording is at par with many international albums. I strongly believe his skills will be recognized by global harmonica lovers very shortly

Write up on the CD by Mr.Sumanta Basu

My land is a land of music and melody. Since time immemorial, our songs and their modern forms have mesmerized me and urged me to reach out beyond the bounds of place and time, musically from within. Years later, at this age, I have been able to muster the courage to bring this out to all.

None of the 14 numbers, chosen for this album are from my own country. In fact they do not belong to any particular country. These times, different in character, created at different times in different societies and I have been recorded by various artists long before I was even born. Hence the onus of judging the authenticity of these numbers played by me rests solely onto the listeners.

The responsibility that I have taken on myself besides playing the tunes on the harmonica are that of recording, mixing, CD mastering along with creating this inlay.

I am deeply indebted to the medium called Internet for the music arrangements. I however, regret being unaware of the names of my accompanying musicians.

Well, I guess, this is globalization..

To listen to more Indian songs played by him, visit his eSnips profile at

http://www.esnips.com/user/sumanta-harmonica

Sumanta, we love you... Looking forward to listen to your future works.

Rendezvous at Delhi

A few weeks ago, on a cold day, I visited Shri Ashok Bhandari ji’s office at Delhi. It was a planned trip from Jaipur. This was our first meeting; nevertheless we felt that we knew each other quite well. I asked Ashok ji to give some tips on playing the Harmonica. He asked me to play and I played the popular Hindi aarti “Om Jai Jagdish Hare” on my harmonica. Bhandari ji took his 16 hole Hering and played this aarti with ease. This was the first time he was playing this tune. He picked it up pretty fast. He mimicked my style at first and later played this very same aarti in his style with “feelings”.

He has developed his “Bellow blowing technique” wherein he ensures that his lungs are filled with a lot of air. He then controls the air pressure while playing the notes. He also demonstrated how to control breathing while blowing and drawing notes. A balance is maintained between how much air is drawn through the holes and through the nose in case of breathing in. Extra air is blown out through a passage created by slightly opening the lips while blowing only the required quantity of air through the holes for the reeds .I also got an opportunity to witness his favourite “stunts” on the harmonica. Well, I’m talking about those strange peculiar sounds he creates on the harmonica. This was followed by demonstration of harmonization, octave playing, different kinds of vibrato etc. There was a drastic improvement in my playing within half an hour of his demonstration.

We were waiting for one more harmonica lover: Harish Nayyar from Amritsar (Punjab) who arrived there directly from New Delhi railway station. When Harish entered the room, he was amazed to see lots of harmonicas scattered on the table. He played the popular Sindhi number “Dama dam mast kalandar” sung by Runa Laila on his Swan 1248 professional. After some harmonica session, we had lunch. We were impressed by his hospitality. Being a learner with no extraordinary harmonica skills, I still felt at ease in his company. It was time to bid adieu after spending 5 hours at Ashok ji’s place. Harish and I really enjoyed ourselves. It was a memorable day.

Harmonica Our Passion!

Internet bridges the gap between harmonica lovers..

Raman Khandelwal (Popularly known as KK-Kromatic Khandelwal) a virtual member of HaLoH came across one of his childhood friend Vijaykrishna Pilla(who now stays in USA) on internet after 20 years. KK was happy to learn that VK Pilla use to playing the flute during his school days also developed same passion for harmonica recently. VK Pilla who was on an official trip to India( New Delhi) last week made it a point to meet KK at Pink city without fail. KK and VK Pilla met after 21 years had a good time discussion about harmonica and music. VK Pilla native of Hyderabad learnt about harmonica happenings at HaLoH , immediately he called us from Jaipur and confirmed about his participation in this week’s HaLoH meeting at Indira Park.

Today, On his arrival he offered us Pheeni(A famous sweet dish of Jaipur) “sweets” are really “sweet”. Later we had a great musical session which included with his flute recital.

Mr VK Pilla left the park loaded with love and affection of Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad.

We wish to meet him during his next visit to India.

HaLoH celebrating 60 years of Janaganamana

It is 60 years back on the same day a great event has taken place.Jana Gana Mana, composed by Late Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly as the Indian national anthem on January 24, 1950.

HaLoH celebrating 60 years of our national anthemJanaganamana, since today is HaLoH day(Sunday) our meeting at Indirapark started with our National anthem Janaganamana on harmonica as a group.

Avinesh Singh

Mr Avinesh Singh, A guitarist turned harmonica player (Lover) actively participated in today’s meeting with his Hohner Super 64x. Mr Avinesh joined HaLoH after seeing this blog. He speaks softly and plays all new songs on harmonica so softly without imitating anybody. Finally we understand that he is a software engineer :-)

Inderjit Singh Soni

Shri Inderjit Singh Soni, An Industrialist and an Elite personality of Hyderabad, visited HaLoH and played few western numbers on his SUZUKI SCX-64 for us. His keen sense of humor and his incredible sound made it an unforgettable moment. Shri Soni extended his invitation to all harmonica lovers to visit his residence in Gunrock Enclave to make big sounds on harmonica and insisted us to utilize his spacious house premises for the practice sessions either with Hot or cold liquids :-P

We suitably reciprocate.

P N Murty

Harmonica Lover Prasad introduced another harmonica lover (his uncle) to HaLoH who is Shri P N Murty, A senior tax consultant of Hyderabad visited HaLoH with his grand collection of Hohner harmonicas.He played few nostalgic hindi tunes for HaLoH. All of us were surprised with his energy levels.

Shri P C Rao's Sanwale salone aye

Over a year we had heard a lot about Shri Purnachandra Rao, A senior Harmonica player, Music teacher running a very popular music school SSS Music academy in Hyderabad, on top of that he is a music director of Telugu film industry and composed for 15 films.

The atmosphere was really graced with his presence. He played few numbers on harmonica for us, what a performance! Watch this video...

All of us requested him to visit HaLoH regularly to guide us with his knowledge.

A memory lasts forever..

Shri Tapan Bhatt's Aage bhi jane na thu..

After the visit of Shri Kumarpal Shaw from Harmonica Club of Gujarat ( HCG ) few months ago, Another harmonica lover from HCG Shri Tapan Bhatt visited Hyderabad recently. Shri Tapan Bhatt is General Secretary of HCG. His passion for harmonica would be clearly seen when we exchanged series of messages through SMS. I was delighted to learn that there is one more harmonica lover with the same passion which we have for this instrument. A harmonica musical session was arranged at one of our HaLoH member Shri Mahendra Gala’s residence in the evening on 6^th of Jan.Other HaLoH members Vinayak B, A.Rajkumar, G.Rajkumar, Ashwin and Vijay Konda attended that musical session. We enjoyed listening to the renditions by Shri Tapan Bhatt on his Hohner Super 64X. HaLoH members present there had played harmonica one by one followed by the Indian harmonica anthem “Hai apna dil to awara” which was played by all of us together along with the karaoke track.

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

ASHOK BHANDARI- A MAGICIAN WHO LOVES THE HARMONICA

Ashok Bhandari-A magician who loves the Harmonica!

Here’s a mesmerizing rendition by Shri Ashok Bhandari who believes “Anything which can amuse is music”. This piece of music titled “Arabian Nights-Part 2” is being recorded without any digital special effects. HaLoH thanks Shri Ashok Bhandari for this video.

First steps:

Ashok ji has been playing the harmonica since early seventies. It’s almost forty years now. He was inspired by Late Shri Milon Gupta (Milon da) and Shri Madan Kumar. He had personally met Milon Da twice and took some tips on harmonica playing from him. He remembers listening to Shri Madan Kumar’s renditions on Juke Box during his college days. This used to cost 25 paise per song in those days. Shri Nachiketa Desai, a journalist and a Harmonica lover from Ahmedabad also influenced him in developing passion for this tiny little instrument during their college days at BHU campus. Ashok ji says “I’ve learnt a lot about harmonica from Nachiketa during our stay in the hostel.”

Falling in Love:

Apart from playing the harmonica, Ashok ji plays the keyboard, flute and many other percussion instruments. In fact, he is a very good percussionist and had performed on various percussion instruments long ago. When asked why he fell in love with the harmonica, he says that it (harmonica) is the sweetest instrument. It is very challenging to play the harmonica because one can’t know what is happening in the player’s mouth. Moreover, harmonica is a magical instrument which leaves the audience spell bound. He sites an example mentioning that he has to take a truck load of props for his magic shows and carries this tiny instrument with him. He always plays the harmonica during his shows and finds that his audience which attends his magic shows is impressed by his harmonica performance to a much greater extent.

The style:

Ashok ji is basically a chromatic harmonica player and plays Indian music. In fact this piece of music which is being uploaded along with this article is Arabic music played on a chromatic harmonica. There are lots of chromatic notes in this rendition which he believes is almost impossible to achieve in a diatonic harmonica. He believes that one should “Improvise” on the song one plays and should avoid being a carbon copy of another player. He sites an example of the king of ghazals Jagjit Singh who sings ghazals as per strict music notations in his albums but whenever he performs live in front of the audience, he improvises upon his own music and adds a new flavour to the performance. He also gives an opportunity to all other people accompanying him with various musical instruments to improvise. Ashok ji says, “When western people improvise on our music, we say it is fusion but when an Indian improvises on any music, it is frowned upon.” He prefers playing Indian music on a chromatic harmonica rather than playing the same on a diatonic harmonica by bending notes. He loves to hear harmonica players playing Indian Raagas and Folk. He says that he isn’t a good harmonica player, however he is a good performer and knows how to mesmerize his audience with his harmonica. A majority of his harmonica audiences on internet are foreigners who enjoy his Indian music. According to him, there is a lot of scope for harmonica to develop as a professional music instrument in India.

All time favourite:

Ashok ji’s all time favourite is the Hohner Super Chromonica 270 which was also played by late Milon da in India. Currently, he has a collection comprising Hohner Super Chromonica 270, Hohner Chromonica 3 (Old model now discontinued), Hohner 64 professional and Hering. This music in the video is played on a Suzuki Slider SC-64 harmonica. Though he owns a few diatonic harmonicas, he plays straight in first position.

Harmonica school:

Ashok ji has recently started teaching harmonica to students at Delhi. He also has a few online foreign students. He intends to promote the harmonica among school students. He says “Just imagine 400 school students playing the harmonica simultaneously. Imagine the sweet sound of harmonica with so many players. When a few thousand harmonica players abroad can create a world record of playing the harmonica together, why can’t we Indians?”

Message to all harmonica lovers:

Magician Ashok Bhandari is thankful to various online harmonica groups and forums, different blogs and websites pertaining to harmonica for promoting this instrument. He says “We should avoid having ego and petty quarrels between various harmonica players. Criticism on one’s rendition should be taken positively to improve our knowledge about music and harmonica playing skills. Friends, lets keep the harmonica flag high”

Harmonica Our Passion!