Staff Reporter
Lover of good, melodious and meaningful Hindi songs of yesteryears can expect an enjoyable evening as one of the most promising shows gets going in Auckland.
Mt Roskill based Swar Sadhana Academy of Indian Music is organising the event on Saturday, March 28, 2015 at Dorothy Winstone Centre, Auckland Girls Grammar School.
Titled, ‘Zindagi Ik Safar Hai Suhana,’ the swan song of Jaikishan, the programme will commence at 630 pm with a live orchestra comprising local singers and instrumentalists.
Academy Principal and Director Sandhya Badakere, a gifted singer and popular Hindustani Music teacher, is organising the musical extravaganza to pay tribute to the foremost and highly successful musical duo of the Hindi film industry.
Across age barriers
“I am confident that ‘Zindagi Ik Safar Hai Suhana’ (Life is a Journey) with enthral people of all ages as Auckland artistes perform some of the immortal songs composed by the musical maestros. Shankar and Jaikishan have created a permanent place of esteem and honour in the hearts of music lovers all over the world,” she said.
Indian Newslink will carry more information about the music masters, their life and ‘deathless songs’ that they composed in their illustrious career along with more details of the Auckland Concert in the ensuing issues.
Indo-Jazz
As a curtain raiser, this report must record that, apart from composing hundreds of songs that made many playback singers, lyricists, producers and directors famous and inspired many others to enter the industry (notably among them were Laxmikant Pyarelal), Shankar and Jaikishan deserve credit for their contribution in another important area.
The duo was responsible for the development of Jazz music in India and to the coinage of the term, ‘Indo Jazz.’ Their 1968 Album, ‘Raaga-Jazz Style,’ is the earliest Indo-Jazz recording in India. It is considered one of the most innovative sound tracks, in which, Shankar and Jaikishan created 11 songs based on Indian Ragas with Saxophone, Trumpet, Sitar, Tabla and Bass.
Chance meeting
As in the case of many musical partnerships, a chance meeting brought Hyderabadi Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi and Gujarati Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal together. Waiting at the office of Chandravadan Bhatt, they struck up a conversation and several meetings later decided to team up to compose music.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Performer & Teacher
Mrs Badakere established Swar Sadhana Academy of Indian Music in January 2008 to explore, cultivate, train and present musical talent among the members of the resident communities in and around the Auckland region.
Endowed with a melodious voice, her own musical journey began in her native Bombay (now Mumbai) taking her to a number of musical greats (including composers, singers, performers and producers). Migrating to New Zealand about 12 years ago, she became a popular performer at programmes conducted throughout the country. It was during these programmes that she began to receive requests from enthusiasts to become their musical teacher and voice trainer.
Swar Sadhana
Swar Sadhana Academy of Indian Music is affiliated to the ‘Sur Jhankar Academy’ of Mumbai and as such designs its courses based on the syllabus of the latter.
“The courses include voice culture, voice production technique, classical Raags rendition of Bhajans, Ghazals and old Hindi film songs. Our main focus is to offer a six-year training course leading up to a Diploma Level,” Mrs Badakere said.
