Music at Paxton – The Southall Story
Paxton House, 24/7/25
Shahid Abbas Khan, singer, Jonathan Mayer, sitar, Kuljit Bhamra, tabla
This was a very different event from the others I have attended this season and although I was a little dubious at first, it turned into a rousing and informative experience. Mayer’s sitar playing is lovely but I found the unaccompanied piece which began the concert somewhat hard to engage with. However, Kuljit Bhamra immediately put things right, not just with his superb rhythmic tabla playing but by using the event to explain Indian music to an audience in which many, me included, knew little about it and how it works. Bhamra is a Southall feller through and through, the London locale of the killing of Blair Peach when the National Front held an election meeting in this immigrant area on St George’s Day 1979. Kuljit referenced this event in his account of his Southall upbringing by a stern father who insisted he undertook a career as a Civil Engineer which he gave up in his 40’s to turn his love of music into his life work. He explained the tabla as Jonathan Mayer had explained the sitar and invited us to try his tablas out in the interval. His account of the nature of Indian music was both clear and presented in the most appealing and straightforward fashion. I did not take notes at the time but online summary gives the essence of what he said: “Indian classical music has two foundational elements, raga and tala. The raga, based on a varied repertoire of swara (notes including microtones), forms the fabric of a deeply intricate melodic structure, while the tala measures the time cycle. The raga gives an artist a palette to build the melody from sounds, while the tala provides them with a creative framework for rhythmic improvisation using time.” His explanation made it possible for me to engage with the music based on that account and I found the pieces which worked with both sitar and tabla and then with the singer a real pleasure to listen to.
Shahid Khan is a singer from a Pakistani family who has developed a career in British Asian music but sings in the classical tradition, especially drawing, like Kuljit Bhamra, on the Punjabi tradition. I have heard his kind of singing at events in Leicester where Asian singers have performed on demonstrations which oppose racism and Salafist oppression of music and women by the Taliban. It is very different but I like it. However, he did not confine himself to the classical mode in which there is really no libretto but following his colleagues lovely accounts of how this music has developed in the British context, moved on into the contemporary. Kuljit explained how Bangla music developed in South Asian UK communities and, like Chicken Tikka Masala, is a product of cultural fusion. He took us through the Indian version of tonic sol fa showing that it is the one we know from primary school but with different names from the components. Shahid then used a Punjabi folk song where a young woman demands the darkest henna for her wedding tattoos (letting us know that these days people darken the henna with tea leaves!) to lead us in a call and response session of community singing. He got the audience raising their arms and rotating their bodies. (See the short clip on the Music at Paxton Facebook page!) I have not seen this before at Paxton but it was great fun and enjoyed by all, not just the children but also those of us in our 70s and 80s. This event will be followed up by a workshop session on Indian Music on Saturday.
The event was a lovely combination of music and instruction. We learned something with Kuljit being the most engaging of teachers; heard things which having been explained we were able to enjoy; and we got to sing ourselves and have some real good fun.
