Kalpana Patowary |
The face of folk music in modern India.
Bhojpuri Queen Kalpana Patowary (musician/singer/composer/recording
artist/ record producer) disciple of legendary Ustad Gulam Mustafa Khan and influenced by Dr
Bhupen Hazarika, the 'Bard of Brahmaputra' geographically hails from Assam.
Trained in Assamese folk by her folksinger father
Bipin Patowary and a sangeet visharad in Indian Classical music from Lucknow Bhatkhande
music university. Kalpana Patowary blessed
with a stunning five-octave range and signature vocal abilities, has been hailed as a prodigy in the world of Bhojpuri music. “She gave Bhojpuri Music a new twist”. Critic
wrote that she changed the art of Bhojpuri vocals. Purvi, birha, pachra, kajri,
sohar, vivaah geet, chaita, nautanki and many folk forms from UP-Bihar she
mastered and presented in a new way to the world.
Born and raised in ASSAM Kalpana first developed an
interest in music when she was a child and learned to sing with her father, who
had dabbled in folk music in his younger days; Kalpana began performing as a 4 year child,
singing with her father at local stages and community gathering. As a teenager,
inspired by Mariah Carey Kalpana developed a taste of western classical music
and sang with a local band. Very few people know that Kalpana Patowary is as
versatile that she justifies or renders both in raw folk forms as well as
western singing.Upon graduating from college, she travelled around the North
East at various local music scenes and started professional singing.
Kalpana Patowary’s music genre is about primitive,
acoustic folk with some trace of Indian classical music, ambient electronic and
new age jazz - fusion.
She has worked with veteran from Ravindra Jain, Nadeem
Shravan, Suresh Wadakar, Udit Narayan, Vinod Rathod to the new generation
Pritam, Ranjit Barot, Luis Banks, Faisal Quereshi.
She was the
featured artist in the third season of Mtv@Coke Studio 2013 with Angarag Papon MahantaEiC.
Her first language is Assamese but she sings in Bhojpuri,
Hindi, Bengali, English & 25 other languages with around 9000 songs to her
credit.
She has been recognized with
Bhikhari Thakur Samman in Calcutta, Bhikhari Thakur Samman in Jamshedpur, Swar
Samragee , Bhojpuri Swar Mallika, Bhojpuri Sewa Samman, Bhojpuri Sangam Samman,
Panchamrit Samman, Atkrista Gayak Samman, The Bhojpuri Queen to name a few. She was entitled with “Bhojpuri Samragee” and “Swar
Kokila” for popularity contribution
to folk music of Bihar by Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
government.
She
had many opportunities to sing for Hindi films and has already play blacked in
more than 100 Hindi feature film. A few of them are R..Rajkumar(Gandi Baat), Akrosh(Tere
Ishq se meetha), Khatta Meetha(Aila Re Aila),Welcome(Ek
uncha lamba kad),No Problem(Shakira bhi se
zyada tera hille lak ni & Babe di kripa),De
Dana Dan(Hotty Notty), Billu(Billu bhayankar), Chamku(Dukh Ke Badri),Mirchh(Tikhi Tikhi Mirch -
Folk version), Chand ke paar chalo(Dhin
chak lad gayee),Stumped(Ek Sapna- western version), Sandhya(Mohabbat
Mohabbat) ,88 Antop hill, Antardwand, etc.
- Anthology of Biraha.
Latest ongoing Project @Anthology of Biraha – A
folk form of Utter Pradesh & Bihar.
A deliberate approach to travel
back in time to collect the roots of BIRHA singing style, a folk tradition of
YADAVAS from UTTAR PRADESH.
Anthology of Biraha studio recording |
2.
The Sacred Scriptures of MONIKUT.
Presently working on The Sacred
Scriptures of MONIKUT i.e. Bhakti Movement about the reformer, wandering
philosopher, saint and poet Mahapurush
Srimanta Shankardeva and his disciple Mahapurush Srimanta Madhavdeva from Assam
in collaboration for the first time with Trilok Gurtu - master of Indian
percussion, and Western drumming who plays a unique hybrid East-West drum set
up @Guru Rewben Mashangva - Father of Naga folk blues @Angarag Papon Mahanta
from East India Company & Zubeen Garg.
3.
The Legacy of Bhikhari Thakur
Her solo Bhojpuri musical documentation on
the Shakespeare of
Bhojpuri Literature released in Mauritius by the Prime Minister Mr Anil Kumar BACHOO, g.o.s.k along with Minister of Arts
& Culture - Mr. Mookhesswur CHOONEE from EMI/Virgin Records got her International
acclaim. This album is nominated in BestFolkAlbum category in GIMA 2013(Global
Indian Music Academy Awards)
4. Massicle.
virtuoso percussionist and bandleader Trilok
Gurtu, one of the most dynamic and prolific musicians and collaborated with
international unique musicians like
Carlo Cantini, Jan Garbarek, Phil Drummy, Roland Cabezas, Stefano
Dall’Ora.
Her latest album released from
EMI/Virgin Records documents the perils about the Law of Nature and urges
respect for the Nature’s laws for a sustainable future.
Her latest conquest being a
rocking performance at the India’s happiest music Festival-Bacardi Nh7
Weekender Pune with world renowned percussionist Trilok Gurtu. She recently
made another demonstration of her musical genius with the brilliance of her
performance at Blue Frog Studios in Mumbai with music maestro Trilok
Gurtu .
As
Kalpana says, I don’t want my folk music to be trapped in our villages. Yes
it’s safe there in its original form, but of no use unless we make the world
hear our very soulful and meditative music. So to make it global I am trying to blend the music of my homeland with world music and
other genres. I am very passionate for traditional music; the
burning sense of rhythm and grooves takes me to some other dimension.
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