Abar Bochhor Tirish Pore

The concert stage with all the musicians, Sayak and Abraham

Abar Bochhor Tirish Pore (Once again after thirty years), a tribute concert featuring songs of Moheener Ghoraguli with Philarmonic Orchestra, was held at Nicco Park, Kolkata on January 5, 2008. It was organized in memory of Dhurjati Chattopadhyay, Deepak Majumdar and Gautam Chattopadhyay. The name is a reference to the album Aabaar Bochhor Kuri Pore. Two of the original ghoras - Ranjon Ghoshal, curated the show and took people down memory lane sharing various anecdotes, while Abraham Mazumder was the symphony conductor. They were joined on stage by modern Bangla Rock artists like Pota, Rupam Islam and Anindya Bose along with singers from the Moheen stable like Dibyo Mukhopadhyay and Ritika Sahni. Stalwarts of alternative Bengali music Tanmoy Bose, Anjan Dutt and members of Chandrabindoo (band) too chipped in with their rendition of classic Moheen numbers. They were ably supported by the chamber orchestra of Abraham's music school - L'Atelier de Musique de Calcutta. Celebrated painter, a friend and a pillar of support for Moheener Ghoraguli, Hiran Mitra, was the creative director of the show, aided in detailing by Sangeeta Ghoshal and Sharmishtha Chatterjee.

A memorable evening

People attended the concert venue from faraway districts of Bengal. The audience had people from different walks of life, who were touched by Moheen's music, cutting across ages. Notable personalities Sunil Gangopadhyay & Swati Gandopadhyay, Kalyan Roy & Aparna Sen also attended.

The audience enjoying the concert, TV crews covering the event

The performance lasted five hours. The projection screens put gave the audience the option see the close-ups. Nine cameras and a Jimmy Jib (camera) was set up for live television coverage.

The concert venue was choc-a-bloc and according to local vernacular media reports was one of the well attended Bengali rock concerts. The people present at the venue also had the opportunity to collect memorabilia of their favourite band.

Track listing

The concert was broken down into sections that delved into various phases of the music of Moheener Ghoraguli.

Songs of Moheener Ghoraguli of pre-band days..sung by the Old Horses.

This era was also known as the Cobblestone Years or Krishnochudaar Dinguli. Songs from the three published vinyl records, featuring the much loved cult classics as Shomgbihno Pakhikul and Haay Bhalobashi.

Remembering Baul Jazz - Tanmoy Bose and Kartik Das Baul

An attempt to recreate some sounds from the Baul Jazz, as performed by Moheener Ghoraguli in International Jazz Fest,1980. This section featured Taal-Tantra, led by Tanmoy Bose, accompanied by guest artists from India and abroad.

Songs from the four later albums, that featured some of the popular and enduring numbers, including signature number Prithibi, Telephone and Akashe Chhawdano.

A few songs, composed and performed by the band, that were never recorded, including Hoy jodi howk.




The featured singers

Abar Bocchor Tirish Pore - Pota

The performers

Abar Bocchor Tirish Pore - Members of the audience enjoying together

The event was testimony to one of the greatest congregation of musicians for a Bengali concert. There were around 117 musicians from all over the world paying tribute to the music of Moheener Ghoraguli. The evening included music from Tanmoy Bose and his Taal-Tantra featuring Ratul Shankar.

Abraham Mazumdar - composer, arranger, concert conductor
Madhusree Mazumdar - piano, concert director
Anubrata Ghatak - assistant conductor
Madras Players - brass band
Bengali band Shohor - elcectric band
Kalpak Seal, Shilpi Panja, Binit Ranjan Maitra, Bhaskar Dutta - violin
Soumak Bardhan, Tarun Mondol, PS Ramachandran - cello
Manabendra Das, Bidyut Kayal, Sayantan Neogi, Buddhadev Ghoshal - double bass
Raja Mukherjee, Pijush - bass guitar
Biplab Singh - classical guitar
Jishu Sengupta, Guddu, Bubun - drums
Avi - keyboard
Babua Bose - percussion
Thomas Xavier, A Irudayaraj Babu, D Bernard - trumpets
Maxwell - trombone
Clio Karabelias - harp
Narayanswamy V - french horn
Tarini Srinivas - euphonium
Vipul Patel, Prashant Vijay - tubas
Abar Bocchor Tirish Pore - Taal-Tantra
Tanmoy Bose - director
Sourav Roy, Saptarshi - piano
Ratul Shankar - latin percussion
Joy Bhattacharya - drums
Mainak Nag Chaudhury - bass guitar
Aditya Benia - lead guitar
Tilman Denhardt - saxophone, contra bass, steel flute
S Radhakrishna - double violin
Maatihas - lead guitar
Ritoban Chatterjee, Abhimanyu Ghoshal - lead guitar

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