A voice from the East

Shailaja Khanna

Sarod player Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi award this year. This was, for him, a “landmark moment”, despite having received many honours, including the West Bengal Government’s Banga Bhushan award. 

One of the most knowledgeable musicians of our times, Tejendra Mazumdar is immensely creative. Our chat was interspersed with much laughter — the musician has a keen sense of humour and is a wonderful mimic too. Talking about his journey, the musician shared that despite his family’s connection with classical music through two generations, he would not call himself a “gharanedar” musician. In his words: “I come from a musical family; I started my training in music with my grandfather Vibhuti Ranjan Mazumdar; my sitarist father too had trained in the Senia tradition. I started learning from Ustad Bahadur Khan, nephew of Ustad Allaudin Khan, founder of the Senia Maihar gharana when I was around 8, and learnt from him till his death. Side by side, I learnt tabla and trained in vocal music. After my guru’s death, I started learning from his cousin, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, for 17 years, till his demise in 2009.”

Speaking about the hardships he has faced, Tejendra says, “While music was an integral part of our lives, due to financial constraints, I was initially not encouraged to make music a profession. The turning point in my career came when I came first in the All India Radio competition and got the President’s award. I was 19 or 20 then, and many great Ustads heard the concert and appreciated my music. In West Bengal, every middle class family insisted on education those days; they wanted a secure job for their child. However, the competition changed things for me. Before that, I was not allowed to perform outside by my Ustad too. After the radio competition, he too started allowing me to perform outside gradually. But, times were tough; I had no godfather. There was never any one concert that made me a star.”

He says it was difficult for an artist from the East to make a name at the national level. “I have had to struggle to make a name for myself,” he says. However, he considers himself lucky to be supported by greats in the world of music. “I was fortunate to have performed with the legendary Ustad Zakir Hussain when I was just 27! Mercifully, that part of my life is now over… I may now play over 200 concerts a year, it varies.” He now composes for films, ballets and arranges music for great singers. For a few days every month, he teaches at the Bengal Foundation Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and has been organising, for the last seven years, an annual music and dance festival, Swar Samrat in Kolkata, named after his Guru Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. This year, it will be held on December 7-8. “As an organiser today, I try to give artists what I myself as a performer want. For around a month, I dedicate myself totally to the festival, I don’t accept concerts.”

Tejendra is vocal about the Indian classical music in the West. He says the audience is very rich, dedicated and appreciative. In Europe, I have played four-hour concerts; all long serious pieces. In the Middle East, too, there is a good audience, but it’s mainly expatriates,” he says. 

However, he feels that propagation of classical music in India is not really going as it should. “There are enough sponsors, but I feel the selection of artists for concerts should be wider. It’s the same set of 10-15 artists who are popular and bring in large audiences. For the younger generation, despite dedicated riyaaz, the opportunities are limited. I am happy that my son Indrayudh has taken the initiative in his own small way, and now at our Swara Samrat festival, we have introduced a baithak series to give a platform to youngsters. This would be held on December 1 and 2, before the main festival,” he says.