Parveen Sultana’s first LP was released in 1969, seven years after her debut concert as a classical vocalist. Over the next four decades, she recorded consistently, coming out with a host of albums. But with the advent of the Internet, she says, she has stopped recording albums like before.
“Everybody has a mobile phone and whether you give them permission or not, they record your music. One person records your music, and distributes it to thousands of others,” she says.
Musicians are now concerned about finding concerts and enthusiastic audiences, not to speak of sponsors. In a month, Parveen Sultana presents three or four shows, and her audiences have ample opportunities to listen to her live. And social media is a mixed bag. While conventional studio recordings are becoming rare, platforms like YouTube are taking her live music across the world.
Parveen Sultana’s ambition is not just to please the connoisseurs who throng to her concerts, but also to get “people who have never heard classical music” to listen to her. The way to do it is never to “bluff yourself and bluff your audience.”
In Bengaluru for Yamini, the Indian Institute of Management’s annual music and dance festival, she spoke to DH on Saturday ahead of her concert on January 25. At the all-night festival, she sang raga Yaman, followed by a Kabir bhajan in raga Mishra Kirvani. On popular demand, she sang ‘Hamen tumse pyar kitna’ from the film ‘Kudrat’. Recorded in two versions (the other one is by Kishore Kumar), the number took her close to the hearts of film music buffs. She concluded with ‘Bhavani dayani’ in raga Bhairavi. The energy was high, although she was recovering from a flu.
“I have sung 20-25 film songs, whenever composers wanted something in the classical style,” she says, talking about her association with Bollywood. As for ‘Bhavani dayani’, she says, “I performed at the prestigious Oud Festival in Israel. A Jew got up and said, 'Being a Muslim, you are singing a Hindu raga. We are Jew, American, Muslim… and this is music because whatever you sing touches us'.”
Pandit Ravishankar is responsible for Indian classical musicians getting a ready platform abroad, she says, while advising young musicians to develop distinct identities. Her word of caution: “Don’t try to become Pandit Ravishankar”. Many young talents fade away within just a couple of years because they keep changing what they do: ”One day you become a bhajan singer, one day you become a Sufiana singer, one day you become a pop singer, and one day you are dancing.”
She listens to a variety of music, though. “I even listen to hip hop. I like what they do with the rhythm.” Her south Indian sojourns are never complete without a rendition of ragas like Hamsadhwani adapted from Karnatik music. “This is the 40th year I am coming to Bengaluru,” she says. “Karnatik audiences are so sincere and disciplined. They love music like they love their gods.”