Kumar Bose
Encyclopedia
Kumar Bose is an India
n tabla
maestro and composer of Indian classical music
. Bose belongs to the Benaras Gharana school of music. In addition to his musical abilities, Bose is also an awarded sportsman, a carrom
champion, and fluently speaks four languages.
in a distinguished musical family. His father was Biswanath Bose, a distinguished tabla player who taught his son to play his first beat of rhythm.
His mother Bharati Bose was an eminent sitarist and disciple of the great Dabir Khan and Ali Akbar Khan
Bharati received several awards in her career, including recognition as an All India Radio
Artist and the President's Award for Best Sitar Performance in 1956. She guided her son with the basic forms of classical music and helped him to groom himself as a professional tabla player.
His brothers are also noted musicians, who keep a traditional, thorough and vigorous training regime. His brother Acharya Jayanta Bose is an internationally reputed composer, lyrist, harmonium
soloist and singer, while his brother Debojyoti Bose is a noted sarod
player and music director.
(1923–2008), a highly respected musician.
Bose has been applauded for evolving a distinctive style of his own without diluting the purity of tradition. Bose has elevated the tabla as a musical instrument in its own right, both through solo performances as a main artist and through his accompaniment of others. Bose has been devoted to the classic tabla for 35 years without interruption and is considered one of the most powerful players alive.
, the nal, and the banga-kanga. However, it is the unusual way that he plays the bnaya that has brought him attention. He plays the bass drum-like instrument with his right hand, although he plays the tabla with his left. Though he is right-handed, he picked up this practice by sitting across from and mirroring his father from early childhood.
in London
, the Kremlin in Moscow, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
and Carnegie Hall
in New York
, and at various venues throughout India.
He has the rare distinction of highly-acclaimed performances with Zubin Mehta
's Philharmonic Orchestra and participation in several symphony orchestras conducted by Ravi Shankar
, Yehudi Menuhin
, and Arnovich in England
, Italy
, China
, Russia
and the United States
.
, Rajan and Sajan Mishra
, Kanthe Maharaj, and Kishan Maharaj
.
While he has collaborated with leaders in jazz
, pop
and rock
, it was his duet with Iran
ian thumba player Professor Semurani that drew praise. Bose's collaborations have given an international reputation as a great musician.
Fans say that due to his lack of self-promotion, he has not yet been awarded the international and national prizes that his contemporaries have received.
dancers and are a specialty of the Benares tradition.
Bose currently conducts private lessons in the style of his mentors. He conducts classes daily with students from age 3 to 35 at his home in North Calcutta
. He is known for maintaining high standards for his students, emphasizing the importance devoted practice and other aspects of the tradition. His high profile students also includes the likes of the Mumbai-based tabla player Shyama Prasad Das.
2006 in London. The album includes some rare gems from the archives of the Benares repertoire, including the compositions of Ram Sahai, who founded the gharana at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Toward the end of the album, Bose demonstrates one of his specialities: playing a variety of cross rhythms on the dayan with his right hand while simultaneously holding down a fast repetitive beat on the bnaya with his left hand. The Times reviewed the performance, declaring him "the best tabla player in the world today."
CDs released are
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
maestro and composer of Indian classical music
Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...
. Bose belongs to the Benaras Gharana school of music. In addition to his musical abilities, Bose is also an awarded sportsman, a carrom
Carrom
Carrom is a family of tabletop games with gameplay that lies somewhere between billiards and table shuffleboard. Carrom is known by many names around the world, including carrum, couronne, carum, karam, karom, karum, fatta and finger billiards...
champion, and fluently speaks four languages.
Family
Bose was born in KolkataKolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
in a distinguished musical family. His father was Biswanath Bose, a distinguished tabla player who taught his son to play his first beat of rhythm.
His mother Bharati Bose was an eminent sitarist and disciple of the great Dabir Khan and Ali Akbar Khan
Ali Akbar Khan
Ali Akbar Khan , often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad , was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod...
Bharati received several awards in her career, including recognition as an All India Radio
All India Radio
All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...
Artist and the President's Award for Best Sitar Performance in 1956. She guided her son with the basic forms of classical music and helped him to groom himself as a professional tabla player.
His brothers are also noted musicians, who keep a traditional, thorough and vigorous training regime. His brother Acharya Jayanta Bose is an internationally reputed composer, lyrist, harmonium
Harmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
soloist and singer, while his brother Debojyoti Bose is a noted sarod
Sarod
The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan...
player and music director.
Music career
Bose's first teacher was his father. After his father’s untimely death, he was taught by Kishan MaharajKishan Maharaj
Pandit Kishan Maharaj was an Indian tabla player who belonged to the Benares gharana of Hindustani classical music.-Early life and background:...
(1923–2008), a highly respected musician.
Bose has been applauded for evolving a distinctive style of his own without diluting the purity of tradition. Bose has elevated the tabla as a musical instrument in its own right, both through solo performances as a main artist and through his accompaniment of others. Bose has been devoted to the classic tabla for 35 years without interruption and is considered one of the most powerful players alive.
Instruments
A master percussionist, Bose plays several other drums besides the tabla which include the sri-khole, the pakhwaj, the dholakDholak
The Dholak is a North Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese double-headed hand-drum Madal. The name dholki may also refer to a slightly different instrument that uses high-pitch tabla style syahi masala on its treble skin. This instrument is also known as Naal or Dholki....
, the nal, and the banga-kanga. However, it is the unusual way that he plays the bnaya that has brought him attention. He plays the bass drum-like instrument with his right hand, although he plays the tabla with his left. Though he is right-handed, he picked up this practice by sitting across from and mirroring his father from early childhood.
Performances
Bose gave his first public performance at the age of 4. By 14, he performed abroad and has played at most every major music hall in the world since. He has performed at Royal Albert HallRoyal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the Kremlin in Moscow, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
and Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and at various venues throughout India.
He has the rare distinction of highly-acclaimed performances with Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
's Philharmonic Orchestra and participation in several symphony orchestras conducted by Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
, Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
, and Arnovich in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Collaborations
In addition to a 10 year exclusive tour as the tabla accompanist to Ravi Shankar from 1984 to 1994, he has performed and composed with musicians globally. Over the past 40 years, he has also performed and recorded in duets with his guru. From the Benaras Gharana, he has played with Girija DeviGirija Devi
Girija Devi is an Indian classical singer of the Banaras gharana. She performs classical and light classical music and has helped elevate the profile of thumri.-Early life:Girija Devi was born in Varanasi, India in 1929...
, Rajan and Sajan Mishra
Rajan and Sajan Mishra
Rajan and Sajan Mishra are brothers, renowned singers of the khyal style of Indian classical music. They were awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2007, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, jointly in 1998 and the Gandharwa National Award for 1994-1995....
, Kanthe Maharaj, and Kishan Maharaj
Kishan Maharaj
Pandit Kishan Maharaj was an Indian tabla player who belonged to the Benares gharana of Hindustani classical music.-Early life and background:...
.
While he has collaborated with leaders in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, it was his duet with Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian thumba player Professor Semurani that drew praise. Bose's collaborations have given an international reputation as a great musician.
Achievements
- Bose received the Sangeet Natak Akademi awardSangeet Natak Akademi AwardSangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists. The award consists since 2003 of Rs. 50,000, a citation, an angavastram , and a tamrapatra...
in 2007.
- His duet with Semurani received acclaim at the 1974 International Seminar of Music in Holland.
- At the India Festival Moscow in 1988, he received distinguished honors while playing with an orchestra.
- He was the assistant music director of Mrinal SenMrinal SenMrinal Sen is a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the...
's globally acclaimed film GenesisGenesis (1986 film)Genesis is a 1986 Hindi-language movie directed by Mrinal Sen. The film stars Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri. It was entered into the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.- Plot :...
. (He assisted music director Shankar, on whose albums his music is often featured.)
Fans say that due to his lack of self-promotion, he has not yet been awarded the international and national prizes that his contemporaries have received.
Tradition
Of the six established tabla gharanas or schools of tabla playing, the Benares Gharana, of which Bose belongs, has been the most staunch in its refusal to compromise the traditions when moving into more lucrative contemporary fusions. While criticized decades ago for his rigidity and refusal to adapt modern fusion and film music, Bose is now credited with preserving classical musical style and philosophy. He has kept the tradition of the Benares Gharana by subtly balancing the warm bass tones of the bnaya with the higher-pitched crisp tones and syncopations of the tabla. Many of Bose's compositions have been written to accompany the rhythmical movements of kathakKathak
Kathak is one of the eight forms of Indian classical dances, originated from Uttar Pradesh, India. This dance form traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or storytellers...
dancers and are a specialty of the Benares tradition.
Bose currently conducts private lessons in the style of his mentors. He conducts classes daily with students from age 3 to 35 at his home in North Calcutta
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
. He is known for maintaining high standards for his students, emphasizing the importance devoted practice and other aspects of the tradition. His high profile students also includes the likes of the Mumbai-based tabla player Shyama Prasad Das.
Recordings
Bose has produced or performed on over 200 recordings in several genres, while staying true to his classical Indian lineage. The first live international recording of his solo Virtuosity was released through the Darbar FestivalDarbar festival
The Darbar Festival is an Indian classical music festival that takes place every Easter weekend in London. It brings together musicians from the north Indian Hindustani and south Indian Carnatic classical traditions.-2009:*Harmeet Virdee...
2006 in London. The album includes some rare gems from the archives of the Benares repertoire, including the compositions of Ram Sahai, who founded the gharana at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Toward the end of the album, Bose demonstrates one of his specialities: playing a variety of cross rhythms on the dayan with his right hand while simultaneously holding down a fast repetitive beat on the bnaya with his left hand. The Times reviewed the performance, declaring him "the best tabla player in the world today."
Discography
- Drums of India -Tabla Solo HMV STCS 850792
- Ustad Vilayet Khan HMV STCS O4B 7265
- SMRITI - Pt. Ravi Shankar HMV CHIX 1026
- Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt HMV STCS 02B 6279
- Enchanting Folk Melodies On Instrumental Trio HMV HTCS 02B 2708
- SITAR VADAN- Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. Vol -I VENUS VCBG - 015
- SITAR VADAN - Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. Vol-II VENUS VCBG - 016
- AFTAAB-E-SITAR-Ustad Vilayet Khan EMI STCS 04B 7208
- INSTRUMENTAL TRIO - Vol-I HMV STCS 850318
- INSTRUMENTAL TRIO- Vol-II HMV STCS 850319
- SPIRIT OF FREEDOM CONCERT - Pandit Ravi Shankar
- Pandit Ravi Shankar Music Today
- The Golden Trio HMV
- Pandit V. G. Jog - Violin Recital
- Vishwa Mohan Bhatt Concord Records 05-16
CDs released are
- Raga Ragini - Indian Quintet Chhanda Dhara SP 84188
- Genesis Milan CDCH 287 RC690
- Spirit of India Chhanda Dhara SP 83688
- Ravi Shankar Inside the Kremlin BMG Records
- Nishat Khan EMI CD PSLP 5441
- Unique Ravi Shankar Chhanda Dhara SNCD 70991
- Brilliancy and Oldest Tradition - KISHEN MAHARAJ AND KUMAR BOSE Chhanda Dhara SNCD 70493
- Golden Jubilee Concert - Pt. Ravi Shankar Chhanda Dhara SNCD 70390
- Sublime Sounds of Sitar Oriental Records CD 116
- Pandit Ravi Shankar OCORA @558674 HM90
- Darbar Music Festival - 2006 Darbar Music