Shyam Kedar — between Remembrance and Renewal

I’d like to share this sublime performance of Shyam Kedar by Nikhil Banerjee (sitar) and Zakir Hussain (tabla). As the year comes to a close, listening to this journey has made me nostalgic yet hopeful — a mood deftly captured in Panditji’s alternation between the two variants of Ma drawn from both Shyam Kalyan and Kedar.

The meditative alaap, its poignancy heightened by the groaning of the bass strings, gives way to the spontaneous intimacy between these two masters, ultimately arriving at a kind of nirvanic bliss. That this was recorded only months before Nikhil Banerjee’s untimely passing at the age of 54, together with Zakir Hussain’s recent departure last year, makes the performance even more moving: mourning loss while quietly paving a way to the future.

I believe great music puts you in a dream you don’t want to leave, even when you sense its end approaching. This performance has done that for me, and I hope it does the same for you.

Wishing you all a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a Happy New Year.