Forever In Rhythm: Ojas Adhiya's Tribute To Zakir Hussain And Pankaj Udhas
Released on March 3, tabla exponent Ojas Adhiya’s new single Forever In Rhythm has been dedicated to the “radiant and uncontainable” energy of ghazal maestro Pankaj Udhas and tabla legend Ustad Zakir Hussain. “Both of them have made a huge contribution to Indian music, and inspired me greatly in my career. This was my way of paying tribute,” he says.
Interestingly, this piece originated as the culmination of other musical ideas, which started taking shape last August. One of them was that Adhiya wanted to create a unique collaboration between tabla and dholak. “There have been many collaborations in film music and commercial songs, but few in the classical music space. I wanted to play with musicians who not only played great dholak but also understood the language of the tabla,” he says. With the help of keyboardist Vishal Dhumal, he approached dholak players Shreedhara Chari and Rajesh Rajbhatt.
The melodic part of the song has an interesting story. Says Adhiya, “The hookline came while I was listening to Pankaj Uncle’s hit La Pilade Saaqiya. Sub-consciously, it must have stayed with me. But those days, I was also listening to raag Abhogi by flautist Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia Ji. So I was inspired by that too.”
While Ninad Mulaokar plays flute, Nasir Sajjad Hussain graces the song with his deft mandolin, playing some Sufiana phrases. For the tabla, Adhiya chose the rare ikwai taal, which is also in 16 beats. He says, “Some years ago, I was accompanying vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty and she suddenly said we should do ikwai. I didn’t know what it was, but she told me the theka. Later, I discovered Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan used ikwai a lot.”
Mir Desai took over the song’s production. The video was shot by Akash Saxena as the musicians performed live in the studio. When the final version was ready in January, he decided to call it Forever In Rhythm as a tribute to Hussain and Udhas. He says, “Zakir Uncle was of course forever in rhythm. And even till the end, I and my wife Nayaab (Udhas’s daughter) saw how Pankaj Uncle kept thinking about music, asking about concerts and progress of recordings.”
One of the most prolific tabla players on the scene, 37-year-old Adhiya represents the Ajrada gharana of tabla playing, He was born in Chikhali, Maharashtra, and his interest in percussion was noticed by his father Yogesh Adhiya when he was just two years old. Music director Kalyanji spotted his talent, and sent him to tabla maestro Mridangraj for training. “Besides learning the intricacies of tabla playing, my association with Mridangraj Ji helped me develop my approach. He would tell me to listen to all kinds of music, if I wanted to take up tabla as a profession. So besides classical, he said I must understand ghazals and fusion in order to play in them. If someone wants me in a qawwali, I should be ready. Those days, I would listen to him just as a student, but over time, and by playing different genres, the real depth of that learning came through,” he says.
Adhiya closely listened to the ghazals of Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali and Udhas. “Through my association with Kalyanji Uncle and his Little Wonders shows, I listened to a lot of Lata Ji and Asha Ji. He, and even my guriji, would tell me keen listening was also a form of riyaaz. So apart from Indian genres, I also began listening to jazz,” he says.
Besides accompanying various classical artistes and being part of many percussion collaborations, Adhiya has been part of the fusion band Samarpan. Among his projects, one of his most satisfying was the 2022 release Tabla Symphony, which was composed by Alap Desai. Says the tabla exponent, “I had gone to see Zakir Uncle’s tabla concerto Peshkar, and liked it so much I wanted to something similar. I wanted the tabla to be prominent and wanted it to be composed by someone who understood the language of the tabla. That’s when I approached Alap Desai.”
Tabla Symphony, composed in raag Mishra Kirwani, uses a Chennai-based strings section conducted by Shri Raja. It has solo sections by Manas Kumar on violin and ID Rao on western flute and clarinet. “The idea was to bring the best of two worlds together by using Indian classical tabla patterns against a string section playing an Indian melody,” he says.
Adhiya recently began a US tour with Kaushiki Chakraborty, and will next visit Hong Kong with Manas Kumar. How does he deal with the constant pressure of travelling? He replies, “I try not to think about that. But I do go out for a walk and am careful about my diet. Basically, I go with the flow.” His mind, of course, is focused on his music.
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