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Hailed as one of the all-time greats of
Indian Classical Music, Pandit Shankar Ghosh has, for more
than four decades now, regaled audiences all over the world
with his unique "baaj" of Tabla playing. Universally
regarded as an innovative genius, he has, besides, performing
with the greatest of master musicians of this century, added
a whole new dimension to the art of solo Tabla playing. His
many compositions have become an intrinsic part of classical
Tabla playing.
Pandit Shankar Ghosh trained mainly with the great Guru of
the Tabla Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh. His other teachers included
Ustad Feroz Khan, Pandit Anath Nath Bose and Pandit Sudarshan
Adhikari.
Pandit Ghosh’s illustrious career has had many highlighted
moments. One such moment, which marked a major movement in
his musical life, was when; in 1962 he visited the United
States of America with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. From then onwards,
for the next ten years he was to experiment with the percussion
form with a variety of great musicians in the west. All the
while, as he toured with Ali Akbarji, he also musically joined
hands with immortal bands like the "Grateful Deads"(whose
drummer Mickey Hart was Shankarji’s student) and performed
with the renowned saxophonist John Handy. In fact it was during
this phase that the germ to create the all-drum orchestra
Music of the Drums (later re-christened as the Calcutta Drum
Orchestra) took seed in his mind.
The concept of an all drum orchestra was unique in itself
though especially Pandit Gyan Prakash Ghosh had previously
conducted before, experiments with drums. However, the form
was the ensemble and not the orchestra. The orchestral dimension
was brought in by Shankarji who created such a wonder that
his orchestra held audiences mesmerised for three hours, drum-struck
in the world woven by the master percussionist. Memorable
performances of the orchestra were the 1982 ASIAD finale and
the performance at the Royal Albert Hall, London for the BBC
PROMS 100th year celebrations.
Listing the great artistes that Shankarji has accompanied
over the last forty odd years would read like a who’s
who list of the Indian Classical Music world. It would be
enough to say that there was no area of our music, be it instrumental,
vocal or dance that Shankarji did not excel in and which was
not enriched by his keen sense of artistry.
Throughout his career he has been bestowed with awards galore.
The latest to hold pride of place are the ITC award and the
Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan award.
Shankarji has innumerable recordings available worldwide.
Of late he has ventured into composing music for stage productions
as well as theme albums.
Finally, Shankarji has secured a place for himself among the
greatest Guru’s of all time through his wide influence
as a teacher of Tabla all over the world. This is amply exampled
by the sheer number of students of his that are top rung tabaliyas
today.
Pandit Shankar Ghosh teaches in three institutions he has
in Calcutta, Paris and Bonn.
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