Ashok M Vaishnav

R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Vocal Experiments

Thumbnail image for R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Vocal Experiments October 24, 2025

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 […]

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R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Blow Instruments

Thumbnail image for R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations: Blow Instruments September 18, 2025

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav (When I mentioned that I would need help from our guest authors from the SOY-community to dedicate the year of 2025 to RD Burman in a befitting manner, Ashok M Vaishnav offered to write a few articles on instrumental improvisations by RD Burman. He has already anchored a series […]

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R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations – String Instruments

Thumbnail image for R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations – String Instruments June 17, 2025

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav (SOY regulars are aware that this blog is celebrating 2025 as the year of RD Burman with some contribution from me and some guest articles. Among guest authors, our veteran Ashok M Vaishnav has taken up the cudgels with his first article in the series with RD Buman’s improvisations […]

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R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations – Rhythm Instruments

Thumbnail image for R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations – Rhythm Instruments April 25, 2025

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. […]

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Some Less Heard Gems of Mohammad Rafi – The Sad Romantic Solos: 1940s through 50s

Thumbnail image for Some Less Heard Gems of Mohammad Rafi – The Sad Romantic Solos: 1940s through 50s February 14, 2025

Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav wishing everyone a very Happy Valentine Day with Rafi’s sad romantic solos, extending his centenary celebrations (Ashok M Vaishnav had sent this article for Rafi centenary celebrations in the calendar year 2024. But with series on Kalyanji-Anadnji and Usha Khanna added in, I could not squeeze this article in […]

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Some Hidden Gems of Mohammad Rafi: The Romantic Solos

Rafi August 23, 2024

Guest article by Ashok Vaishnav continuing the centenary celebrations of Mohammad Rafi (24.12.1924-31.7.1980) (Among many romantic solos of Rafi there are several gems hidden under the layer of superhit songs. Some of the hidden gems are more melodious than superhit songs. Our SOY regular and guest author today, Ashok Vaishnav, throws the spotlight on some […]

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

Bhanu Gupta-Homi Mulan-Kishore Sodha-Ranjit 'Gamzer' Kancha April 11, 2024

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 […]

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

Ramprasad Sharma & Sons March 30, 2024

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, […]

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The Sculptors of Film Songs (11): Goody Seervai

Goody Seervai January 20, 2024

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 […]

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The Sculptors of Film Songs (10): Van Shipley

Van Shipley December 21, 2023

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 […]

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