Many retarded female voices have graced gathering Ghazals in the subcontinent and beyond for decades. Singers like Farida Khanum, Begum Akhtar, Chitra Singh, Iqbal Bano and Nayyara Noor have raised their voices in a world dominated by their male counterparts like Jagjit Singh, Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali and Pankaj Udhas.
There are always male musicians on stage with ghazal singers. There is hardly any female musician to be found in the music festival of Ghazals. However, this tradition is about to change.
Women play all the instruments in a newly formed ghazal band. Gayatri Ashokan’s band is all set to make its debut by breaking a glass ceiling that has stood firmly for a long time.
After discussions with her manager, Gayatri, a state-award winning playback singer who is also making rapid progress in ghazal, decided to form an all-female band.
Gayatri explains, “After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, there was no live concert on a stage for me like other artists and I thought I should try something new when the world comes out of lockdown.” Hindu On the phone from Mumbai “I thought it would be great if I could get female musicians and try to form a band, which is the first of its kind in India.”
She knew that she was trying to do something that no one had done before. “In my two decades of performing ghazals on stage, I have never accompanied a female musician; Nor have I seen women playing instruments in any ghazal concert,” she says. “I know it’s a break from tradition, but I hope music lovers will encourage our band.”
The band consists of Mukta Raste on tabla, Megha Rawut on sitar, an Indian-based Russian Nastya on violin and flute, and Kaushiki Joglekar on keyboards. “They are all very talented and we are practicing here in Mumbai,” she says. “We are all looking forward to our first performance.”
Due to the pandemic situation, the band will be making their debut with an online show, which will be streamed on livdemy.com on 13 November.
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