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 on Arrangers and Musicians on SOY. Having written on percussion and string instruments in the series, Ashok ji writes on the third major group of instruments: wind or blow instruments, with focus on Manohari Singh.
Ashok ji is a retired mechanical engineer, and now a freelance consultant, based out of Ahmedabad. Thank you Ashok ji for another nice article in the series of tributes to RD Burman. – AK)
The three assistants who played key role in arranging the music for R D Burman were masters of three different instruments – Maruti (Rao Keer) was a percussionist, Basu (Chakraborty) was a cellist and Manohari (Singh) was an ace blow instrumentalist. It would be too presumptuous to judge that these instruments seemed to find major space in R D Burman’s music because of these three artists. In fact, as one scans through the spectrum of R D Burman’s music, quite a wide variety of instruments can be heard, many of them used quite innovatively as well. As I worked for the third article in the present series of R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations, with the abundance of material available on the internet, I have observed the presence of a wide range of instruments in the orchestration.READ THE FULL ARTICLE
At the beginning of blogging, I remember, I made a comment, talking about the blog that, On this blog you would not find best songs of Asha Bhosle by RD Burman. Today I can say, that was a flippant and immature comment. Not because circumstances have made me celebrate this year as the year of RD Burman, but also because I have come across some songs of the combination which I can easily put among her best by any music director.
When we think of the actors on whom some of the famous songs of RD Burman have been picturised, Rajesh Khanna’s name comes foremost to the mind, followed by Dev Anand, Sanjeev Kumar, Mehmood, Randhir Kapoor, Sanjay, Rishi Kapoor, Tariq etc. And of course, Shammi Kapoor, the hero of the first successful RDB film, Teesri Manzil.
The year 1940 also shows preponderance of Female Solos over Male Solos in total numbers, in line with the long-term trend, as evident in the list of MEMORABLE SONGS in the 
RD Burman composed over 125 songs for Rafi. He was friends with Kishore Kumar, and their personal and musical temperaments matched. Plus, post-Aradhana (1969) an era changed, and Kishore Kumar’s vocals seemed to be transformed to fit the new youthful Phenomenon, Rajesh Khanna. Kishore Kumar was the new Rafi with most big music directors adapting to suit his style. That reflects in the number of about 500 songs RD Burman composed for Kishore Kumar. Considering that Kishore Kumar in his entire career sang only 55% of the songs sung by Rafi, this is even more skewed.
1940 was a year of churning in the film world. It came at the transition of the first decade of spoken films, 1930s, and the beginning of the 1940s. It was a churning of musical styles when one kind of music making was coming to an end, and another was showing its sprouts. There was also a churning in established studios like the Bombay Talkies – because of the death of its owner Himanshu Rai; and the New Theatres of Kolkata, which was struck by a fire destroying most of their prints. However, these tragedies did not deter them from creating some great films and outstanding music. I have written about the general scenario in my 
RD Burman was renowned as a music director. He is credited with changing the way music was made. He was fascinated by different streams of music: Latino, Caribbean, African, Jazz, and he experimented with different types of sound and tried to assimilate these in his music. This aspect of his music comes out clearly in the opening article of the series, on 4.1.2025. He was not rated much as a singer, unlike his father SD Burman, or other Bengali singers like Hemant Kumar or Kishore Kumar. But there was something unique in his voice which was a reflection of his personality. Some songs were very apt for his voice and those songs achieved a great deal of popularity. In some songs, he added his voice for special effect, and in many songs RD Burman’s voice created a magical impact. I have not selected the songs chronologically, but in order of my preference.
R D Burman’s initial films – Chhote Nawab (1961), Bhoot Bangla (1965), Teesara Kaun (1965) and Pati Patni (1966) – seemed to mould his music into prevalent pattern of 50s – a mix of Indian classical music with shades of regional folk music. However, destiny seemed to have charted a different trajectory for him. The music that made R D Burman’s own space secure and respected was that of Teesri Manzil (1966). The success of Teesri Manzil and its music permanently branded R D Burman as the music director with western music domination even when he continued to give some excellent classical and folk based music.