Noted tabla player and singer Pandit Vishwanath Nakod has just returned from a tour of Spain and Serbia, part of a 10-day festival (held from April 14 to 24) organised by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR).
Son of the legendary Hindustani classical vocalist late Pandit Arjunsa Nakod, the 53-year-old artiste credits his father for passing on the rich traditions of Gwalior and Kirana gharanas to him and his brothers, and helping them become the successful artistes they are today.
Nakod, who belongs to a family of distinguished musicians from the Hubli-Dharwar region, has toured and performed in countries around the world, including the US, Europe and Gulf countries. He has performed alongside doyens of Indian classical music like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Begum Parveen Sultana, Pandit Rajan among many other legends.
The ICCR festival organised in Belgrade (Serbia), Madrid, Leon, Valladolid and Tenerife (Spain) received an overwhelming response from the audience. “At Belgrade, the audience gave us a standing ovation as I played non-stop on the tabla albeit in the pakhawaj style to the rudraveena being played by Dr Jayanta Kumar Das, musicologist and a master of sitar, surbahar and rudraveena,” says Nakod.
He adds,“While in Spain, the audience listened to Darbari Kanada, Chandrkauns and many other ragas with great enthusiasm. Since many of them had never seen our instruments, the younger generation were very curious and sat throughout our performances with great interest.”
Nakod learnt the traditional art of percussion under the guidance of Veeranna Kamkar and also trained under his elder brother Pandit Raghunath Nakod. He followed it up with further training from legendary artists of the Farukkhabad Gharana. “My elder brother Balachandra Nakod, who had a gifted voice, concentrated on singing while rest of us three brothers—Raghunath, me and Raghvendra—devoted ourselves to the tabla,” he says.
The Nakod family has had a long association with Hindustani music as well as the tabla. Year after year, they have been holding night-long music festivals in the memory of their father, called Smruthi, in Bengaluru. A musical extravaganza featuring the who’s who of Indian classical music unfolds every year at 9pm and ends at 6am.
This time, too, the festival held in March was thronged by over a thousand people, who came to listen to Hindustani and Carnatic musicians and hear those rare ragas sung after midnight or in the wee hours. “Every year, we see more and more young people joining the night festival and it gladdens my heart to see the interest and enthusiasm for the classical format.”
Nakod, who holds an ‘A’ Grade accreditation for both tabla and light music, has worked as a staff artist with the All India Radio since 1986. He also trained under his father for classical vocal and light music under Pandit Vasant Kanakaapur, a composer and harmonium artist.
“Right from childhood, I was exposed to music and most of the knowledge was imbibed by just hearing it the whole day. My father used to teach music playing the tabla with its classical range of talas. Indeed, a very rare combination and he passed on this tradition to his children,” Nakod says.
Recalling his own days of struggle, Nakod adds that he worked in many capacities after getting a diploma in civil engineering that took him all the way from Dharwar to Vadodara. “The turning point in my life was when I got an opportunity to audition for the All India Radio. Later, I joined as a staff artiste at AIR. I got many opportunities to tour the country while AIR itself gave me a platform for widening my scope. ”
The veteran artist also spends time trying to devise different ways of presenting the tabla to make it more interesting for the audience. “Playing the tabla with a song on my lips is a tradition inherent from my father and even today, in my solo concerts, I do it to the delight of music lovers,” he says.