January 27th

 On Feb 10th we are planning to have a party at our house. For this I plan to make it a musical party, wherein I will set up my guitar and speaker combo, along with the microphones outside in my backyard. There are electrical points, but will need to test in advance if they function and how it all comes together. This is a milestone, if it works out. I will perform a little more officially, my goal being to do a few songs solo to kick things off and then do some  "standby" material with Tilo. The total length of the program I would like to say should be 1 hour, but maybe that is too much given it is the first time for me to perform for that long. Also, one does not want to lose the attention of the crowd and become background music, which happens all too often when you get a random crooner with a guitar at a house party.

 In recent times, over the last 6 to 8 months , I had the good fortune to see three such acts from close quarters. The first was this act on the 50th birthday of Ramesh. It was at the clubhouse of his condo ( or was it at the India Club?), where it was a guy on guitar and vocals and his friend on some sort of percussion. They were playing mostly old and some newer bollywood material. He was all right, a bit average, but went on too long. Then started being asked to do songs that he didn't know. His repertoire was too desi for the occasion- or maybe it was just me. However, one interesting thing I noted was that he used a microphone that came off his head like a headset on a laptop. He essentially sang and played standing up- but the mike was sleekly attached to his head and hung over his mouth. I am used to seeing a solid Shure or similar mike that is on a stand. This portable setup was interesting to see- and I made a note to myself to delve more into it at a future time. As it happens, I was at the Yamaha store later today and asked if they stocked this. They did not and advised that it was a headset with a transmitter that was fixed elsewhere. The headset allowed the speaker or singer to move around. He said it was best to look for it online- which I mean to do.

The second performer was a guy whose card I took, but now cannot recall his name. It was an interesting card, a peculiar shape, not the usual  vanilla rectangular cardboard one is used to. He performed a longish set ( maybe an hour and a half but likely less) at Moitreyi's birthday. Her birthday was a huge event in her Victory Heights Villa. There were over a 100 guests, a buffet and, yes, a music performer. The guy mostly did bollywood material but of a more modern genre and with the contemporary pop vocal sensibility, which I did not care for- a la Ed Sheeran. If I recall correctly, he also did a few Western tunes but nothing I  was drawn to. I think he did some U2- another band I loathe. He did his thing- some people were listening on and off, others behaving as if he was totally invisible. I thought to myself, the only way to pull this off is to play songs you enjoy- so that at least you could enjoy your performance even if others did not. To play songs according to other people's taste and then have them largely ignore you was a bit more than I could abide. I did have a world with him, and told him he was good and also said I performed a bit as well. He asked me to do something which I immediately declined. Last thing I needed. I don't mind being ignored by strangers , but to be ignored by people you mostly know- that is another level of ignominy. I know I needed to get over this as it would be an obstacle to my progress in this area. I was not ready for it just yet.

The third performer was by far the best. And also, probably, the most poor and humble of the lot. The other two were Dubai based, which is a big deal for a musician- after all, it is well-known that unless you are a famous person, you cannot even feed yourself doing it. The third man, a wee lad, was playing in a mall in south Kolkata where my cousin was a bit mesmerized by him and duly offered him a gig the following afternoon for a lunch party for the "Mehendi" part of his younger daughter's wedding. My niece, based in the USA, was back for her wedding in Kolkata and I had flown down from Dubai to attend. The chap came with a friend who was mainly a sound guy. He had a 6 channel Yamaha mixer, a fairly large tower speaker and a lot of wires. the performer had a Yamaha semi-acoustic and a mike. He was playing Hindi stuff, bollywood and pop- but he had a stylistic presence. His vocals were all souped up and rather original sounding.  He had a great voice, and most importantly his playing was impeccable. He played with this fingers but his rhythm playing was incredibly complex fro someone also singing at the same time. I was mighty impressed - and duly told him so. However, in this case, I did take the guitar off him and put down a couple of bengali rock numbers from Mohiner Ghoraguli. It wasn't much, but it was the first time I just got up and played to an unknown audience ( actually, technically speaking, I had done this on October 16th during my parent's 50th anniversary in Jamshedpur). It went well in that only 3 or 4 people were listening and I seemed ok with that. So that was one major milestone overcome.

Now as February 1oth approaches, ( it is roughly 10 days away), I mean to practice reasonably well but not too much. The idea is to do this like I would a casual gig, but make it sound worthwhile. All I want to achieve is a smooth execution. The crowd is not one that is challenging to perform to, as they are all well known. But little by little, I hope to gain performing experience. I may have missed the bus to the city on this score, but I still wanted to hitch hike my way to the nearest truck stop.