Chandrakant Kamat (26 November 1933 – 28 June 2010) was a

Hindustani classical Hindustani classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It may also be called North Indian classical music or ''Uttar Bhartiya shastriya sangeet''. The term ''shastriya sangeet'' literally means classica ...

tabla A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...

player of the Benares Tabla Gharana.

Early life and training

Kamat was born in

Dhule Dhule is one of the largest cities in Maharashtra, and central region of India. The city located in the Dhule District in the northwestern part of Maharashtra state, India known as West Khandesh. Situated on the banks of Panzara River, Dhule i ...

to a

Saraswat Brahmin Saraswat Brahmins are spread over widely separated regions spanning from Kashmir and Punjab in North India to Konkan in West India to Kanara (coastal region of Karnataka) and Kerala in South India. In places such as western and southern India, ...

family with strong musical traditions. His father Shantaram Kamat was a renowned Natyageet musician. Kamat started as a child artist in the Natak (musical plays) of his father's theatre company, ''Anandvilas'', and began learning the tabla at a young age. Kamat learned from gurus Raghunath Shivalkar, Rambhau Vasht, and Digambar Yamaji Kadam, and he also trained in

Indian classical dance Indian classical dance, or ''Shastriya Nritya'', is an umbrella term for different regionally-specific Indian classical dance traditions, rooted in predominantly Hindu musical theatre performance,, Quote: All of the dances considered to be part ...

Performing career

In 1952, Kamat shifted his base to

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

and became among the most trusted tabla accompanists for Kathak dancer

Rohini Bhate Rohini Bhate (14 November 1924 – 10 October 2008) was among the senior most Kathak dance exponents in India, who developed as a performer, teacher, writer, researcher and critic this Indian classical dance. During her career, she was awarded w ...

for over 15 years. In 1964, Kamat became a ''gandabandh'' disciple of

Samta Prasad Samta Prasad (Hindi : पण्डित सामता प्रसाद; 20 July 1921 – 31 May 1994) was an Indian classical musician and tabla player from the Benares gharana. He played tabla in many Hindi films including, ''Meri Sur ...

of the

Benares gharana Benares gharānā (Hindi: बनारस घराना) is one of the six most common styles of playing of the Indian tabla. History The Benares tabla gharana was developed a little over 200 years ago by Pandit Ram Sahai (1780–1826). At ...

. From 1956 to 1991, Kamat also provided tabla accompaniment in Sangeet Nataks (Marathi musical plays) that featured artists like Hirabai Badodekar and

Jyotsna Bhole Jyotsna Keshav Bhole also known as Jyotsnabai Bhole () (11 May 1914 – 5 August 2001), was a veteran Marathi stage artist and a Hindustani classical singer. Along with Padmabai Vartak, she was among the first female actresses to perform ...

. During this time, Kamat also worked as a staff artist for

AIR An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

. Kamat accompanied musicians including

Bhimsen Joshi Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi (; ; 4 February 1922 – 24 January 2011), also known by the honorific prefix Pandit, was one of the greatest Indian vocalists in the Hindustani classical tradition from the Indian subcontinent. He is known for the ''kha ...

Begum Akhtar Akhtari Bai Faizabadi (7 October 1914 – 30 October 1974), also known as Begum Akhtar, was an Indian singer and actress. Dubbed "Mallika-e-Ghazal" (Queen of Ghazals), she is regarded as one of the greatest singers of ghazal, dadra, and thu ...

Hariprasad Chaurasia Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1 July 1938) is an Indian music director and classical flautist, who plays the bansuri, in the Hindustani classical tradition. Early life Chaurasia was born in Allahabad (1938) (present day Prayagraj) in the Indian ...

Bal Gandharva Narayan Shripad Rajhans, popularly known as Bal Gandharva, (26 June 1888 – 15 July 1967) was a famous Marathi singer and stage actor. He was known for his roles as female characters in Marathi plays, since women were not allowed to act on s ...

, and

Kumar Gandharva Pandit Kumar Gandharva (pronunciation: umaːɾ ɡən̪d̪ʱəɾʋə Kn: ಕುಮಾರ್ ಗಂಧರ್ವ; 8 April 1924 – 12 January 1992), originally known as Shivaputra Siddharamayya Komkalimath was an Indian classical singer, well kn ...

. Kamat's performances also extend to programs on Bhavgeet,

Lavani Lavani is a genre of music popular in Maharashtra, India. Lavani is a combination of traditional song and dance, which particularly performed to the beats of ''Dholki'', a percussion instrument. Lavani is noted for its powerful rhythm. Lavani h ...

Thumri Thumri () is a vocal genre or style of Indian music. The term "thumri" is derived from the Hindi verb ''thumuknaa'', which means "to walk with a dancing gait in such a way that the ankle-bells tinkle." The form is, thus, connected with dance, dram ...

, and most notably

Geet Ramayan ''Geet Ramayan'' (, ) is a collection of 56 Marathi language songs chronologically describing events from the Indian Hindu epic, the ''Ramayana''. It was broadcast by All India Radio, Pune in 1955–1956, four years before television was intro ...

Awards and recognition

* 1999 - Sangatkar Puraskar * 2001 - Vasundhara Pandit Puraskar

Students

Pt.Chandrakant Kamat has taught tabla to many students including two sons, Subhash Kamat and Bharat Kamat, who are also Tabla players carry on his legacy. Other students are Yogesh Awlaskar, Sameep Kulkarni and Nikhil Parchure.

Death

On the morning of Monday 28 June 2010, Kamat died of a

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...

References

External links

Chandrakant Kamat's obituary - The Times of India
1933 births 2010 deaths Hindustani instrumentalists People from Dhule Tabla players 20th-century Indian musicians 20th-century drummers {{India-musician-stub