Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Climbing the chords . . . #2

Hailing from the family of Shehnai maestros and concerting since the age of 13, Pt.Shehnai S.Ballesh is known to hold the audience in thrall with his performances. Pt.S.Ballesh has also had the privilege of getting trained under the extreme expertise of Ustad Bismillah Khan for a few years.
After a small pause, Krishna Ballesh, continued to say how his father got associated with Ustad Bismillah Khan. Pt.S.Ballesh was at “Thala Bhavan” , Dharwad, all set for the gig - greater grander performances. Ustad Bismillah Khan was brought to the site, in the “Pallak” (Palankeen). Just imagine, the luck of the performer, to win the hearts of very many people including the Ustad Sir!!  While Pt.S.Ballesh was performing, the sound systems went Phut..! The perseverance of S.Ballesh was so great that he had performed without the sound systems, for three full hours!!! (Any artist could understand the plight of performing without a basic sound system, for that matter!) The concert geared up and ended so well ushering few special raagas, in an air of festive gaiety, with a gayaki style of Shehnai as well! Pt.Shehnai Ballesh was holding a place in the remote areas of Ustad Khan Sir’s Heart. However, a similar kind of event happened, that made S.Ballesh to be a Sishya (Student) of Ustad Bismillah Khan sir! This event carried an impact in S.Ballesh’s timeline.
Looks like, the power had the power to connect these two people for life time! In the second event that happened in one of those days, there was a power failure at the concert hall, where, Shehnai S Ballesh was to perform along with few other artists. Also, Ustad Bismillah Khan sir was to issue forth few sparkling notes of Raags and Tals , giving in , to the deeper levels of receptivity by the listeners! When the (electrical) power failed, Ustad Bismillah Khan Sir’s pressure shot up, as how to conduct this event. Pandit S.Ballesh approached Ustad Sir, and had tried to pacify him. The sparks occurred at the synaptic clefts of Ustad Bismillah Khan Sir that this was the guy who performed for three hours without electricity, sometimes ago! The pacified master, and the little student, started their performances and had made the event a great grand success. S.Ballesh became the disciple of Ustad Bismillah Khan and he was brought to Varanasi by the Ustad and was given advanced training by the Ustad himself!
After the performance in Gadag Karnataka Rajostav Puraskar awarde Sri.Veereshwar madri ji made S.Ballesh to step in for South Indian Film Industry to Chennai. And from then on, he had a long music career! The South Indian Film Music Industry gave a red carpeted welcome to Pandit.S.Ballesh. He had been the only Shehnai Player, who gelled with most of the music directors across South India, from M.S.Vishwanathan to Illaiyaraja, Noushad Ali to Paravoor Govindan Devarajan, Rajan and Nagendra to Upemdra Kumar, Rajeshwara Rao to Ravindra, Madhan Mohan to Ravindra Jain! S.Ballesh broke the paradox of “Fixed Musicians” to the music directors and played for all the musical directors in a perfect pace.
During his associateship with Ustad Bismillah Khan, he learnt and mastered different shades of behaag, Shuddha Sarang and many other raag and taals. Ballesh considers Ustad Bismillah Khan not only as a musical guru, but a spiritual guru as well who propagated brother hood.
To the man, the master, the Shehnai Shaheenshah, is the tribute Ras Barse Utsav, that is to be held on 11th of April, 2015, at Chinmaya heritage Centre, Chennai. Mark your calendars, Make sure you join the team to witness a rare of its kind – Hindustani Concert – Live in Chennai!
Lot more to share,
Until then,
Lots of love,

Riya.

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