Homage to Abbaji

A concert titled, 'Homage to Abbaji Ustad Allarakha', has become a regular annual feature in my life. This year too our friend Beena sent me passes to attend the musical show on Feb 3 at the Shanmukhananda Hall.

There was an accent on percussions. There were Abboss Kosimov (Uzbekistan), Terry Bozzio (USA) and Giovanni Hidalgo (Puerto Rico). Indian contingent had Ranjit Barot, Taufiq Qureshi, Fazal Qureshi, Vijay Chauhan (amazing Dholak) and of course legendary Zakir Hussain himself, who was at the helm of it all. There were no melody players, just a keyboard guy for accompaniment. Abboss Kosimov is a simple young man. He looked like a villager from Kabul; who had been dressed in king’s robes. He played ‘Doira’ that looks like our Duffli or Duff. But he was doing amazing things with just that simple instrument. Sometimes he used two of them. He also did tricks like throwing one in the air and catching it on beat. Terry Bozzio was very stylish. His drum set was self-designed and weighed 800Kg. He was tall, thin and a very good looking man. He had an ideal look of a popular and successful drummer. When he sat in the middle of the drums, one could hardly see his face. There were bells and dishes like things hanging all around him including on top and even behind. So sometimes he would have to turn away from the audience to play parts hanging behind him. Zakir said that it was very difficult to get his heavy instrument to Mumbai by air. Giovanni Hidalgo was a sweet Spanish looking happy guy. He too was surrounded by conga type drums all around him. His hands moved very fast covering nearly a circle. He sweated the most. He constantly reminded me of Diego Maradona.

I had 4 passes with me. So, 3 more people could have come along. But I realized that people have different tastes and priorities. I had a minor enlightenment on this point. I realized that when we have less than our needs, we are obviously tense or worried. But I had extra passes with me and yet I was tense; thinking that passes are going waste. I guess to be tense because you have things in excess, would be the worst kind of misery. Until last year I used to take a lot of effort to ask friends to come along and still there would be extra passes. This year I realized that why should I be tense just because I have more than my own need. As soon as the realization set in, I got relaxed, put my bag on my own side seat and enjoyed swaying with the rhythmic sound waves. rhythmic sound waves.