On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 11:40 AM Venkatesh H R <[email protected]> wrote:
> Thinking on and off about Udhay's 'what do you splurge on' thread, I > realised I've spent good money to get to concerts. What have been your > memorable ones? After Alla Rakha died, Zakir and his brothers played in different venues across the city all day. In the evening, they concluded with, as Zakir said, we've been mourning, now let's celebrate his life. It was the Kala Ghoda square in Bombay. What was then Orange was the sponsor, and a friend's dad was a big shot there, so she got a few of us tickets. We were filing in right at the back, friend and her dad were in the front. We waved, she waved back, her dad said, bring your friends here, there's a bit of space. So we got to experience an evening of magical percussion from the second row. Some other memorable evenings at the St Xavier's IMG (Indian Music Group) open air concerts, where I got to hear folks like Alla Rakha, Zakir, (and Alla Rakha playing with all his sons), Amjad Ali Khan, Brijbushan Khabra, and once Ravi Shankar playing until dawn on a moonlit night, all with cheap baithak seats. L Shankar doing a little lecture and demo with his double violin. Then, some cool jazz at Rang Bhavan. The Remember Shakti concerts. An L Subramaniam concert in Shanmukhananda. The Symphony Orchestra of India doing Beethoven's Ninth at Bhabha auditorium. Many 'Zakir and friends' concerts at Prithvi. And not concerts, but parties where a number of the folks who were top Bombay singers and musicians would jam or just play and sing favourites.
