Veteran from Hyderabad comes calling

The Harmonica Club of Gujarat had the privilege of playing host to veteran mouth organ player from Hyderabad, Ramakrishna Sabnavees recently. Sabnavees has been in contact with several of the club members ever since the formation of the HCG more than two years ago. A self-taught man, Sabnavees is a great fan of Mohammed Rafi whose many lilting songs he plays on the harmonica.

When we informed Sabnavees about HCG's latest initiative of coming out with an audio CD of songs played by the members, he was thrilled and expressed his desire to visit us while we recorded the songs in a studio. "Sabnavees sahab, would you mind playing a few songs for the CD of HCG?" asked club secretary Tapan Bhatt. "Of course not, in fact, I shall be more than happy to be a part of the team effort of the HCG. I consider myself a member of the HCG," he said.

Sabnavees took leave from his office and came to Ahmedabad. During his two-day stay, he not only recorded a couple of songs for the CD but also played his favourite numbers to the accompaniment of congos by master musician Paresh Bhatia at an evening gathering at Bansi Gajjar's bungalow.

They are more than Harmonica Players

The HaLoH team

During my visit to Bengaluru, I happened to meet Avi and Chandrasekhar for some time. My intention of getting a few karaoke tracks from Mr. Mohammad Azam Fiaz, the one who is very much known on esnips for his Karaoke tracks, was discussed with Avi in CCD. We decided to bargain with Mr. Azam and share the amount between two clubs so that we would have many tracks at almost no prize. When we met Mr. Azam in his office, learning about both the clubs he streight away gave the cd containing all the tracks that he had developed by very hard work. He also promosed to make any karaoke we wanted.

I also went to Hyderabad where I met Mr. Sabnaveesji, a very close friend of HCG. Sabnaveesji came from very far to a place where I had some official work, waited till I finished my job and then took me to his residence for lovely dinner. We had lovely time at his residence. He also promised to come to Ahmedabad during a harmonica workshop.
Ramana, one of the HaLoH members also came to meet me on the same day I arrived in Hyderabad. We had a nice musical session at Mr. Mahendra Gala's residence followed by very heavy snacks. Despite his busy schedule Ramana spent almost two days with me. Ramana also promised to come to ahmedabad to meet all the members.

These people are not just Harmonica players or lovers, they are more than that.........!

Many thanks to all of them.

Harmonica Club of Hyderabad Launched

Harmonica players of Hyderabad, who have formed a club, began performing in a public park last Sunday, with the aim of popularizing this tiny sweet musical instrument. It was a small beginning, reminding us of similar beginning in Ahmedabad. We are sure, like what happened in Gujarat, the tribe of harmonica players in Hyderabad too would grow soon. Here are some video recordings of their performance.

Hello Hyderabad !

Dear Nachiketa Sahab,

I am Sabnavees from hyderabad. We had our take off on 12th October 2008. The venue was Indira Park at the lower tank bund road, hyderabad. We took off with four members. It was from 7 am to 8.30 am. A good number of melodies of Shankar - Jaikishen, Nayyar sahab, Ravi ji & R.D.Burman were played in turn.

It had attracted the attention of the morning walkers. A few came to us & enquired whether we will come again. It was really exciting for us. We gave them the assurance that we are back to the same spot at the same time on 19th again.

On 19th we are adding some more players to the chain. I am very much sure the visitors will increase . Once they know that we are there then the strength will increase by itself. I have already sent a mail to Mr reddy to give us a coverage. he has agreed for 19th programme.

Herewith the photograph taken just after finishing the programme. looking from left to right. 1. Mr Mahender Gala, Garments business man having own shop at Kothi. He is a Gujarati & native of Kutch. 2. Its me. 3. Mr A.Raj Kumar, Working in The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. 4. Mr Ashwin Betai, a wholesale cloth merchant of hyderabad. He is a Gujarati from Dwarka.

I request you to kindly post the snap in your estemed site so that the people around the world can have a glimpse of them.

Thanking you.

Your's sincerely,

SABNAVEES

The Launch of Harmonica Club of Hyderabad

We all wish good luck to the official launch of Harmonica Club of Hyderabad on 12th of October 2008.
The dream has come true with the sincere efforts of Mr. Ramakrishna Sabnavees and all his friends.
Isn't this wonderful, that such a small pocket size forgotten musical instrument has brought so many lovely people from the musical world come closer to each other.
This has been made possible only because each one of us has a common interest in playing and making the world realize the sweet little place of this instrument known as 'Harmonica' or ' Mouth Organ'.
Let us pray to the Goddess Saraswati, to bless all the members of Harmonica Club of Hyderabad for their contribution to the instrumental music.
GOOD LUCK TO THE HARMONICA CLUB OF HYDERABAD.

Sabnavees Spells Magic through Suzuki

We had introduced Ramakrishna Sabnavees on this blog sometime ago. An engineer by profession, Sabnavees had picked up mouth organ in his childhood. He is the founder of the Harmonica Club of Hyderabad. May his tribe grow. Here are some of his numbers:

AJEEB DAASTAN HAI YEH




ZARA HAULE HAULE CHALO



SRILANKAN MELODY

THIS IS A SRILANKAN MELODY WHICH I HEARD FROM MY SRILANKAN FRIEND WHEN I WAS WORKING IN MUSCAT



DIL DEKE DEKHO


JANE MANN JANE MANN



DIL TADAP TADAP KE



TUMSA NAHIN DEKHA



YEH RAAT PHIR NA AAYEGI