Kumar Gandharva exemplifies the unity of form, meaning and being

By Dilip -

Thirty years ago, on January 12, 1992, it seemed that the pulsating rhythms of the universe had gone silent forever. On this date, Kumar Gandharva drew his last breath. We are yet to fathom the full measure of this loss or take full stock of his legacy. One of the upsides of living in our age is the unprecedented availability of the recorded archive. When we were students in college it was hard to access more than a few stock recordings. Anyone who had access to rare or private recordings became our best friend. His Kabir recordings (the one oeuvre Kumarji was sent to this earth for) were, of course, freely available and widely known. But getting our hands on other cassettes was pure gold.

Remembering Mahatma Gandhi: उड जायेगा हंस अकेला / जग दर्शन का मेला ।।

But now, thanks to newly released archives, his corpus comes into full view. The full range of his nirguna bhajans, Marathi natya sangeet, even his incredibly playful compositions on ordinary life and the seasons, all can be heard in relation to each other. In other artistes, this over availability can be a liability: You have to sift through, to get to the peaks. In Kumarji ’s case, it has the opposite effect: Almost each recording seems like a discovery of a new summit, a different way of capturing a haunting incandescence, and weaving his whole being, and ours, in a melodic current….

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/kumar-gandharva-exemplifies-unity-form-7720150/?utm_source=newzmate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbrief&pnespid=H6Iz9kQE5SgOilOf8ZSLFEBA.Rg227V391xdEPgdL4.KpQW4ZsxcBSYcptz0de4eVLqtJ64A


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