Yesterday, I attended a lovely live concert of Javed Ali at Music Academy, as a part of Times of India's Chennai Festival. To be very honest, I didn't expect much from the show. I love his voice and a few of his songs are my favs. Having been to a few ARR concerts, I've loved his rendition of Sufi songs with Rahman. However, I wasn't sure how he would pull off a solo concert. But, how I underestimated him. He was just brilliant yesterday!
Then came the much awaited Sufi section. He removed his shoes and covered his head with a white cloth, mentioning how devoted and pious ARR would be when singing these songs and how he loved singing these sufi devotional songs with ARR. He sang Kun Faya Kun, followed by Arziyaan. He said they recorded Arziyaan in 3 parts - first part in Mumbai, second part in Chennai. And the third part, they recorded 6 months later! ARR had asked him to modulate his voice a bit and sing the "maula maula" portions with a heavy voice. He demonstrated the two versions - in his normal voice (how he first sang to Rahman) and in his heavy voice (based on Rahman's suggestion - this is the version which is there in the CDs). There was such a huge difference. This was brilliant.
Before Javed Ali came on to the stage, a singer named Manisha sang a couple of popular songs - Amit Trivedi's Iqtaara (Wake up Sid) and Yeh Mera Dil (Don). She was really good.
Then, Javed entered the stage and started off with the melodious Jashn-e-Bahara and Tu Meri Dost Hai (from Yuvvraaj - an interesting choice of song - Tu muskura was Javed's song in the album, Tu Meri Dost was originally sung by Benny Dayal and ARR), before rocking with a superb performance of Ishaqzaade and Tum Se Hi (Jab We Met).
As the audience kept shouting song requests, he kept patiently replying that he'd surely sing the requested songs. "Yeh gaana main nahin gaaoon toh aap log mujhe yahaan se jaane na deejjiye", he kept saying. ("If I don't sing that song, please don't let me leave this place.")
Then, Javed entered the stage and started off with the melodious Jashn-e-Bahara and Tu Meri Dost Hai (from Yuvvraaj - an interesting choice of song - Tu muskura was Javed's song in the album, Tu Meri Dost was originally sung by Benny Dayal and ARR), before rocking with a superb performance of Ishaqzaade and Tum Se Hi (Jab We Met).
As the audience kept shouting song requests, he kept patiently replying that he'd surely sing the requested songs. "Yeh gaana main nahin gaaoon toh aap log mujhe yahaan se jaane na deejjiye", he kept saying. ("If I don't sing that song, please don't let me leave this place.")
After this, came songs from Golmaal and Tum Mile. The audience kept requesting him to sing Kilimanjaro, Kajra Re and Nagada. He moved on, promising to sing those songs.
Before starting Guzaarish (Ghajini), he mentioned that they recorded 8 different mukhdas for this song, all with different lyrics, before the final version. What we hear in the CD is the 9th one. He even sang a couple of those "discarded" mukhdas. I was surprised he even remembered those lyrics.
Then, he followed it with Kilimanjaro. Manisha joined him for this song. Both of them sang very well, but Manisha's pronunciation was bad. (She apologised for her bad pronunciation, after the song). Javed Ali's tamil pronunciation was very good, almost perfect. He didn't even need to look at the lyrics sheet. After one tamil song, requests poured in for more Tamil songs. He sang just a couple of lines from Siragugal Vandhu (Sarvam).
After a few more popular numbers like Bin tere sanam and Kajra Re, he announced that the next song would be Nagada and he would close the show with that. But, the audience wanted more. They asked for Ghazals. Javed Ali's first love being Ghazal, he couldn't refuse. He said he'd sing just a couple of lines due to paucity of time, but ended up singing Ghazals for more than 10 mins, singing songs of Mehdi Hassan and Jagjit Singh. He closed this Ghazal session with his guru Ustaad Ghulam Ali saab's song. (I learnt yesterday that Javed's name ws Javed Hussain and he changed it to Javed Ali, as a mark of respect to his guru Ghulam Ali).
Post the Ghazal session, he sang Nagaada as promised and closed the lovely concert thanking the audience, promising to come back to Chennai soon.Before starting Guzaarish (Ghajini), he mentioned that they recorded 8 different mukhdas for this song, all with different lyrics, before the final version. What we hear in the CD is the 9th one. He even sang a couple of those "discarded" mukhdas. I was surprised he even remembered those lyrics.
Then, he followed it with Kilimanjaro. Manisha joined him for this song. Both of them sang very well, but Manisha's pronunciation was bad. (She apologised for her bad pronunciation, after the song). Javed Ali's tamil pronunciation was very good, almost perfect. He didn't even need to look at the lyrics sheet. After one tamil song, requests poured in for more Tamil songs. He sang just a couple of lines from Siragugal Vandhu (Sarvam).
After a few more popular numbers like Bin tere sanam and Kajra Re, he announced that the next song would be Nagada and he would close the show with that. But, the audience wanted more. They asked for Ghazals. Javed Ali's first love being Ghazal, he couldn't refuse. He said he'd sing just a couple of lines due to paucity of time, but ended up singing Ghazals for more than 10 mins, singing songs of Mehdi Hassan and Jagjit Singh. He closed this Ghazal session with his guru Ustaad Ghulam Ali saab's song. (I learnt yesterday that Javed's name ws Javed Hussain and he changed it to Javed Ali, as a mark of respect to his guru Ghulam Ali).
(More photos here: https://plus.google.com/photos/101762870962161822848/albums/5758399765899157409 )
