We are Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad

Weekly meeting of HaLoH

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

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

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

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

The Sax is silent today

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

“The Sax is Silent Today” 13 July 2010

You were the Guru and a guide

musicians and singers

loved to have you by their side

As you blew magic into your saxophone

casting a spell with each melodic tone

Your sax made us laugh and made us cry

The romance in your sax made us sigh

Can we ever say you are no more

Even as you have passed through heaven’s door

For great artistes like you

Can never really die

Even though decades may pass by

Your music will live on in every heart

Never to depart

Every time we hear a sax play

We are sll bound to say

East or West

Manohari da will always remain the best

-v.s.shirali

The maestro of Saxophone-Manohari Singh.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad

Harmonica Lover of the week-Rameshwaram Bhardwaj

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

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

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

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

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

Harmonica Our Passion!

V.S.Shirali: A fabulous harmonica player

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

music director Viju Shah.

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

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

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

Harmonica Lover of the week: Big B(handari)

Harmonica Lover of the week: Big B(handari)

Our harmonica lover of this week is Mr Ashok Bhandari who is a magician and performs on the harmonica as well. Earlier, we have already uploaded some articles on him along with his videos on this blog. This week, we are uploading two of his videos of the same song, but in different effects. The first one is single note playing and the second one is with TREMOLO effect. This song "Suhaani Chaandni Raaten..." is from the film "Mukti". It was composed by R.D.Burman and sung by Mukesh.

"Tremolo" is an effect where two notes of a particular reference are tuned slightly apart to get that wavering effect. One note is slightly sharpened than the reference note to get this tremolo effect. This effect can be either achieved by playing a song on a tremolo harmonica or by some special effects during recording. However, for a song which also requires chromatic notes, it may not be feasible to play this on the ordinary tremolo harmonica and one may need a special Suzuki SCT-128 Tremolo-Chromatic harmonica for the same. Please listen to these videos to differentiate between regular effect and tremolo effect. This song is wonderfully played by wonderking big B(handari). Any guesses of how he achieved this effect ? ;-)

HaloH celebrates world music day!

Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad (HaLoH) celebrated world music day this Sunday. The celeberations were held at Tank Bund in the morning and at "Dhola Ri Dhani" resort in the evening. The members of HaLoH gathered at these two public places and performed for the general public.

World Music Day ( Fête de la Musique) originated in France, where since 1982 it has taken place annually on June 21 (or the nearest weekend). The event consists of free performances organized in parks, public squares, sidewalks and indoor venues, as well as unofficial concerts given along city streets. Anyone can make music on World Music Day, in some cases in any location, provided one rule is followed: The music must be free because the performers donate their time for free. Through its 19-year history, the event has gradually caught on internationally, and a host of cities and countries worldwide now observe the day either independently or with help from local French consulates or cultural associations. What is now known internationally as World Music Day is celebrated in 110 countries.

Morning session at Tank Bund:

There was a good response from the passers by at Tank Bund which is located in the heart of the city. One by one, all the members played the harmonica. The passers by stopped for a moment to enjoy the music. Many vehicles slowed down to witness this programme and some even stopped for a moment to enjoy the event. Few pics of harmonica lovers and passers by taken at Tank Bund are pasted below.

World music day celebrations- Evening session at Dhola Ri Dhani

The evening session was cool as well. HaLoH members performed for the visitors at this resort. Some visitors were carried away by the music and started dancing along. There was a good round of applause and some songs were also played on public demand. The pics pasted below will be interesting to watch.

This was a small effort made by HaLoH for all music lovers on World Music Day. The members were also very happy to promote the harmonica and create awareness about this beautiful musical instrument.

Harmonica Our Passion!

My experience at Ahmedabad- "Atithi devo bhavah"

In our Indian custom, we believe "Atithi devo bhavah" which means- "Guest is God". This is how I was treated on my visit to Ahmedabad by another harmonica lover Shri Keyur Shah. He took leave from his work and even managed to change his family members' routine just to play a perfect host in extending a warm welcome to me in Ahmedabad. We had a great session playing and discussing the harmonica. I still can't forget the hospitality experienced by me as his guest.

Keyur bhai, a harmonica lover from Ahmedabad is a nice and outspoken gentleman who calls spade a spade. He works for a stock broking firm. He was first motivated to play the harmonica by one of his friends when he was studying in 10th standard. He liked the tiny instrument for its sweet sound and ease in carrying it anywhere. He started playing some songs on the "Hero" tremolo harmonica. After playing for around 2 yrs, he was preoccupied with other activities and quit playing the harmonica. Recently, 1 and a 1/2 yrs ago, he restarted again from scratch. Today, he plays the harmonica pretty well. He has a Hohner 270 Deluxe and a Hohner 280. He loves the sound of his Hohner 270 DX. After such a long gap, he has picked up his harmonica skills pretty fast. He has also been seriously studying music theory which according to him is a must for every music lover. He also plays the guitar and keyboard with ease. When asked about his philosophy of life, he replies “Live life Kingsize". "However, I don't smoke :-))) " he adds with a laughter.

I'm attaching a song played by him in the video. I hope you'll enjoy listening to his rendition "Pardesia yeh sach hai piya" from the movie "Mr Natwarlal". The music was directed by Rajesh Roshan and the songs were sung by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar. Also attached are a few pics I had taken in Ahmedabad.

My narration of Ahmedabad trip would be incomplete without mentioning my visit to Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati ashram. I longed to visit this place as I am a firm believer of his teachings. Moreover, I also share my birthday with "Bapu" on the 2nd of October :-) I believe in "ahimsa" and follow the principle of Gandhi ji's three monkeys- "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil"

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!