Jugalbandi pitch: Musical duets are a major draw

Shailaja Khanna

An unusual, first-of-its-kind jugalbandi involved sarodist Amaan Ali Bangash and vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty. Despite belonging to totally different musical lineages, they recently performed together in Kolkata. The duo’s apparent personal chemistry translated into an ease on stage, which was refreshing and spontaneous.

The word ‘jugalbandi’ literally means ‘entwined twins’. In a musical context, originally, two musicians with the same training performed together, enhancing the other’s performance and taking forward the musical idea of the other. This implied a shared musical knowledge and intimacy with the other’s musical training. Some of the most magnificent jugalbandis in present memory have been between musicians from the same musical legacy — Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, Vilayat Khan and his brother Imrat, Salamat Ali and Nazakat Ali, Singh Bandhu, Dagar Bandhu, Rajan and Sajan Mishra, and Ganesh and Kumaresh. Duets by these artistes were seamless, flowing and truly memorable.

Some jugalbandis have worked despite artistes having different training in music because the understanding of the other’s music was so profound that an insight into what should follow, musically, was very visible. Such jugalbandis have included Vilayat Khan and Bismillah Khan, Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Shiv Kumar Sharma and Shujaat Khan with Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar. The recent Triveni concerts featured violinist Kala Ramnath and Saraswati veena exponent Jayanthi Kumaresh, with a foil provided by Zakir Hussain. An interesting new duo is Devasaman, which includes sitarist Samanvay Sarkar and vocalist Debapriya Adhikary, both of whom share the same guru.

The musical contrast that different systems of classical music offer makes duets engaging and unique. Among the more memorable jugalbandis have been Amjad Ali Khan with Lalgudi Jayaraman, Kishori Amonkar with M Balamuralikrishna, and Shashank Subramanyam with Purbayan Chatterjee.

When Carnatic musicians collaborate with North Indian musicians, the raga choices are limited to those known by both systems, and each has to be familiar with the ‘laya’ system of the other. This imposes some constraints.

Sitarists and male vocalists have always worked well together, like the late Rashid Khan with Shahid Parvez, to recently, Adnan Khan with vocalist Mohammed Aman.

Jasrangi jugalbandis, perhaps revived from history, or some say created by Pt Jasraj, are novel. Here, a male singer and female singer sing two different ragas, in their own pitch, with a different ‘Sa’. However, this remains at the level of an experiment as there is really not enough scope to make it the norm. Some successful Jasrangi jugalbandis have included Sanjeev Abhyankar with Ashwini Bhide, and recently, Ankita Joshi with Krishna Bongane.

What is important for any successful jugalbandi is trust and a non-competitive attitude to each other’s music. The minute the spirit of one-upmanship creeps in, the music gets distorted by disproportionate presentation and repeating what the other has just done to show better command.

At times, other factors affect a concert. Sarodist Aashish Khan recalls playing quite a few duets with sitarist Shujaat Khan, echoing what both their fathers had played a few decades earlier (Ali Akbar Khan and Vilayat Khan played several lyrical jugalbandis together). However, Aashish Khan shared during an interview a few years ago that he got disturbed when Shujaat started singing during their performance. The two have, apparently, not performed together again. In the years to come, Shujaat Khan was to grow even more popular because of his singing.

Musicians do realise why they are increasingly being asked to play jugalbandis. Bombay Jayashri has sung with fellow Carnatic musicians, Jayanthi Kumaresh and Abhishek Raghuraman from her own musical legacy, as well as with musicians from the North, including Ronu Majumdar and Shubha Mudgal. In her words: “The audience hopes to hear something unexpected during a jugalbandi. There is the uncertainty factor, the unknown. I think that’s why these always attract attention.”

Unfortunately, today, unusual jugalbandis are being put together more to attract attention and sell tickets rather than to genuinely try to present something that enhances the music. There’s a reason why jugalbandis have not been a norm. The logistical difficulty of presenting these is real. The instruments must match; a common pitch must be achievable. If vocalists collaborate, the voice quality of both should match. Rehearsals are a must to create something appealing on stage. Naturally, the artistes command more fee for jugalbandis. The risk is real too. On stage, if you don’t match up musically, it could jeopardise your career.

Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, who has played jugalbandis with several artistes, both Carnatic and North Indian, and is perceived as being a very open musical collaborator, sums it up thus: “I accept a jugalbandi concert only if I know the music of the artiste well, and if I feel we both can create something memorable together.”