Pix by Aranya Sen

Aman Ali Khan, accompanied by Ustad Zakir Hussain, gave a distinguished performance on March 1 at the Science City Auditorium. He began with an alap in Yaman Kalyan, which, despite being a structurally simple raag, is set apart from its grammatically similar parent-raag, Yaman, by a crucial twist. The linear progression through permutation and combination of the notes — ni re ga ma pa dha — in Yaman is sharply interjected by a shuddh madhyam to define the character of Yaman Kalyan. The unrelieved intensity of the tivra madhyam in the former has to abruptly melt into the expansive restfulness of the shuddh madhyam in the latter.

Aman began in the lower registers, building up phrases with the nishad as fulcrum, and ending with fleeting touches to the gandhar of the normal octave, signalling the essential features of Yaman. He spent some time thickening the suspense, weaving phrases of Yaman by using the tivra madhyam pointedly — and then suddenly slipped in the shuddh madhyam, providing cathartic relief. Having established the essence of Yaman Kalyan with consummate skill, he then ventured into improvisation, which was charged by his bold imagination and confident stroke-playing. Although singularly faithful to grammar and syntax, he played two odd phrases — a chromatic use of the two madhyams, more commonly found in Lalit, and a languorous meend along pa-ma-ga, which is the signature of Shuddh Kalyan. But these deviations, rather than sounding dissonant, were touched by an inspired brilliance.

Subsequently, in the jod, Aman displayed great virtuosity, using theme and variation as his mode of elaboration. Rather than following a structural delineation of the raag, he built phrase-clusters around significant notes — primarily ni and ga — with sophisticated eclecticism, which was further reinforced by fleeting glances to shuddh madhyam all along. He concluded the alap with a forceful jhala, played with incredible speed and remarkable precision.

The first composition in the gat section was in jhaptaal, with Zakir Hussain beginning with the simple theka, before bursting into a superbly intricate elaboration. The Ustad’s sound production, combining sweetness and clarity, was unmistakably unique. From the beginning, both artists concentrated on a musical dialogue, rather than being the follower and the followed, as in the usual instances of musical accompaniment where one instrument (the percussion) becomes subservient to the other (the one which it accompanies). Aman Ali and Zakir Hussain showed, instead, their penchant for sawal-jawab, each engaging the other in an exchange of musical ideas structured around tempo and onomatopoeia (one instrument trying to emulate and surpass the other by producing similar sound-patterns). In the following drut sections, Aman played some unbelievable ekhara taans with seeming ease, before concluding with an energized jhala.

He began, next, with an aochar in Kaushi Kanada, using somewhat similar strategies of musical elaboration as in his first offering. However, with a shorter alap, he could afford to be more whimsical and dramatic. Once again, he chose a raag whose uniqueness resides in the striking use of one note, the pancham. To put things simply, both Malkauns and Darbari inhere within Kaushi Kanada, but not as two separate raags, rather as fused together even as each seems to preserve its distinguishing features. The vakra use of the pancham gives this raag its individuality.

The mukhda of the jhaptaal composition was long and complicated, but played flawlessly, as were the subsequent taans and bol bants. Aman’s playing was informed by a sense of urgency, a relentless struggle towards self-expression through music. His musical personality is vivacious and gregarious, his creativity inclusive, blossoming in human presences, rather than becoming exclusive in the pursuit of inwardness. It is this generosity of his music that should ensure him a successful professional career.