Ustad Vishmadev Chatterjee

Classical Music of North India
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santoshjha
Posts: 20
Joined: 01 May 2009, 15:58

Post by santoshjha »

Ustad Vishmadev Chatterjee of Bengal was a great genius who unfortunately was lost for many years to his spiritual pursuits in Pondicherry. But many of his recordings in 78 RPM are left behind.

People who took taalim from him were Rajkumar Shyamanand Singh of Banaili Estate, Sachin Mukherjee, S.D Burman (Music Director), Suresh Chakraborty and Film personalities like Kanon Devi, Chhaya Devi, Lily Chakraborty. Besides, Begum Akhtar, Uma Bose, Juthika Roy, Prakash Kali Ghoshal, Protima Bandyopadhyay, Bhabani Das, Himansu Roy, Saila Devi, Chinmoy Chattopadhyay and Jayanta Chattopadhya also took talim from him.

His Guru was Ustad Badal Khan and later Ustad Faiyaz Khan.

He also gave music for 12 films and S D Burman was his assistant in 4 of them.

To listen to his music, please visit

http://www.vishmadev.org/M_GALARY.htm

All of them are priceless pieces but I would especially recommend Pilu and Tilang.

Santosh
Last edited by santoshjha on 07 May 2009, 17:08, edited 1 time in total.

knandago2001
Posts: 645
Joined: 05 Sep 2006, 10:09

Post by knandago2001 »

thanks for the thread on Pt. Vishmadev Chattopadhyay. another link to some of his music

http://www.mediafire.com/?4onj2gvi2tj

santoshjha
Posts: 20
Joined: 01 May 2009, 15:58

Post by santoshjha »

Some more from my collection on the mediafire. Can access them at:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=8663 ... 83618c3635

I hope you like them.

Unfortunately all of this are in 78 RPM. I was quite small when he died to vividly remember his live performance. However, his finest disciple arguably was Kumar Shyamanand Singh from Bihar about whom you can read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajkumar_S ... References. Kumar Saheb's renditions of songs he learnt from Ustad Vishamdev Chatterjee provide a fair degree of sense of how good Ustadji himself was. Incidentally, he was called Ustad and not Pundit as mentioned by knandago2001.

Enjoy the songs!!

coolkarni
Posts: 1729
Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

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Last edited by coolkarni on 27 Nov 2009, 17:50, edited 1 time in total.

coolkarni
Posts: 1729
Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

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Last edited by coolkarni on 27 Nov 2009, 17:49, edited 1 time in total.

coolkarni
Posts: 1729
Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

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Last edited by coolkarni on 24 Nov 2009, 10:03, edited 1 time in total.

coolkarni
Posts: 1729
Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

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Last edited by coolkarni on 24 Nov 2009, 10:03, edited 1 time in total.

santoshjha
Posts: 20
Joined: 01 May 2009, 15:58

Post by santoshjha »

I am glad you like them. I am also sorry for the delayed response.

To respond to your many queries one by one.

I do not have recordings of Pandit Mazumdar but I do have recordings of Pandit Jnanendra Prasad Goswami. All in 78 RPM but absolutely blissful music. You can access some of them here: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=8663 ... 9403e6d33e

I do not have such knowledge that I can speak on the subjects raised by you. I will try to answer as far as I can. There were four main centres of classical music in Bihar - (a) Bettiah Gharana, mainly known for Dhrupad but has been in obscurity for a long time which has helped to keep them away from modernistic influences and maintain age-old purity; (b) Gaya Gharana, famous for thumris and tappas. In fact it is living exponent, Govardhan Mishra, is considered by some as the finest tappa singer in the country; (c) Darbhanga Gharana made famous by Mallicks who are mainly dhrupad exponents; and (d) Champanagar Banaili, where Kumar Shyamanand Singh (not any more with us), arguably the most able disciple of Ustad Vishmadev Chattopadhyaya, was the finest exponent.

I do not think that either Ustad Vishmadev Chatterjee or Kumar Saheb had any direct Paluskar influence. Ustadji had his initial talim from Shri Nagendranath Datta. Later, Ustad Badal Khan of Sonipat adopted him as a disciple and took him away from his father to teach him music. He learnt from Ustad Badal Khan for 14 years. Many years later, Ustadji was enticed by a Barwa composition of Ustad Faiyaz Khan and went to Baroda to learn from him. Both Badal Khan and Faiyaz khan were his Gandabandh guru.

As for Kumar Saheb, his only gandabandh guru was Ustad Vishmadev Chattopadhyaya. He also learnt for more than 20 years from Ustad Bachu Khan, son of Ustad Badal Khan. He also obtained a few cheez from the Pandit Bholanath Bhatt of Allahabad, Ustad Altaf Hussain Khan of Khurja (who used to live with Kumar Saheb in Champanagar for many years), Ustad Muzaffar Khan sahib, Mahaveerand Jaduveer Mullick of Darbhanga, and some others. His singing style was very much on the lines of Agra Gharana beginning with a nomtom alap, rendition of a vilambit bandish as learnt from the guru followed by innovations, layakari, and taankari and then a drut composition.

All of them may be influenced by the Gwalior Gharana only to the extent that all major gharanas, including Agra, were influenced by the Gwalior Gharana.

A common factor with Paluskar (and I can only compare with D V Paluskar whose recordings are available) is the quality of bhajans. Both Ustad Vishmadev Chatterjee and Kumar Saheb’s bhajans were exquisite and perhaps incomparable with any that we have in public domain. In fact, the story goes that Kesarbai Kerkar was so enthused by Kumar Saheb’s rendition of "Bin Kaj Aaj Maharaj Laaj Gayi meri, dukh haro dwarikanath sharan me teri"

coolkarni
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Joined: 22 Nov 2007, 06:42

Post by coolkarni »

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Last edited by coolkarni on 27 Nov 2009, 17:49, edited 1 time in total.

santoshjha
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Joined: 01 May 2009, 15:58

Post by santoshjha »

What has happened here? No posts in 12 days at all. Anybody there??

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