Sangeet Ashram presented Samaresh Chowdhury at G.D. Birla Sabhagar (September 30). Chowdhury rendered a variety of Kalyans, opening with Shyam Kalyan. His sonorous, pliable voice with its bold, open throw and range, keen sense of rhythmic permutations and profuse taankari, incorporating some intrinsic characteristics of sitar-baaj into his sargam-taans, provided an inspiring start.

While the duni uthan made the Yaman Kalyan tarana set to medium teental intriguing, the meandering gait of Anand Kalyan denied scope for taans. The beautiful inherent chord of Gorakh Kalyan, stirred by occasional pukars, yearned for a loving melodic caress. But Chowdhury treated them alike with volleys of taans at a breakneck speed.

The trend-setting elaborate introduction to his impressive taleem indicated that the evolution of the musical persona depends on the artistes’ perseverance ultimately. It was evident that though influenced by a host of maestros, he was clearly sold on to the display of dexterity a la Salamat-Nazaqat Khan (Shyam Chawrasi) and Delhi’s Naseer Ahmed Khan.

The surprise of the evening was a rare recording of Pandit Ravi Shankar’s vocal renditions steering Chowdhury, his disciple, to the exquisite nuances of Ramkali and a Manjh Kamaj thumri ? singing all the way.