Jodhpur RIFF 2017: Over days one and two, musical collaborations leave audience wanting encores

Why do people brave journeys across continents to participate in a festival where they pay to listen to folk musicians, you may ask. Because music does not have boundaries, and is unaffected by genres or language, says Nilly, a music aficionado, who has travelled from New Zealand, to take part in Jodhpur RIFF, for the third consecutive year. Perhaps, the involvement of the audience explains it better.

The opening night of the tenth edition of the Jodhpur RIFF enthralled an audience numbering in the thousands with popular Rajasthani songs at Jaswant Thada, on Thursday (5 October 2017). On Friday, one could see the audience shift from one venue to another in a rush across Mehrangarh Fort; no one wanted to miss a single event.

It was a busy Friday at Mehrangarh Fort. During the ‘In Residence’ series, a scholar on the Bhil community of Banswara, Malini Kale, explained the intricacies of the musical traditions of the Bhil community, as the artistes from the community performed an array of musical forms with their simple but melodic instruments. The session informed and entertained the audience, keen to get a glimpse of the collaborations of folk musicians with other music traditions of the world.

And they were not disappointed.  The descending sun that created a backdrop of a rich golden hue offered a perfect setting to the folk artistes who performed their dying art forms, with the hope their music would survive, especially since it carries the power to heal. Ladu Ram Nayak, from the Nayak community of Shekhawati, rued that now people rush a person to hospital after a snake bite, earlier they would come to musical healers like him to make the venom lose its power under the spell of musical strains. Not that his music has lost its power; the audience sitting of the floor was mesmerised by the range and depth of his music; vocal renderings transcending three octaves sung in the praise of Gogaji, their local deity, to the accompaniment of percussion instruments like dhol, majira, thali and derun, peculiar to their musical tradition. The 74-year-old master has travelled across continents and earned the honour of having performed with master percussionists like Pete Lockett. It was not just the musical offering, the graceful dance performed by his grandsons to ward off the snake venom was an eye-opener, one could see a few members in the audience gasp with disbelief for the aesthetic finesse of their rendering.

The late evening ‘Moody Riffs’ began with traditional rendering of ‘Maand’, a folk-classical tune that echoes the vast lonely spaces of the desert in its unique melodic formations. ‘Maand’ is sung by artistes — both folk and classical — across regions; for Moody Riffs, it was rendered by the spirited 80-year-old singer Ghavri Devi Rao, whose vocal dynamo reminds one of Allah Jilai Bai’s renderings. Surrounded by her husband, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, the grand old lady offered the audience a sample of grace and her uninhibited vocal prowess. Her husband accompanied her on bhapang while her daughter-in-law and granddaughter added to the vocal renderings. ‘Kamachya Charm’, another rendering, celebrated the sounds of a unique Rajasthani instrument, rarely heard these days. The aural quality of this rendering, fused with element of surprise introduced with pauses and tihaais, was spell binding, to say the least. Ghewar and Darra Khan Manganiyar and their ensemble produced a thousand different musical hues with their 17-string instrument.

A musical tapestry of sorts was woven with different musical yarns thanks to the collaboration between the Spree Festival (of Paisley, Scotland) and traditional musicians of India over a year-long cultural interaction. The resultant hour-long musical performance premiered at RIFF on Friday night. A powerful vocal invocation of a Sufi kalam by Khusro, rendered by Smita Bellur, set the tone for the evening. The audience expectation was high too — both on quality and content — and they also wanted to be entertained. The unusual collaboration did not disappoint. There were songs of lovers’ separations, of life’s disappointments and of quest. Ross Ainslie not only entertained as a Scottish piper, he added a few sombre notes with the flute, to be reciprocated with the melancholic strains of Sindhi sarangi master Asin Khan Langa. Angus Lyon rendered powerful songs, Blue Rose added zing to the soiree with his accordion, Lyon also accompanied a few vocal renderings of Smita and Asin Khan, to the thrill of the audience. The crescendo made the audience break into a dance, they didn’t wish the concert to end, clamouring for an encore.

Soon you could see the crowd walk down Rao Jodha Desert and Rock Park, for the midnight concert. Music rejuvenates at RIFF.