First Rock Concert – Remembering Mohiner Ghoraguli

The First Rock Concert is a concert by the Bangla band, Moheener Ghoraguli who are touted as the first Indian rock band. The concert was performed at Ambedkar Bhavan, Bangalore on 17 February 2007.

The concert stage with all the musicians

This concert was the first for the band since they broke up about 25 years earlier in 1981 and can, possibly, be said to be the first live concert of Moheener Ghoraguli outside West Bengal.

Three original ghoras - 'Pradip Chattopadhyay', 'Ranjon Ghoshal' and 'Abraham Mazumder joined hands and performed with other artists from the 90s Moheen stable like Divya Mukhopadhyay and Tamojit Roy and modern Bangla Rock artists like Silajit Majumder and Anindya Bose. They were ably supported by the chamber orchestra of Abraham's music school - L'Atelier de Musique de Calcutta, and the young horses - Pradip's son Ritoban Chattopadhyay on the lead guitar and Ranjon's son Abhimanyu Ghoshal on the second guitar.

A nostalgic evening

It was an evening filled with nostalgia that rekindled the passions and probably revived the movement that revolutionized Bengali music forever. One could gauge from the audience, which consisted of people from different ethnicity and culture, reaction that it was an evening not only for the music lovers of Bengal but it managed to cross all barriers of language, signifying the USP of Moheen's music - that of both mass and class appeal.

Performances
Pradip 'Bulada' Chattopadhyay singing his famous Shattawla Baadi

The concert was curated and hosted by Ranjon Ghoshal . He kept the audience enthralled with bits of trivia and anecdotes from the past days, that kept the folks glued to their seats throughout the three and a half hours of the show.

Pradip Chattopadhyay was brilliant with the flute and with his on-stage antics kept the audience in splits. He was cleaning Abraham's piano at one time, dancing and prancing around to Anindya's performance at other times - but all was done in perfect rhythm and harmony.

Abraham Mazumdar, was genius personified. He played the violin, the grand piano and the keyboard all with equal ease and elan. Such calm and composure on stage is a rare sight and his ever-smiling face was a joy to behold. His sense of assurance lifted the whole team and inspired all the members.

If there was Abraham, then there was Anindya Bose of the band Shohor. He was electric and had the audience swaying to his steps. His rendition of "Priya Cafe" was a high point of the evening.

Silajit Majumder (left) and Anindya performing Prithibi

Silajit Majumder, another prominent guest singer - was excellent of his rendition of Shono Shudhijon and Shongbigno Pakhikul though one was really shocked at his going wrong on lyrics at a tribute concert.

But the evening couldn't have been such a success without Tamojit Roy and Divya Mukherjee.

Divya was calmness personified in his rendition of his classic "Akashe Chhodano".

Tamojit was a revelation. His burlesque frame dupes one to believe otherwise, but once on stage the man was like a volcano, ready to erupt, bubbling with energy. With his powerful vocals he took the audience to a different world.

One must also say a few words about Anupam Roy of L'atelier. He was the best of the lot, with his humble looks and attire but with a smooth confident voice like that of a maestro and not to forget his skills on the violin.

Ranjon Ghoshal singing at the concert

The Baul Jazz fusion was the piece de resistance of the evening. It was presented by Tamojit Roy and Divya Mukhopadhyay on vocals, Pradip Chattopadhyay on flute, Abraham Mazumder on the grand piano, Prakash Sontakke on slide guitar, Karthik Subramaniyam on percussion, Abhishek Roy on drums, Arnab on bass guitar, Ritoban Chattopadhyay on lead guitar, Abhimanyu Ghoshal on second guitar and Anubrata Ghatak on violin.

Apart from their published songs, they also performed quite a few unpublished numbers like "Benojoler Gaan", "Sobuj Gomkhet(Mithye shwopno)", "Chhaya-ghera", which they had composed in the 1970s but didn't get a chance to publish in their releases.

Similar concerts have been planned at Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune by the end of 2007.

Track listing

The entire concert was broken into sections that dealt with various phases of the music of Moheener Ghoraguli.

Opening Act

  1. Baul Jazz (Puravi by Tamojit Roy)

Vinyl Days

  1. Haay, Bhalobashi (with newer interludes composed by Anubrata Ghatak of L'Atelier de Musique de Calcutta)
  2. Shono Shudhijon (Shilajit)
  3. Choitrer Kafan (Anindya, Ranjon, Atelier)
  4. Kolkata (L'Atelier de Musique de Calcutta)
  5. Maroon Shondhyalok (L'Atelier de Musique de Calcutta, Ranjon)
  6. Phire Ashbo (L'Atelier de Musique de Calcutta and Anindya)
  7. Runway (Shilajit)
  8. Ei Shure Bohudure (L'Atelier de Musique de Calcutta)
  9. Aw-U-Baw (L'Atelier de Musique de Calcutta, Bula, Ranjon)

The 90s Collection

  1. Ghawre Pheraar gaan (Madhusree Mazumder & Doyel)
  2. Akashe ChhawDano (Divya Mukhopadhyay)
  3. Shaattawla baaDi (Bula)
  4. Taake taaDai jawto (Doyel Banerjee)
  5. Kawto ki kawrar ache baaki (Supratik of Aurko)

Previously unpublished songs

  1. Benojoler gaan (Atelier with ranjon)
  2. Shobuj Gomkhet (Anupam Roy –B’lore)
  3. Chhaya Ghera (Atelier with Abraham)
  4. Bineeta (Anupam Roy – B’lore)
  5. Hoy Jodi hok (Bula – Ranjon – Divya)

Back to the 90s

  1. Priya Café (Anindya)
  2. Chaina Ja Pai (Atelier)
  3. Ei muhurte (Anindya)
  4. Telephone (Abhijit "Pota" Barman)

Baul Jazz

  1. Baul (by Divya)
  2. Baul (Bhairavi by Tamojit)

End Piece

  1. Prithibi (Shilajit/Anindya)

Personnel
Anubrata Ghatak conducting the orchestra

with

  • Prakash Sontakke - slide guitar
  • Tamojit Roy - vocals
  • Divya Mukhopadhyay - vocals
  • Silajit Majumder - vocals
  • Anindya Bose - vocals
  • Abhijit "Pota" Barman - vocals
  • Supratik Ghosh - vocals
  • Anupam Roy (Bangalore) - vocals
  • Madhushree Mazumder - violin, vocals
  • Doyel Banerjee - vocals
  • Ritoban Chattopadhyay - guitars
  • Karthik Subramaniyam - percussions, jazz drums
  • Anubrata Ghatak - guitars, violin, vocals, assistant conductor
  • Anupam Roy (L'Atelier de Musique de Calcutta) - violin, vocals, concert master
  • Abhishek Roy - drums
  • Srijit Mukhopadhyay - harmonica
  • Bachaspati a.k.a. Arnab - electric bass
  • Abhimanyu Ghoshal - guitars
  • Bhaskar Dutta - violin
  • Kalpak Sheel - violin
  • Rohit Sanatani - violin
  • Shilpi Panja - violin
  • Soumak Bardhan - cello
  • Sangeeta Mazumder - viola
  • Divyakamal Mitra - violin
  • Binit Ranjan Moitra - violin
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