Fireflies festival of sacred music

I attended the fifth annual Fireflies music-fest on 14th (click here to know more about fireflies) it was dusk to dawn event, a night dedicated solely to music. The theme for this year's fireflies was 'Business & Social Responsibility' which has never been so relevant as it is today.The setting was ethereal, with the stage set beneath a banyan tree, illuminated by different colored lights giving it an outworldly feel.

We reached just in time to get a place close to the stage, having missed the Veena concert by Geeta Navale. Here is an event-by-event description of the whole night.

Tremolos (A three member accordion band accompanied by a guitarist)
Accordion, an instrument that reminds me so much of Raj Kapoor and which has almost disappeared from the current Indian music scene. The band played peppy numbers initially like tango, polka dance etc and ended with ‘Jeena Yahan Marna Yaha’, a tribute to Raj Kapoor.

Bernard Wacheux
A French Violinist who looked so happy to play at fireflies, charming everyone with his enthusiasm. He played western classical music; I am absolutely illiterate in this matter but still enjoyed his performance.

Tala Vadya (Karnataka College of Percussion)
A group of percussionists playing Mridangam, Kanjeera, Ghatam, Morsing, Rhythm Pad,dhol and tabla, also reciting at times what they played. A lot of their performance was impromptu, despite of which they were all totally in sync, showing the amount of time they must be putting in together, practising. The crowd loved the performance & was left asking for more.















Dollu Kunita
I am sure this performance woke up people who had dozed off to sleep (if any!).Dollu Kunita is a folk dance performed by men in tribal attire and holding these huge dhols. They danced and played along, even without mikes the sound of dhols reverberated the whole amphitheatre. The crowd was taken by surprise when they made an exit through the crowd and kept playing off the stage. Looks like the folk dancers have learned some jigs from professional stage peformers.

Clio Karabelia(A French Harpist)
Harp an instrument so uncommon in India; I remember seeing it only in the mermaid cartoons. The instument caught my fancy as soon as I set my eyes on it and the way she played it, I was mesmerised! Wish I get a chance to learn it sometime.(my wishlist seems to expand by the day!). A sitarist accompanied her as they played a raga; their jugalbandi was especially good.

Jazz Revival
A well-known band in Bangalore with Dr. Thomas Chandy as its lead singer. They were playing sans their drummist who was not required for the light jazz music they played. Someone told me that Dr. Chandy is the MD of Hosmat hospitals, how people effortlessly manage their hobbies and profession?! I was also inspired by Mr. Dom Saldanha,(on trumpet, he is lovingly called Uncle Dom) he must be in his 70’s but still has the energy & passion to perform on stage! Hats off!
















Oikyotaan(one universal melody)
A band dedicated to Bengali folk & Baul music, this was the third year they performed at fireflies. (Which is a feat of sorts coz all their songs are in Bengali.). But the fact that the songs were in Bengali didn’t dampen our spirits at all. Sritama, my friend who is a bong, translated the songs for us; Bonnie the lead vocalist promised that the next fireflies would have booklets with the translated songs.

Qawaali(Shafiq Pervez and group)
This is another form, which once so popular, has disappeared from the music scenes. I dozed off as they started, but woke up when Shafiq Mia started reciting shares which were met with Vaah-Vaahs from the crowd. They sang popular qawallis like ‘Pardah hai pardah’, ‘Chadta suraj’ on audience ki farmaish and the audience clapped along in total filmi-ishtlye.















Nemanja Rebic
A charming Serbian guitarist, and his charmingness in no way shadowed his brilliant guitar play. He played some songs from the Balkans, a different kind of music altogether, the songs were peppered with anecdotes about the songs. Karthik accompanied him on the rhythm pad and the crowd went berserk during their jugalbandi.

Hindol Deb (Hindustani classical)
A sitarist from Delhi, he played Raga Parmeshwari, composed by Pt. Ravi Shankar.The raga is supposed to be played at dawn but it was already morning by the time he started. There were very few of us left till morning and we congratulated ourselves for staying up the whole night having experienced something very different & novel.

Few insights & observations
I haven’t seen a firefly for ages, life in Bangalore taking its toll I guess. Everything has its pros & cons; I have access to events like fireflies because I am in Bangalore but at some point I also feel need to revert to simpler things.
I knew that music does not need a language, I realized why, because it itself is one, a language of souls.