Kesarbai kerkar biography of williams

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When I give this message I am speaking in “my Master’s voice”‘. We cannot afford to wait any longer’.

I tried to make him realize that this was not the right way to deal with an artist of her stature. Except for her rare soirees and concert-appearances in Bombay and Calcutta, there was no chance to hear her. Kesarbai devoted more than 20 years of the best part of her life to this sadhana, so that when she eventually emerged in public, the listeners were at once impressed by her remarkably trained voice, the polish and maturity of her performances, and her mastery over such a difficult style.

Born on July 10, 1890 in the small village of Keri (7 miles from Panaji) in Goa, Kesarbai’s intense love for music was evident even as a child.

The devotional music in the temples was what drew her to music. She never sang for the ordinary public. He would make her repeat each note- combination (palta) hundreds of times until she became “note- perfect”.

From 1920 to 1946, Kesarbai underwent all the arduous hours (“each day, more than 10 hours of riyaz”) of practice and training imposed on her by her Ustad, and in the course of a decade or two, attained the musical status desired by him.

He would spend 9 to 10 hours each day teaching and guiding her during her riyaz. For a minute or so she was quiet; then she said to me in a hard tone, ‘Go and tell that fellow that Kesarbai will never again enter the precincts of your studio’.

And true to her word, she severed all relations with the company. However, she rarely used these with her name.

She had just come back after an engagement with the prince of Kashmir. From the lower octave (mandra saptak) to the higher (Taar saptak), her voice rang out in full-throated ease and uniform volume. The determined young pupil was not deterred by all these. Therefore, she remained essentially a musicians’ musician. He was an extremely fastidious, thorough, and unsparing teacher, and his first concern was her voice-culture.

The tune I gave this bhajan was very appropriate and was also in perfect classical style. The systematic and well arranged alaps, taans and bol-taans, all ending accurately on the mukhda (the repetitive opening-line of the song) reveal years and years of hard practice. Maybe she did not come across a disciple worthy of receiving her art and blessings.