Dolcy D’Cruz
National Award-winning Hindustani classical vocalist Mahesh Kale will be performing in Goa on May 30 with his new concert, ‘Infusion’, especially for the audience in Goa. He creates a musical space for traditional and contemporary music to meet. He shares about the concert and his bond with Goa, thanks to his guruji Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki.
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Born in Pune, Mahesh Kale is an Indian-American Hindustani classical vocalist, playback singer, composer, and educator known for bringing Indian classical music to wider contemporary audiences. His ‘Infusion’ concert is a vibrant blend of Hindustani classical music and contemporary global sounds, seamlessly bringing together traditional raagas, devotional abhangs, and semi-classical compositions with western instrumentation, jazz influences, cinematic arrangements, and world percussion.
With his powerful vocals, improvisations, and engaging stage presence, Mahesh will be performing in Goa at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee indoor stadium, Bambolim, on May 30 at 6 pm.
Mahesh is excited because this concert ‘Infusion’, is only done in its avatar in Pune. He was touring with the ‘Abhangavari’ concert in Australia and New Zealand. But he wanted to do ‘Infusion’ concert in Goa.
“I have taken a little bit of a detour amongst my ‘Abhangavari’ tour right now. We toured New Zealand, Australia, Singapore recently and in July, we are going to have a 12-city ‘Abhangavari’ tour. But ‘Infusion’ is a rare concert when I wanted to bring it to Goa before other places,” says Mahesh.
Mahesh defines the concert as making classical accessible.
“That is how I would design the concert. If the youth is more inclined to get into western sounds of drums and keyboards and guitars, then I will use them as my accompanying instruments but presenting classical music in a fresher way,” he explains.
He recently released new songs from the ‘Infusion’ set too. He says, “Infusion’ is relatively new and I am trying to record and release a few songs. After I did ‘Infusion’ in Pune, I released a new song that was not part of the Pune Infusion. It’s not a set list of songs but a perspective on how to look at Indian classical music. Some of them are arranged in the jazz style, pop and in rock and this particular one that I released is actually an EDM song.”
Mahesh has a special connection with Goa. He was the last student of Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki from Goa and also learnt to speak in Konkani with him. He still speaks Konkani but has no one to talk to right now.
“I deeply feel for Goa. Every time I land, I feel like I probably must have been in Goa in one of my earlier lives. When you have a guru like Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki, the time feels very short. Every day we would have about eight hours of lessons. He would just lead through action. He would be the first one to get up at 3 o’clock in the morning for the riyaaz sessions. He was not verbose at all but he acted a lot very passionately and deeply for music. And that is what I have learnt from him and what keeps Goa close to my heart as well,” he reminisces.
Mahesh was also close to Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki’s family especially his son, Shounak Abhisheki after the passing of Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki. He adds, “I learnt in the Gurukul style. There was no schedule. We would go park ourselves in the morning and essentially just go to the college, come back and learn more. I have spent more time at his home than mine during the time that I was learning. And inadvertently, I became a part of his family. I am close to his son, but I was also close to his sisters and their children and his entire extended family wherever they were.”
How does he strike the balance between preserving the essence of classical music while embracing modern sounds and expanding its appeal to contemporary audiences?
“Art doesn’t exist for balance but for expression and in expressing, there is balance. I have identified that the larger percent of youth in Goa does not attend Indian classical concerts. Now, if they are not going to the concert halls, I need to go where they are. I have to create and produce music that can be played in the places that they are at. ‘Infusion’ is about that concert. Whenever I sing any bandish, even in ‘Infusion’, I don’t mess with the raag, the spirit and the rules of the raag are intact. And hence, I don’t think I am meddling with anything. The instruments are new and it is not a conventional setup. Convention and tradition are two different things,” he explains.
He further adds, “Any experiment that is accepted becomes part of the tradition. And I hope this one becomes true because then, there will be a way for Indian classical music to embrace and assimilate the youth that is used to certain sounds. Many times I have realized the youth discover Indian classical music through ‘Infusion’, then actually start attending my traditional concerts and enjoy it and relish it just as much. This is like a segue for people to let in. My guruji also assimilated the varied sensibilities of Goa. From temple music to classical music, he synthesised that and he used it as songs in the musical theatre. I am just trying to further that.”
Mahesh connects well with today’s youngsters and has a huge following on social media.
“I really respect the younger generation. I connect because I have a school, Mahesh Kale School of Music (MKSM). In my day-to-day life, I actually end up interacting with the younger crowd. I know their language, their signs and what vibes with them. I very often ask them to share their Spotify lists with me. The age gap only happens when you stop growing with the current world. I travel so much that I refuse to stop growing,” he says.
Mahesh Kale School of Music (MKSM) in San Francisco, United States of America, has nearly 300 students. Mahesh teaches the advanced batches while his students teach the intermediate and the beginners’ batches. Besides Indians, many of his students are of different nationalities including Americans, Turkish and Australians.
“In any given week, wherever I am, I end up teaching about 10-12 hours of music,” he says.
To conclude, Mahesh is looking forward to qualities that make him pursue the music.
“I want to make sure that I have the thirst and passion and the earnestness to teach and to perform. I hope I continue to uphold the value of my Guruji’s sincerity and the commitment with which he kept on pursuing the art until he could. These are the qualities that I look forward to.”
