Here our last post - at least for now - of the great Krishnarao Shankar Pandit. We received these recordings many years ago, if I remember correctly, from the collector VN in UK. Our friend KF made a CD out of them and created a cover. Many thanks to both.
Addition on October 27th 2017
Here a beautiful story about the artist:
In late January 1970, at the concert hall Rabindra Sadan in Kolkata,
Panditji’s program was scheduled one early evening. Supravat Da and I went to
the concert hall with our tape recorder to record Panditji’s program. Both of us
were not familiar with Panditji’s singing, although we knew that he was one of
the great singers of Gwalior Gharana. We had an uneasy feeling that the
organizers might not allow us to record the program. It exactly happened that
way. The organizers bluntly told us that recording was not allowed. Suddenly I
saw Panditji on the back stage and I approached him. After initial greetings, I
told him that I would like to record his program but I was not successful in
receiving permission to do so from the organizers. Panditji was an older
dignified person of seventy-eight, very accommodating and very easy to talk to.
He immediately got me the permission to record his program.
I learnt that Panditji arrived at four in the afternoon by train from
Gwalior and from the Railway station he went to visit Pandit Tarapada
Chakraborty who had been hospitalized. This was a news for us. Panditji was
living in Gwalior, knew that Tarapada Babu was ill, and we, the people of
Kolkata, had absolutely no information about it.
It is impossible to describe Panditji’s singing. It was unique. His style
of singing had no similarity with any other singers I knew of and I do not know
if any singer could successfully imitate him. I was fascinated by his control
and precision. I was simply overwhelmed. Even today, his Shree, Chaturang in
Dabari and many other ragas are among my very favorite.
After the program I met Panditji and before I could say anything, he told
me to come to his concert at Birla Academy, which was taking place the next
morning. The next morning I passed some time with Panditji before the concert
and requested him to sing a few morning ragas of my choice. He sang all the
ragas I requested except Paraj; for that one, he said the timing was not right.
Panditji had no idea who I was, what my name was but he was kind and
generous enough to invite me to his morning concert and kept my request.
Pt. Krishnarao Shankar Pandit was a great singer, a legend and above all a
great human being.
In a private concert of Zia Mohiuddin Dagar in New York in 1980, during the
intermission, Dagar Saheb, Sheila Dhar and I were talking. I wanted to know
Dagar Saheb’s view of Pt. Krishnarao Shankar Pandit. I am always careful not to
praise one musician in front of other musicians. I told Dagar Saheb that one
vocalist impressed me very much. After he learnt that I was talking about
Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, he was surprised at first then asked me, “Chowdhury
saab tell me, who can sing like Pandji?” After superlative compliments about
Panditji’s music he told me, “ In a concert if he sings whole night, I will also
remain there whole night to listen to him.”
from the outstanding YouTube channel by Subrata Chowdhury (may he rest in
peace):
