An evening of fusion music

Music lovers were invited to a presentation of a second album by Amita Dalal, under the name Different Strokes. The album is produced by Dalal, who is also the sitarist in the album. Pt Vishvamohan, a world class musician, has scored the enchanting tunes of the compositions. Every time Pt Bhatt performs or writes and composes music he keeps Goddess Saraswati before his eyes while creating new combinations of tunes. Fusion music as a concept combines two or more genres. In Indian music, it could be movie songs, devotional songs, or fusion of instrumental music. Pt Ravishankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Satyajit Ray brought Indian classical music to the attention of western musicians. Pt Vishvamohan has done a duet with a Chinese Erhu player. He has also combined with American guitar player, with American country music singer and a rare combination with Arabian Oudh player Simon Shaheen.The album had six compositions in different ragas. The first two were free formed. Only a genius like Pt Bhatt can evolve such a pleasant atmosphere through the primordial seven notes in conjunction with other notes to make a total musical phrase. This was followed by a piece in raga Hansadhvani which along with the traditional version had the help of chords to beautify the composition. The next two compositions were in the known Manj Khamaj, the raga itself being an outstanding creation of the late Ustad Allaudin Khan Saheb. This was followed by two numbers in Kirvani. The programme concluded with a composition in Madhyam se Bhairavi.Thetwo traditional 'gats' in Manj Khamaj were well rendered by Amita. The music ofall the numbers of the Different Strokes were performed by Amita in typicalMahiyar Gharana genre. The effects of other instruments like flute, drums werearranged by Saurabh Bhatt through keyboard. Himanshu Mahant provided thepercussion effects to the music.Such activity to popularizeclassical music merging with other forms of music will inspire the younggeneration to go to concerts of classical music. The Oxford Dictionary definesfuse as to blend or unite and fusion is a close union of things. Only the cominggeneration will decide whether these types of experiments will stand the test oftime.