Harmonica lover aims for new Guiness record

As per the English daily newpaper DNA, a Harmonica lover Shaileshkumar S. Sethiya, who recently shifted to Bangalore, had aimed for a new Guiness record on May 1st 2010 by playing the harmonica continously for 30 Hrs. This was published in DNA's May 26th edition. Interested in this article? Just go to the link mentioned or try reading page no.5 of the electronic paper issued on that date.

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnaahmedabad/epapermain.aspx?queryed=16&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=16&eddate=5/26/2010

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

Meeting the Big B(handari) of Indian harmonica

Now-a-days if anybody talks about current generation harmonica wizards in India, Shri Ashok Bhandari’s name will be in the top-list. Like every Indian harmonica lover I am also mesmerized with his harmonica magic. The more I listened to Big Bhandari, the more was my desperation to meet him. This desperation kept on increasing until I planned my vacation to Delhi and I met him at his office. Needless to say, I had witnessed the harmonica magic live. One must listen to him live in his lifetime.

When asked why he doesn’t play Western Jazz or Blues because of his regular touring around the world, he says jokingly, he would prefer Indian Dal and Roti to Western food. He adds- “We Indians try to copy western people whereas many western people enjoy our Indian harmonica music. Harmonica is an instrument which has to be played by feelings and not by mathematical formulae alone.”

I had the privilege to take lunch with Ashok ji that day. I hope to meet Big Bhandari again to enjoy more his harmonica magic in future.

Please watch a video I recorded at his office. (Excuse me for the poor quality)

Arijit Mukherji-The Noteworthy harmonica player

I still remember that day 16^th Nov 2008 when my friend, guide and philosopher Mr B. Vinayak gave me a CD- “Down memory lane” by Shri Arijit Mukherji (The nephew of harmonica legend Shri Milon Gupta). After listening to that CD, I fell in love with his harmonica playing. The same day I got his contact number and restricted myself from calling him after learning about his profile. After hearing his next album -“A tribute to Kishore Kumar” I couldn’t resist myself and had started disturbing him more often.

Few days back, with prior appointment, I met Arijit da at his residence in Gurgaon and for few minutes, I fumbled with excitement and was unable to express myself. Arijit da understood my condition and offered me a Coke. Then, he asked me to play harmonica. One by one, I played not less than 10 songs on his demand. After listening, he gave me lot of tips for my betterment. Later, I too witnessed him play my favourite numbers on his favourite Larry Adler Professional 12 harmonica.

Arijit da presented me his “Down memory lane” CD. I requested him to autograph on the same. Almost 3 hours just passed like 3 minutes in his company. I left their house with utmost satisfaction of receiving some tips. Arijit da was so caring that he enquired about my welfare after leaving their home.

Given below are some of the media write-ups about him which appeared in various journals. Those interested can read further.

Business Standard, December 21,2008

Noteworthy player

Arijit Mukherji wants to popularise the mouth organ.

The impressive collection of mouth organs that reside in Arijit Mukherji’s home in Gurgaon belies his profession. When he’s not at work at Fidelity Investments, he’s playing his favourite instrument — a beautiful Larry Adler Professional. And that’s just one of the many pieces that he has hand-picked, over decades, from different parts of the world. He is primarily steeped in the Western musical tradition, unlike many lovers of music in India. Not many Indians, he says, have taken up the mouth organ.

While Mukherji never harboured dreams of being a full-time musician, his dedication to the instrument is, nonetheless, admirable. He includes an hour-and-a-half of practice every morning and considerably more time when he’s practicing to record for his albums. “The only travel which I do during my annual leave from work is for my recordings,” he says, dispelling the myth that this instrument is just about “blowing and drawing”.

“I take my music seriously because I aim to revive this instrument in India,” says Mukherji. He learnt the tabla at the age of six, followed by guitar, but it was the mouth organ which he learnt most enthusiastically. It was his uncle, Milan Gupta, a renowned solo mouth organ artiste in the country, who gave Mukherji his first lessons, he remembers fondly.

More than 25 years later, he recalls how the right side of his mouth and tongue regularly got bruised due to regular practice. “When the art — and style — of playing the mouth organ seeps into your senses, and you have successfully adapted to the use of your tongue while playing, it no longer pains that much,” he says.

Mukherji started learning the instrument theoretically only five years ago, and admits that even though a mouth organ is pocket-sized, it’s extremely complicated in structure. While this instrument is more popular in Western music, Mukherji, through his albums, has Indianised his tunes. “When you hear Clapton, you know it’s him. I have developed my own tone which, thankfully, my uncle loved when he heard,” he says.

Mukherji, with his immense talent, touches high pitch as easily as he swoops into low notes, thanks to the regularity of his practice hours. Small wonder then that his humble mouth organ resonates, in recording sessions, with a host of other instruments including the sarod, sitar, guitar, flute and santoor.

“The first time I recorded an album, the idea was not to sell. We were playing in Usha Uthup’s studio in Kolkata and she heard us by accident,” he says. What followed was a hand-written letter of recommendation by Uthup — who absolutely loved his work — and that’s how Mukherji cut his first album with Music Today.

Mukherji feels that he has been fortunate to meet the right people on the music circuit. Music director Shantanu Moitra, for example, has been a source of guidance and support and one of his mentors too. “He’s an honest person. Every time I’ve had trouble adapting a song to the instrument, I seek his advice,” says Mukherji.

Mouth organ in hand, Mukherji slides a CD into a music player and allows me to listen to his new album, A Tribute to Kishore Kumar, by T-Series. We listen to “Zindagi ka Safar” a popular Hindi movie track, to which Mukherji has given a distinct western feel and turned it into a rock ballad. He pauses to point out another track on the album, “Jeevan ke Safar mein Raahi” which also has a noticeable western influence. “The song is a copy of a Mexican tune, in the first place. I worked around it, changed the rhythm, but still retained an Indian feel,” he explains.

Mukherji has also done jugalbandi of sorts in his albums. With sarod artiste Pratyush Banerjee, for instance (“He’s also a family friend,” he says), Mukherji has created albums. One of his earlier albums, Down Memory Lane, by Music Today, recreated some of the works of legendary artistes like R D Burman and Salil Chaudhary. “When people heard I was trying to recreate Salil da’s work, they were astounded,” says Mukherji, who recently visited Mozart’s house in Salzburg and jokes that he can now die in peace.

Planning to work on an album of Latin melodies as well as Rabindra Sangeet, Mukherji worries that his favourite instrument might just be falling off the musical map in the country. The artiste encourages children in the neighbourhood to take lessons from him. “People are keen on performances rather than learning,” he rues.

For Mukherji, after all, it’s music that still continues.

Tuesday , November 25 , 2008 The Telegraph, Culcutta

Harp of the matter

Say that the mouth-organ is defunct and expect to be admonished by Arijit Mukherji, a passionate practitioner of the instrument for the past 23 years. “I don’t think that the mouth organ is dead. The art is suffering because of a dearth of players,” believes the 40-year-old, whose debut album, Down Memory Lane (2007) was a rare instrumental record from India selected by Apple iTunes and E-music to be sold on their online stores.

An ex-Xaverian from Calcutta, Arijit is now the director of Fidelity Investments in Gurgaon. He likes to straddle the diverse worlds of art and banking. At the moment, he is ready to release his second album. “We will be launching the album in the first week of December. It will be a country-wide release on T-Series,” says Arijit.

Nephew of the legendary Milon Gupta — perhaps the only true-blue mouth-organ artiste working in the mainstream film industry in the 50s — Arijit owes his inspiration and skill to his uncle. “I learnt the tabla and guitar, but listening to mymesho play the pocket instrument was way more fascinating! He taught me to play when I was 18 and I am the only one in the family after him to have pursued this art form. In a way, I’m trying to revive the art and pay tribute to my uncle’s endeavours in popularising the instrument during that era,” explains Arijit, who plays the chromatic harmonica, which offers flat and sharp notes unlike other diatonic mouth-organs.

While Down Memory Lane tried to recreate the charm of Salil Chowdhury and RD Burman, his second album is a tribute to Kishore Kumar classics that have been rearranged with keyboards, mandolin and flute accompanying his mouth-organ solos. “Music director Shantanu Moitra has arranged the order of the tracks for this album,” says Arijit.

In the new album, Zindagi ka safar gets a rock-ballad treatment, while Jeevan ke safar mein rahi is rearranged with a swing feel.

Music is “not just a hobby” for Arijit, who spends hours listening to or looking up videos of international players like Larry Adler, Charlie McCoy and Jerry Murad. “I would like to use different acoustic instruments to produce a Latin album someday and another on Rabindrasangeet,” he smiles.

Indian Express.com, Dec 29, 2008

Harmonica player Arijit Mukherji’s second album is A tribute to Kishore Kumar

Music from the harmonica, the shiny, rectangular mouth organ was a regular feature in songs or as a prop, in old Hindi movies. (Remember the brooding image of Amitabh Bachchan serenading Jaya while languorously playing the harmonica in Sholay?) Arijit Mukherji, 42, Finance Director with Gurgaon based Fidelity Investments, is one of Delhi’s last remaining harmonica players; for some reason, the tiny mouthpiece has fallen out of favour with budding musicians. “My uncle Milon Gupta played the harmonica in movies like CID, Kashmir Ki Kali and Dosti,” says Mukherji, who’s just released his second harmonica album, A Tribute to Kishore Kumar. “My uncle’s influence made me love this instrument.”

The album has 10 of Mukherji’s favourite Kishore Kumar tracks in which Zindagi ka Safar gets a rock-ballad treatment, while Jeevan ke safar mein rahi is rearranged with a swing feel. Mukherji explains how blues players use harmonicas to create a jazz like sound, while he Indianises the tone. “I can take out the meend from the instrument to Indianise the sound,” he explains. Mukherji has had occasional musical alliances with Usha Uthup, sarod player Pratyush Banerjee and music director Shantanu Moitra (of Parineeta fame) who has arranged the music for his second album by changing the interludes, preludes and rhythm patterns.

HaLoH meeting at Pink City

From Gurgaon, I visited Jaipur to meet the virtual member of HaLoH Mr Raman Khandelwal popularly known as KK (Kromatic Khandelwal). We met for the first time. On Sunday morning, we called Hyderabad and spoke to all HaLoH members who assembled at Indira park.

I know KK through a social network because we both are harmonica enthusiasts. Raman K, is a 35 years old businessman from Jaipur. Music (Harmonica) and Soft Skills training especially “Body language” (non verbal communication) skills for sales effectiveness are his hobbies. He was brought up in Vijayawada, AP and is now settled in Jaipur (Pink city). I stayed in their home for two days and received lot of love and affection from all their family members which I cannot forget in my life time. Apart from the harmonica session at his home, I liked the Rajasthani dishes and other items like Pav Bhaji and a variety of sandwiches. His family gifted me a Rajasthani bandhej dress material for my better half. KK and I roamed all around in Jaipur while talking about only harmonica. I took some lessons from him on Music theory during this trip. No wonder he is very good at explaining things and has taught some basics of musical theory to some harmonica lovers. KK promised me to visit Hyderabad this year.

KK, All HaLoH members are waiting for you to share their love.

Harmonica lover of the week Mr Anand, a retired defence personnel

During 62 year old Anand's college days in Chennai, one unknown person used to play melodies on the harmonica (not a beggar :-)) for the people at a bus stop everyday at a particular time. That harmonica player inspired Mr Anand to pick up harmonica. 20 years ago, he recorded two instrumental cassettes on his favorite tower harmonica. Shortly, we will share those numbers with you. With the increasing age and responsibilities Mr Anand hardly touched the harmonica but after seeing the enthusiasm of HaLoH, he wants to revamp his harmonica. Though he never played for years, he agreed to play a number for us. Watch this video and encourage this harmonica lover.

Sandy’s journey with HaLoH begins

This sunday, 10 harmonica lovers attended the meeting at Indira Park, Hyderabad. A new face graced the occasion. He is Mr sandeep Bhagerwal, a software engineer who learnt about HaLoH through internet. Sandy is seen playing love theme from the movie Sholay on his tower harmonica.

HaLoH welcomes Sandy.

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.