Ramakrishnabua Vaze: Raga Mian Ki Malhar

As promised long ago, here is the full-length version of Vazebua’s Mian ki Malhar. The two khyals are both classics; the vilambit is Karim naam tero; the drut Bolare papihara.

The accompanists are both superb. Sarangi is provided by Ustad Bundu Khan, playing his special small humaniform sarangi; tabla is by a young Ustad Alla Rakha. Vazebua was in his eighties, so there are moments when his intonation loses focus or his breath control gives out before his idea has been resolved, but these are minor quibbles…the performance as a whole is riveting, the last recorded testament of one of the form’s greatest masters.

All India Radio Recording: Raga Mian Ki Malhar
Pandit Ramakrishna Vaze

Rajeev Vaze, Bua’s great-grandson, commented on one of the earlier posts:

I would like to elaborate on couple of things in line with my comment that ‘Bua was much ahead of his times’. He was one of the first musicians and possibly the only one, who published books on many compositions with notation, which he acquired from his Gurus by way of extreme hard work. The idea behind this was to throw open his stores to every follower of music. There are many books written by estiblished musicians thereafter but all those are without notations and the students can not gain anything except the literature.
You will also realise that not many stalwarts were mentally prepared to cut records under the pretext that their music will become common and thereby loose its value. Realising the importance of documentation and it’s usefulness for generations to come, Buwasaheb not only mastered the art of modulating his voice so as to suit the recording machines available in those days but tried to present different facets such as Thumari, Tarana, Bhajan along with the khyal on the number of records being cut.

Unfortunately, all his deciples died at a very young age and most of them such as Master Deenanath, Keshaorao Bhosale, Bapusaheb Pendharkar belonged to Theatre. His work is not known to present generation. I’ve seen many people sing / like compositions from dramas such as ‘Sanyasta Khadga’, ‘Shah Shivaji’ etc with a wrong presumption that these are composed by Master Deenananth. This is incorrect as all these and many more are composed by Buwasaheb. There are many songs composed by Pt Hridaynath which are based on the original compositions of Vazebua and the listeners are still enjoying.