Maitreyee Moon and Sourajit Ghosh – Nomination by Smule singers from West Bengal

Maitreyee Moon

Sourajit Ghosh

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It gives such great pleasure to introduce these two singers due to many reasons. They both would not have been noticed until our readers of the previous features on West Bengal wrote to us recommending their profiles to be featured. Maitreyee on one hand a very experienced singer where Sourajit is a young aspiring singer with lots of potential to grow into a professional singer. He had already taken music as a profession along with a main very successful career.

Maitreyee is very popular among her followers, some had been so vocal about her to be featured here. Our West Bengal feature on an amazingly beautiful singer Mouli created a lot of excitement as we see from the people who wrote to us during that week (nearly 30  profiles were suggested). That response was expected with the region being so active with many good singers that really are serious about singing. It is our inability to include all of them here. But certain criteria is set to come down to singers with serious efforts or thoughts provided to questions given to them.

Maitreyee Moon

Maitreyee when approached did not respond for a long number of days and then all on a sudden responded with apologies. Hearing that her followers recommended her for a feature she expressed a lot of love and gratitude to all of her strong supporters. But question was is she really good.

She began introducing herself by saying that she is a singer by profession. May be she is the first featured artist who said music is her profession. You will see soon she is seriously a great one. She had been classically trained from very young age itself.  Asked about the type of music she said “Ghazals and Thumri styles of singing close to her heart. She also like light Bollywood music but mostly old songs”. She is very successful professionally by landing opportunities singing in many Bengali albums. You may visit her on her YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7vAXTBHv4VommoqHlgZlIQ

As we told you she is a serious singer with a “Sangeet Visharad” degree in Classical Music of India. On her YouTube channel one may find her stage shows.

Asked about why we should write a cover about her profile here, she clearly answered it without any doubt “I am a totally a dedicated musician” (Indeed a great reason to be featured here)

She went on to give her career aspirations.

“I do not have any inclination to be a playback singer or working under a big banner that produce music”. She never tried out her chances in any reality shows either. Her music is for her happiness and peace and for her followers who love her. She continues “one have to be doing in life what they are passionate about” and for her that passion is music and nothing else.

She continued to give much more strong views about what type of music she will make if given a chance.

She immediately said my album would be a Ghazal or Thumri or both mixed. Asked about her idols in singing she have very distinct tastes than an average singer we met during this journey. She said she is dedicated to Shobha Gutru and Rekha Bhardwaj (wife of noted Hindi movie director, composer and playback singer Vishal Bhardwaj).

It will be so necessary here to explain who is Shobha Gutru. She is an amazing female vocalist born in Karnataka and embraced Indian classical music and specialized in semi-classical forms of Hindustani music like Thumri and gave a new face to the whole Thumri singing.  Rekha Bhardwaj is famous for her unique mix of classical and commercial mix of styles that is very popular in recent Bollywood music. Knowing these two idols of  Maitreyee definitely define this singer pretty much. None of these singers were famous because they were play back singers, but are singing for their passion.

We are blown away by the comprehension in Maitreyee’s thoughts and rightly we want here add a video of Shoba Gutru singing in Maitreyee’s favorite singing style of Thumri. You can also see the beautiful Sarangi a typical Hindustani classical performance string instrument in this video.

This feature is all about Maitreyee’s singing career. Give a listen to this singer’s selected songs from her profile. We strongly support this singer in her career aspirations.

Lets us get onto to know this strong singer as picked by her fans. Here we start with Maitreyee’s favorite Bollywood genre music, old classics. Raj Naveen who is a constant co-singer with moon is a singer of certain special qualities. He is a Yodeler and a good one. Great job here

Although in her write-up we saw that Maitreyee is not much into playback singing; give a listen here. She is absolutely right on when singing any playback Hindi songs as well. Again with Raj Naveen she is singing a recent movie song Dil Mein Chuppa Loonga. The Video is produced very artfully. SMART production.

Maitreyee’s beautiful singing of a Rabindra Sangeeth. We will be covering an exclusive on Rabindra Sangeeth with yet another gem of a singer from West bengal Dipanwita an amazingly talented and trained Rabindra sangeeth singer in a later feature. Please stay tuned for this upcoming feature all Smule singers from West Bengal. The experts may differ although literature says Rabindra Sangeeth (see an important reference below) is largely influenced by the Hindustani Thumri style.

Here we get to hear some of Maitreyee’s best singing choices. Ghazals. Salona Sa Sajan de Asha Bonsle time less classic Ghazal; very tough to sing. Give a listen, here Maitreyee sang this beyond awesome. She made an Asha stamp ghazal to a Maitreyee version here. KUDOS

Dard Se Mera Daman Bharde – from album Sajda, a Ghazal, a very beautiful rare composition originally sung by Lata and Jagjit Singh and see the professionalism of Maitreyee here. Super job here. It is an album song not many have tried; this is a poetry written by Qateel Shifai. He is a Pakistani ghazal poet gone through a lot of difficulties before find some success in writing lyrics for films. If you carefully listen to its lyrics style, you can see a text book style of lyrics of a Ghazal.

Dil hai ke manta nahin; classic Bollywood here with one of her mentor, friend Gyanu ji. He is a very special friend of this blog who is a recent addition to our patrons whose constant encouragement and hard work help us keep this going. Thanks to him for the hard work behind the scene screening singers from the eastern India’s states. Gyanuji is an awesome singer himself who never wanted to be on this feature. Please forgive Gyanuji, this is a conspiracy by Miss Maitreyee. Wonderful singer is Gyanuji. ENJOY this.

Camera friendly and looks great on even Smule production. This is a very good sign. She can be on her albums. Dhodee badmash ho tum, beautiful, camera loves this singer. Very quality singing and what about that whistling. Wow! beautiful.

We hope you enjoyed reading this feature on Maitreyee’s smule profile, an absolutely great singer we lucky to know. We think she is a singer of professional quality and please support her and encourage her at her profile page here. Don’t worry about he traffic sign we know that she is bombarded with requests to join collaborations from all her followers.

Sourajit Ghosh

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Sourajit’s profile was suggested by some of his followers who approached us for asking if they can be featured but also suggested him as their favorite. We looked at his profile and thought he definitely is a singer of high-caliber. When approached him he had no clue whatsoever about our blog. But once he got a chance to read the blog he was right on identified the importance of such a platform and agreed to be on this feature. A true professional approach in all his dealings. Very impressed by his focus and enthusiasm for pursuing a career in singing.

Asked if he is a trained classical singer, He explained this about his classical music training ” I have had training from four teachers at different times, even when he have a career other than singing he is still learning classical music. Just to let our female supporters who nominated him. He is single and he is a super successful software engineer working for IBM computers.

As far as his other efforts to continue his singing career, he says he is not shy to give a try on the Reality TV shows.  He already made to the finals at the moment in a reality music show called “Chant India”.

He continued to talk how he grew up and how his family helped him to be the musician he is today.

“My family is a musical one. We are a joint family.  All my sisters are trained singers. My cousin brother and I have learnt tabla for almost 9 years. My mother and my maternal uncle are my inspiration as they are very good singers themselves. My maternal uncle has done multiple programs with famous Bengali artists.

My class teacher discovered my singing talent and I had been singing on stages ever since. I have performed continuously on stage shows in school and college days.  My favorite genres of music are soft melodies. Usually love songs or sad songs. I love Rabindra Sangeet as well and it is appealing more and more as I mature and start to understand the lyrics and the tunes.”

Asked about an Idol for him it is almost a fixation on one singer and that is “Sonu Nigam”. He says “He is the best of best among all the singers he can think of. He promise himself that one day he will go meet with him for all that big shake hand and that fan moment.” Great choice and an absolutely great model to aspire to grow. Sonu Nigam have sung the most melodious songs of modern time Bollywood. We feel that each singer relate to songs and singers very naturally to someone who they relate a lot. Sourajit is a very grounded well thought singer. Asked to pick his songs for this feature he came up with few very gem of his singing on Smule Sing. Let us listen to this singer here.

Sourajit singing a beautiful Ghazal Chupke Chupke originally sung by Ghulam Ali. One can appreciate how carefully he executed this song. “I do not do videos ” he says, he is more comfortable singing voice recordings. So we had to make these videos from his voice recordings.

Abhi Na Jao this “cover track” sung by Sherya Ghoshal. Sourajit made this sound refreshing and made the song his own. Give a listen. Great Singing.

We included one song where Sourajit singing his favorite Idol Sonu Nigam’s most sensual and sweetest song that display the love between two brothers. Sharookh Khan became the big brother for many young actors of Bollywood after portraying this song on celluloid. Sourajit put a lot of feel into it, the singing is right on for this very iconic song from Bollywood movie. ENJOY

Sourajit Singing another  Sonu Nigam Song. Class performance here. one hudnred percent on all departments

Sourajit Singing a Ghulam Ali song Yeh Dil ye Paagal Dil mera. He could potentially be the new voice of a Ghazal artist. Give a listen excellent singing techniques.

Mohe Rangdo lal, A Hindustani raga based modern-day song. Beautiful expressions and this one goes to the top of Sourajit’s best singing. Very controlled voice and careful execution of a very difficult song.

Sourajit is an absolutely super talented young singer with a great voice to his asset; he know his choices very well. He did lots of  experimentation with his singing with some iconic songs. His ability to improvise and make them sound absolutely convincing is very commendable. It was an absolute pleasure knowing him here and thanks for the professionalism you showed when we were working on this feature. Keep rocking. Fans and followers please go visit this singer here

Reference: Ghosh, Santidev (2006). Rabindrasangeet Vichitra – Rabindra Sangeet Miscellany. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 978-81-8069-305-2.

Anecdote

GHAZALS – songs that create a world of LOVE

Ghazal is a poetic expression of Love, Passion and pain of separation, loss of something that is close and every emotions we can imagine that make you feel happy at the same time make that weirdly feel that something is going to take all that away. The lyrics of the ghazals originated from Arabic poetry and full of words that came right from heaven with meanings that nobody can translate into any language. The songs are representation of love and separation.

A typical ghazal is generally composed of a minimum five couplets (not more than fifteen couplets max). The lines are in their structure and thematically very independent in the content. The length of each line in most cases are of the same length which makes them metered. The very first couplet (two lines together makes a couplet in Ghazals) introduces a theme in which the first line is made of a rhyme followed by a refrain. In every following couplet the second line repeat mostly the refrain of the first couplet. The final couplet will always include the signature of the poet, as himself referring to the author as the first or third person (almost all cases it will be poets own name included)

After the end note we have included  Agha Shahid Ali (the picture)  and his one of the most famous Ghazal written in English “Even The Rain ” This is added for you to understand the principles of Ghazal writing. These are few of Inida’s famous Ghazal poet geniuses made Ghazal poetry famous abroad. Agha was born in New Delhi but later migrated abroad and did some phenomenal work on popularizing Ghazal style poetry.

Jagjit Singh

Jagjit’s tribute to his son who died in a violent car accident at the age of 20. This song explains what a ghazal singing can bring to singing. Here the pain of losing a son before he started a life is beyond comprehension. Jagjth’s wife Chitra stopped singing and retired and never returned to public singing. Give a listen. You will hear all the pain of parent losing a child in these lines. Earlier the Qateel’s poem (sung by Maitreyee) also is a prayer to god but more filled with the sorrows of human existence and how we all cope with them is beautifully brought out in a ghazal singing.

Mehdi Hassan

He is from Pakistan and known as King of Ghazals. Listen to that finest singing that one can ever imagine. Hariharan of the modern times have got some of that magic from his voice.

Ghulam Ali

Born in Pakistan he belong to the Patiala Gharana, he is considered one of finest of ghazal singer ever and he ruled the Ghazal singing world during his peak years.

Pankaj Udhas

Hail from Gujarat one of the most revered and also successful in movie industry to sing many Bollywood Ghazals. Listen to this following video for sure. He says if your wife is not in the mood, sing this Ghazal to her it may save few days to keep her not fight with you. He is one Ghazal singer with a unique voice and a very nice tone to his singing.

Nusrat fateh Ali khan

Again of Pakistani origin, mainly known as a Qawwali style singing . His vocal range of singing is one of the most revered possession of this singer.He is known as the one singer of the world who can sing such difficulty levels of singing and is respected by many who like to try open throat singing.

Abida Parveen

She is a Sufi singer and she is known as the queen of Sufi singing. She is a singer of her own style and very successful in popularizing this style of singing.

Hariharan

Born in southern state of Kerala and grew up mainly in Bombay, born to Carnatic vocalists, Shrimati Alamelu and the late H.A.S. Mani (full name:Anantha Subramani). He was destined to become a singer although he initially he try to pursue a career with a degree in Science. His career graph in singing took a very steep progression with his association with A. R. Rahman in the Kollywood movie industry. Some of the movie songs he sang is only can be sung by him; nobody ever able to bring all the slight variations he could bring to his singing. Every song he sang will have a million of variations of singing strewn into his singing.

Anoop Jalota

He is known mostly for his Bhajans and devotional style of singing. He is a story teller, his singing is so much listener involved.

Chandan Dass

A great proponent of Mehdi Hassan and considered one of the finest musicians of Ghazal singing.

Penaz Masani

Penaz known for her beautiful voice and unique style of Ghazal singing. She sings Mirza Ghalib written poetry who lived in Mughal era like she make her lyrics flow with that singing style; it is literally flowing one after another.

Rahat Fateh Ali khan

He is from Pakistan, he sings mainly devotional Sufi music. He is related to Nusrat (he is his nephew). Here he sings a Qwwali style song but mix of Ghazal. He is born into a family of musicians and he show so many influences. Sometime he sound some modern Hindi Pop. Very beautiful and those nasal toned high notes are magical.

END NOTES:

We could not include many other great Ghazal singers due to the limitations. Time period of last four decades saw a golden age of many great Ghazal singers lived and entertained an entire population of Ghazal listeners through their Ghazal singing. They conveyed the most finest human feelings through their songs. We cried and laughed with them. We accepted them and their all emotions into our heart. Now it is time of young singers to say that  we want to be that singer. Few singers we featured earlier here Ashwin Kumar and Ali Zafar (Yugal, Milan Lama and Ali Zafar- Three singers from the banks of mighty river Ganga (Ganges) who said they aspire to become ghazal singers. There is a whole lot of opportunities out there that will open a lot of space for your self expression. All the great expressions you heard here is very much based on the Hindustani classical music training. Hope you all enjoyed reading this blog and up-close know two beautiful singers who want to become Ghazal singers in the future. They will be successful if they keep at it.

WE leave you guys with a Ghazal written in English, the details of the Poet is described above. Read the poetry with the rules used in making lyrics for a Ghazal ENJOY

POETRY TIME

GHAZALS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH

Even the Rain

Agha Shahid Ali, 1949 – 2001

What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?
But he has bought grief’s lottery, bought even the rain.

“Our glosses / wanting in this world”—“Can you remember?”
Anyone!—“when we thought / the poets taught” even the rain?

After we died—That was it!—God left us in the dark.
And as we forgot the dark, we forgot even the rain.

Drought was over. Where was I? Drinks were on the house.
For mixers, my love, you’d poured—what?—even the rain.

Of this pear-shaped orange’s perfumed twist, I will say:
Extract Vermouth from the bergamot, even the rain.

How did the Enemy love you—with earth? air? and fire?
He held just one thing back till he got even: the rain.

This is God’s site for a new house of executions?
You swear by the Bible, Despot, even the rain?

After the bones—those flowers—this was found in the urn:
The lost river, ashes from the ghat, even the rain.

What was I to prophesy if not the end of the world?
A salt pillar for the lonely lot, even the rain.

How the air raged, desperate, streaming the earth with flames—
To help burn down my house, Fire sought even the rain.

He would raze the mountains, he would level the waves;
he would, to smooth his epic plot, even the rain.

New York belongs at daybreak to only me, just me—
To make this claim Memory’s brought even the rain.

They’ve found the knife that killed you, but whose prints are these?
No one has such small hands, Shahid, not even the rain.