The Times Ahmedabad Festival brought budding sarod maestros to the city to showcase their rich tradition. Being the worthy sons of the great sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan of the Bungas Gharana, the brothers Ayaan and Ayaan Ali Khan belong to a family of musicians of great repute and descendants of Senia Gharana. The great Ustad has elevated the techniques and style of playing the sarod to great heights.

Amjad Ali Khan has innovated a unique style to execute the various taan patterns as distinct and clear on sarod as a vocalist would execute. This is perhaps the greatest and remarkable contribution of the family to the art of playing the sarod.

Spirituality brings purpose and meaning to a performing arts. To put the same in simple words dedication, discipline and education in the performing art of the artist helps the artist in focusing and developing the skills of the performance. Given a close look at the rendition one would not miss all the virtues – dedication, discipline and meaningful rigorous riyaz—.that makes the musician to be showcased as an Ustad.

The artists began the concert with an evening melody known as Puriadhanashri. They rendered a short ‘Swarvistar’ followed by ‘jod’ and ‘jhala’. The alap was followed by two beautiful compositions, the first one in ‘Madhayalaya of eleven beat cycle. The drut laya gat was set to 16-beat cycle. Aman and Ayaan concluded the recital with a popular ‘dhun known as ‘Bhatiyali’ It is a popular Bengali folk number sung by fishermen. Whatever the laya, the strokes on the sarod were pleasant to hear, whether they are rendering alap or exhibiting exhilarating ‘taan’ phrases the strokes on the string of sarod were a delight to hear.

The musicians were accompanied on the tabla by Shri Satyajit Talwalkar and on dholak by Shri Chetan Rajbhat.

 The sarod recital was followed by a pleasing qawalli recital by the famous qawalli singers Munawwar Masoom and the party. Both the programmes were very well received with a thunderous applause.