Arrangers and Musicians

R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Vocal Experiments

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav

(We are celebrating 2025 as the year of RD Burman. He was acknowledged for his improvisations in sounds. Our guest author Ashok M Vaishnav has already covered his instrumental improvisations in percussion, string and blow (or wind) instruments. An important part of RD Burman’s orchestral improvisations was his novel vocal experiments. Ashok ji explains that these usages were different from the widely used chorus accompaniments by the Golden or Vintage Era music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, Salil Chowdhury and Shankar-Jaikishan. These do not refer to RD Burman’s gruff, baritone voice either, putting in words like “Monica, My Darling!”.

This would be the fourth and the last article by Ashok ji in the present series. He has been a regular contributor to SOY. Earlier he had anchored a series on Arrangers and Musicians. Thus, he was eminently suitable for writing this series on RD Burman. Ashok ji is a retired engineer based out of Ahmedabad and is now a freelance management trainer. Thank you, Ashok ji, for this excellent article as your concluding piece in this series on RD Burman’s orchestral improvisations. – AK)

While working for the present series, I observed that R D Burman has extensively used sonic effects of vocals in the orchestration of the music. These vocal usages were different than the very widely used chorus accompaniments that Anil Biswas, Salil Chowdhury, Shankar Jaikishan and other music directors of late 40s and 50 have so extensively and innovatively used in their work.

This is also not about what we now recognised as his ‘signature’ – gruff, baritone – singing style or heavy breath sounds of Mera naam hai Shabnam (Kati Patang, 1970) or Monica or Monica My Darling in Piya tu ab to aa ja (Caravan, 1971) or singing Mere Jivan Saathi, with varying modulations or other lyrical dialogues or odd sounds  in the titles of Mere Jivan Sathi (1972).READ THE FULL ARTICLE

R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations – Rhythm Instruments

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav

(My first post of the current calendar year was a review of RD Burman’s biography by Anirudh Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal. In that review I had also mentioned that for me RD Burman was a post-1970 phenomena, which was beyond the time period I had set for this blog. I was not very up to date with music of this period, yet I had decided to celebrate the year as the year of RD Burman, as he came chronologically as the next great music director. I was quite open that I would need the support of guest writers in this endeavour.

Our perennial guest author Ashok M Vaishnav has taken up my request. He completed a nice series of articles on the Arrangers and Musicians last year. RD Burman was renowned for his creative rhythms and experiments with sound with different instruments. Continuing where he left off, Ashokji comes up with a nice article on RD Burman’s orchestration improvisations, focussing on his three key instrumentalists: Basu Chakravarty, Manohari Singh and Maruti Rao Keer. Thank you Ashokji for this worthy article to carry forward the tribute to RD Burman. – AK)

Being born to parents – Sachin Dev Burman and Meera Burman – it was natural that R D Burman had natural flair for music. As a very young boy he had penchant for the note Pa. As such, Ashok Kumar used to call him ‘Pancham’. Very soon, father S D Burman, recognising the musical inclination of the son, also rechristened Pancham as his nick name, from the earlier name Tablu as the parents used to call him. R D Burman used his nick name as his signature musical identity.

S D Burman had used R D’s tune for Aye meri topi palat ke aa (Funtoosh, 1956). S D Burman also used R D’s tune for Sar jo tera chakraye (Pyasa, 1957). R D used to attend music sessions at his father’s recordings, soon to join him as his assistant. All these experiences helped R D Burman to lend breadth and depth to his music and build a network of highly innovative musicians. The core of R D Burman’s music team was built on the foundation of triumvirate of his assistants, each one an ace instrumentalist: Basu Chakraborty – a cello player, Manohari Singh – a saxophone player and Maruti Rao Keer – rhythm specialist. It was this team that helped R D Burman to establish his unique identity by creating the music style that blended the essence classical, folk, regional and western music.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (14): Four Shades of the Dusk of the Series

The concluding article in the series on Arrangers and Musicians by guest authors, Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) & Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation), wishing everyone Eid Mubarak

(As we celebrate Eid, our guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav mark the happy occasion with their concluding article in the series on Arrangers and Musicians. In the thirteen earlier articles, eleven focussed on individual talented artistes, such as Anthony Gonsalves, Van Shipley, Enoch Daniels etc, and two were devoted to families whose more than one generation comprising several artistes made an impact – The Lords and Ramprasad Sharma & Sons.  

The concluding article brings the curtain down on the people who remained behind the curtain anyway. This also marks the end of the way music was made – a metaphorical dusk of an era. The authors discuss four different artistes who were active during the dusk. On behalf of the readers I convey our heartfelt gratitude to Piyushji and Ashokji for this wonderful series and a befitting concluding article. – AK)

Arrangers and musicians have been the unsung heroes, who gave shape to the music in films with their imaginative art and creative craft. Some of these arrangers and musicians had their work documented, howsoever sketchy it was. However, there are many more who remained unsung within the tribe of ‘unsung heroes’. We conclude our present series with four such unsung among unsung musicians whose work has mainly trickled in through the public programmes they have participated in, even though each one was a master of his own instrument(s), and has enriched the Hindi film music by expanding the range of these instruments.

Bhanu Gupta

The world of science is replete with cases where some great inventions happened from inadvertent errors. One most famous example is that of Penicillin. Sir Alexander Fleming was working on a cure for Pneumonia, rampant during WWI. In 1928, Dr Fleming observed that a particular type of mould growing on a Petri-dish of Staphylococcus bacteria seemed to be preventing the bacteria around it from growing. We know that accidental discovery of the mould as almost cure-all, Penicillin.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (13): Ramprasad Sharma & Sons

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(Ramprasad Sharma may be an unfamiliar name to many, but Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo were the biggest guys on the film music scene. They broke all the records: for number of films for which they composed music, total number of songs by them, total number of songs for the biggest singers, Lata Mangeshkar and Rafi. They went through the grind, climbing all the ladders from the beginning: musician, arranger, assistant music director and finally the pinnacle. Pyarelal was the son of Ramprasad Sharma, who was a highly respected musician, scholar, music director and teacher in the 40s and early 50s. His other sons too, namely Gorakhnath, Ganesh, Anand, and Naresh; and grandsons Monty and Mithun all came into music.

Ramprasad’s pupils include a galaxy of well-known names who came to him to learn notation. He did not achieve great commercial success as a music director, and had to work for other music directors like Naushad and C Ramchandra. The trumpet in ‘Suhani raat dhal chuki’ was played by Ramprasad Sharma. I profusely thank the guest authors Piyush M  Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav for covering an important personality and his family in the series on Arrangers and Musicians. – AK)

The title of this episode may sound like a typical name we were used to seeing on the signboards in the markets in any town during the 1950s to ‘70s. The signboard would further read “Wholesale Merchants of Grains” or “Wholesale Cloth merchants” etc. Well, what has that to do with this series about musicians and arrangers? Is the present episode about some such firm which probably had been associated with ‘selling’ music instruments?

Well, No. Ours is a narrative of three generations of artists who have been practicing musicians in the world of Hindi film music: Ramprasad Sharma, a complete music director, researcher, composer and arranger with an in-depth knowledge of all known musical instruments, their notations and playing techniques in Indian as well as western styles; his sons: Pyarelal, Gorakhnath, Ganesh, Anand, Naresh; and the grandsons: Monty and Mithun. As is the case with most of the second and third tiers of artists like arrangers and musicians under the label ‘Music Director’, these names would not make sense with most of us, unless we further qualify Pyarelal with the suffix of ‘Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo’.

Ramprasad Sharma

Ramprasad Sharma (1900 -1995) belonged to Gorakhpur in the then United Provinces (present day Uttar Pradesh). The band master of Bharatpur State recognised Ramprasad’s flare for instrumental music. He played the trumpet here. He then played in Agra Military Band. This groomed him into the art of music arrangement to rise to the position of Band Master in a circus. He toured Delhi, Lahore and Calcutta with the circus. He settled for some time in Calcutta and worked for Columbia and New Theatres. At that stage, he mastered playing ten instruments and had acquired good knowledge of intricacies of classical raags.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (12): The “Lords”

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(The “Lords”, i.e. the father Cawas Lord and his two sons – Kersi and Burjor Lord – have lorded over the instrumental music in Hindi film songs right from the beginning of the talkies till the 1980s when the era of live orchestra by musicians and arrangers in the music room was caming to en end. The SOY regulars will recall the review of Greg Booth’s “Behind the Curtain“. Therefore, it is very befitting that the guest authors, Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav, now write on the most illustrious family of instrumentalists in the film music world. The Lords have seen the zenith of the sculptors of film music to their decline and disappearance of an era of how music was made in our films. Thank you Piyushji and Ashokji for another excellent article in the series on the Arrangers and Musicians. – AK)

Even in the absence of authentic statistics, there is unanimity among Hindi film historians that, from 1947 to 1987, one or other member of the Lord family – father Cawas Lord, the elder son Kersi Lord and the younger son Burjor Lord – has, on an average, played in every third song recorded in Bombay. Jazz and Latino music became integral to Bombay film music largely due to the Lords.

Cawas Lord

Cawas Lord (1911 – 2007) was born in a very strict and traditional Parsi family from Pune. Young Cawas was so much interested in music that at the age of 12 he migrated to Mumbai. His music career at Bombay commenced with playing military drums and bagpipes under various military bandleaders. By the ’30s Cawas Lord had started playing percussion instruments for earliest talkie films. He is said to have arranged the background score for India’s fist talkie film Alam Ara (1931).READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (11): Goody Seervai

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(Continuing their series on Arrangers and Musicians, now the guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav throw the spotlight on one of the most respected musicians, Goody Seervai, who became synonymous with piano accordion. The songs they have mentioned have been our eternal favourites, but for most of us it would be the first time that we would be able to associate with the accordion player who sculpted these songs with his tunes. Thank you Piyushji and Ashokji for another excellent article, 11th in the series. – AK)

It was after 1943 that the new crop of music directors started using western musical instruments in the orchestration of the Hindi film songs. C Ramchandra, because of his association with trumpet player Chic Chocolate and jazz drummer Kawas Lord, went in almost overdrive by experimenting with using western tunes in the songs. Music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, S D Burman etc. further expanded the range by combining Indian classical and folk music with western music and western musical instruments like violin, cello, guitar etc. It was this trend in orchestration of Hindi film music that led the search for the instrumentalists in hotels, clubs and functions of the communities in big cities like Bombay and Calcutta, where strong culture of bands consisting of Goanese and Parsi instrumentalists had developed very well. It was at one of such bands that Chocolate and Lord met Goody Seervai and were impressed by Seervai’s style of playing the accordion. They immediately introduced Seervai to C Ramchandra and Naushad.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (10): Van Shipley

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(Van Shipley earned acclaim for his proficiency in violin and guitar, and he brought out many independent albums of tunes of film songs on these instruments. As such, he was among the well known arrangers and musicians. Yet there is no authentic data of the specific songs in which he played these instruments. Raj Kapoor was highly impressed with him after hearing his violin at a concert and brought him into his team. Thus, Van Shipley got associated with many everlasting songs from RK films.

I thank today’s guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vasihnav for throwing some light on one of the legendary musicians of Hindi films in their series on Arrangers and Musicians. – AK)

(Valentine) Van Shipley (B: 30-8-1927 | D: 8-3-2008) commenced his career in Hindi films by playing violin, he is perhaps better known as ‘The Man with Golden Guitar’. His mother was a skilled sitar player. Valentine’s three brothers and two sisters were talented musicians. However only Valentine Van Shipley went to become a professional musician. Van Shipley took his first violin lessons from Allahabad-based violinist, Gagan Chatterjee. While he was learning Hindustani classical music from noted khayal singers Ustad Bande Hasan Khan and his son, Ustad Zande Hasan Khan, he also took lessons in western music. He continued his training in violin from Ustad Allaudin Khan while he was with AIR, Lucknow. While at Lucknow, he got further training in sarod from Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who was then director of AIR Lucknow. Ustad Vilayat Khan was his classmate. He was friends with Pandit Ravi Shankar whom he had met in 1961.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (9): Dattaram

Guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(The most prominent identity of Dattaram is as long-time assistant of Shankar-Jaikishan. He later started giving music independently, but he continued his association with S-J. Thus in public mind when one thought of Dattaram, one thought of Shankar-Jaikishan, even though Dattaram had composed some outstanding songs independently.

Most of us also know him as an ace percussionist who could play many instruments, such as tabla, dholak, drums, duff proficiently. His unique style of playing percussion instruments came to be known as Dattu Theka.

It is this aspect of Dattaram as a percussionist that the guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation) focus on. Continuing the series on Arrangers and Musicians, they highlight several immortal songs with which Dattaram has been associated as a percussionist, many with music directors other than Shankar-Jaikishan.

Thank you Piyush ji and Ashok ji for another informative article in the series. – AK)

Dattaram (Wadkar) (1929 – 7 June 2007), is, unfortunately, remembered either as one of those talented music directors who could not get the commercial success he deserved or as assistant to Shankar-Jaikishan who handled the percussion part of the orchestration. However, lamenting over this stark reality of the ways of Hindi Film music world, Dattaram’s nonrecognition as music director or as arranger also hides his outstanding contribution as an outstanding player of dholaki and other percussion instruments.

[Please visit Saaj Tarang special episodes on various percussion instruments like, Dholaki, Dholak, Pakhavaj, Mridangam, Tabla Tarang, Bongo and Folk Rhythm instruments.]READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (8): Ramlal

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(We all know Ramlal as the music director of V Shantaram’s films ‘Sehra’ and ‘Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne’. We also generally know that he was an ace shehnai player having been associated with Ustad Bismillah Khan. But we hardly know that besides his these two acknowledged scores, he was also associated as a great flute and shehnai player in many songs. His instrumental pieces had an important role in making those songs great. It is telepathic that a few days ago, a regular reader, Ashok Kumar Tyagi, who had recently come across Ramlal’s talents with many instruments, requested for an article on him in this series. And as if in answer to his requests, our guest authors Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation), continuing the series on Arrangers and Musicians, now put the spotlight on the legendary musician, Ramlal. Thank you Piyush ji and Ashok ji for another excellent article in the series. – AK)

For most of the fans of Hindi film songs, the name Ramlal should instantly remind them of the songs of ‘Sehra’ or ‘Geet Gaya Paththoron Ne’. If such is the case, would mention of Ramlal in this series on Musicians and Arrangers not be incongruous?

Howsoever Ramlal’s music for these two films is applauded, the fact remains that such exceptional success did not bring him any more substantive work. In fact, it has effectively overshadowed his lifelong work as one of the most outstanding players of flute and shehnai in the Hindi film industry.

We will, therefore, focus on his work as an instrument player.READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The Sculptors of Film Songs (7): V Balsara

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) & Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(V Balsara was an extremely talented musician encompassing proficiency in all the links in the vertical chain of producing music – instrumentalist to arranger to music director. He was a master of many instruments. He was also a rare exception for a non-Bengali to make a reverse migration from Mumbai to Kolkata and made a mark in Bengali music scene. We are grateful that our guest authors Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav, continuing the series on Arrangers and Musicians, now cover one of the well-known musicians V Balsara. He had the unique talent of creating piano accordion sound with harmonium in many landmark songs. Thank you Piyush ji and Ashok ji for another excellent article on the sculptors of film songs who were not adequately credited. – AK)

V(istasp Ardeshir) Balsara (B: 22 June 1922 – D: 24 March 2005) was a musician of trinity of talents – as an instrumentalist, arranger and music director. He was considered uncrowned wizard of instrumental orchestration. A master keyboardist, he was an ace player of instruments like harmonium, organ, piano, piano accordion, melodica and univox. He is considered instrumental in popularising these instruments in the recording industry. Rich in the knowledge of Indian and Western classical music, he has left behind a legacy of his recorded albums of Indian and Western music and the fusion of both these schools. He has also composed music for around 12 Hindi films and 32 Bengali films and several timeless non-film compositions.READ THE FULL ARTICLE