Jodhpur's Musical Revival: Neapolitans And Kamaichas Reunite In Moonrise Kingdom

The moon also rose in Jodhpur, inching towards Sharad Purnima, over an open-to-all extravaganza of performances for residents of the blue city, over the music laden red sandstone courtyard of Mehrangarh Fort, and over an intimate acoustic setting in the Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park, over the past two days.

India’s favourite roots music festival is back again, in and around Mehrangarh, from the 26th to the 30th of October, with over 300 performers showcasing the best of Rajasthani, Indian and global roots music and dance and stunning collaborations between performers from different regions, of different disciplines. In its 16th year, the festival brings you music from France, Australia, Cabo Verde, Italy and Estonia, as well as different Indian states, threaded together by diverse Rajasthani folk traditions.

Bal Mela - School Children’s Folk Morning

The festival began on the 26th of October with a Bal Mela, a folk morning for schools in the green environs of Veer Durga Das Memorial Park, which served up a whirl of kathputli (string puppetry), ghoomar (known for the twirling movement of its dancers) and kachhi ghodi (performed on colourful dummy horses), as well as performances by young Langa musicians, bhapang (known as the ‘talking drum’) players and the Kamad community’s Terah Taali dancers, each of whom use dance to produce rhythmic sound from 13 cymbals attached to their bodies.

The crowning glory was a Rajasthani circus, replete with acrobats, magicians, musicians, dancers and a variety of Bhawai artists. Jodhpur RIFF is the only Indian music festival of scale to have a dedicated free-of-cost programme for schools, through which it hopes to expose them to the legacy, range and magic of Rajasthani folk. Over 3000 school children enjoyed this variety extravaganza.

Opening Night - City Concert

But the festival only truly kicked off on the evening of the 26th of October, with a city concert, also free, organised outside Jaswant Thada, in honour of Jodhpur’s people. This concert serves as a taster for those who might wish to visit the entire festival, but also as a comprehensive experience for anyone and everyone who wishes to attend. It featured renditions by Sugna Devi, Mohini Devi, and Asha Sapera, who have defied caste and social norms to sing in the unique dance oriented folk style of the Kalbeliya, a desert tribe from the Thar, followed by a flute rendition by Estonian duo Kuula Hetke, Neapolitan music, led by vocalist Irene Scarpato, from Suonno D’ Ajere, virtuoso violinist and composer Jasser Haj Youssef, the Manganiyars of Marwar led by Darre Khan, Ars Nova Napoli, famous for street music rooted in the culture of Naples, yet constantly evolving with influences from all around, singer and multi-instrumentalist Miroca Paris from Cabo Verde and Portugal. The legendary and boisterous Kawa Brass Band, the Dhol Drummers of Rajasthan, Dhol Tasha from Maharashtra, Bhawai dancer Sunil and Agni Bhawai performances, saw to it that the night ended on a high note and tempo befitting the start of Jodhpur RIFF and the welcoming of the year’s brightest full moon.

Jodhpur RIFF Dawns with the Meghwal and the Manganiyar

As light broke on the 27th of October at Jaswant Thada, the Meghwals of Marwar, Bhallu Ram ji and Mala Ram ji, kept with custom, in ushering in Jodhpur RIFF’s first dawn with serene and meditative bhajans accompanied by the tandura, manjira and dholak. Traditionally a community of weavers, the Meghwals are also known for the rich folklore they nurture through their music and its lyrics. They were followed by another rich musical community— the Manganiyars Barkat ji and Jalal ji, with soulful spiritual music which the Manganiyars usually perform for their patrons, the Rajputs.

Indie Roots I

Indie Roots I, Jodhpur RIFF’s indie roots afternoon, created to shine a spotlight on, and provide a platform to, exciting young independent artists, also featured the festival’s first ‘dance evening’ at Chokelao Bagh. First was Kathak exponent Tarini Tripathi in a first-of-its-kind collaboration with SAZ, comprising young masters of the Langa community. Tripathi’s choreographed pieces were set to Rajasthani folk songs with Sadiq Khan’s dholak and Zakir Khan’s khartal. Asin Khan’s Sindhi Sarangi and vocals made for a powerful backdrop, while also weaving in seamlessly with Tripathi’s intricate footwork.

Raina Peterson, in collaboration with Marco Cher-Gibard performed ‘Narasimha’ or ‘Man-Lion’, inspired by Tamil woman poet-saint Andal’s poem which uses this deity to explore the liminal or in-between. Trained in Mohiniyattam, Peterson is an award-winning dancer-choreographer of Fiji-Indian-English heritage whose experimental work challenges both classical and contemporary dance as well as common approaches towards diasporic experience, cultural identity, gender diversity, and sexuality. Raina shared the stage with Marco Cher-Gibard, an award-winning musician known for his theatrical collaborations and experimental solo works as well as his unusual guitar.

Peterson and Cher-Gibard were followed by Moody Riffs.

Jodhpur RIFF’s first performance at the Zenana Deodi Courtyard was the Manganiyar community’s annual Jodhpur RIFF tribute to its legend, Sakhar Khan Manganiyar, titled ‘Manganiyars of Marwar’. This year was focused on the stringed kamaicha, unique to the community, its sound thought to be an expression of the desert. The performance was led on the kamaicha by Sakhar ji’s sons Ghevar ji and Darre ji, accompanied by Roshan ji, Kode ji and many others, including Feroze ji (also Sakhar ji’s son) who is a master of the Rajasthani dholak. This was followed by Suonno D’ Ajere, an award winning trio—Irene Scarpato, Gian Marco Libeccio and Marcello Smigliante Gentile—whose work traces the history of Neapolitan music. As a result, their pieces switch from the classical and operatic to tributes to the jazz and blues, based on their influences in Naples in the forties and fifties.

Next in the lineup was Jasser Haj Youssef, a master of the violin and baroque viola d’amore, a composer whose work is performed by orchestras in the Mediterranean and Europe (who has directed the Chamber Orchestra of Paris), a fusionist who is equally at home with jazz, the Arabic maqam or Western Classical, co-creator of the acclaimed album Sira… Le Jazz et l'Orient, a master musician of the Aga Khan Music Program, a teacher, a musicologist and a conductor. This is Youssef’s first performance in India. The last act for the night, in the Zenana Deodi Courtyard, was Barnali Chattopadhyay, an acclaimed Hindustani Classical vocalist who hardly needs an introduction. Besides her repertoire of thumris and dadras, Chattopadhyay, as an exponent of the Banarasi Maand—based on the Rajasthani Raag Maand, but better suited to the Birha (separation/ sorrow) and shringar (beauty/ love) ras—treated the audience to her rendition of the same. Her music is deeply rooted in the traditions of the historic river city of Varanasi, and ties together threads of devotion, awe and beauty often attributed to the city.

Desert Lounge

To end the night or, rather, take audiences closer to the next morning, a moonlit all-acoustic experience in the Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park followed, with the Mehrangarh Fort as backdrop, with Langa musicians (exponents of the Sindhi Sarangi) led by Sardar and Asin Khan Langa, Manganiyar renditions featuring Dayam Khan Manganiyar, and women singers Ganga Devi, Sundar Devi and the legendary Sumitra Devi.

With such acts and many more to come Jodhpur RIFF hopes to bring the moon just a little closer over the next couple of days.