An evening of melody

Kathmandu:

The Paleti series by Nepa-laya has been successfully preserving the essence of contemporary music. Every month veteran artistes create the ambience of bliss to enjoy and relish soothing songs of the era when Nepali music flourished the most, with their performance at ‘R’sala. Apart from keeping that era alive and the memory vivid in our minds, the live music also gives the feeling of being in a time when music was not just made for commercial purposes but it was a passion as well. Today when most singers prefer singing on tracks, live

music provides a totally different experience. Since 2005, Paleti has featured majority of distinguished singers and musicians from Nepal and abroad.

The last session of Paleti series for this year on December 28 featured musician and singer Aavaas. The evening was graced by various well-known personalities of the music fraternity. Starting the show with a heart warming gazal Bol k lab aazad hai tere as a tribute to Benazir Bhutto, Aavaas said, “We artistes do not approve of the increasing violence.” Crooning away the very romantic Aula bhari chumera by Bairagi Kaila, Aavaas shared a story behind the discovery of this song, “I actually saw the song online and decided to compose it, later Manjul told me that it was already composed by my guru Amber Gurung and I was very surprised. I also like the word hajur used in the song.” Continuing with his fondness with the word he then performed Hajur eh hajur.

The ease with which Aavaas was performing and connecting with the audience was commendable and the audience too seemed to be enjoying stories about his childhood and other incidents along with his songs. He was even successful in infusing humour during the programme where he sang mostly romantic and sentimental numbers. Before singing Aasu le yo maan penned by the singer himself, he said that the lyrics also came from regular incidents.

He remembers how Narayan Gopal always said, “Nepali geet le sahitya sanga sangat garera kranti lyaunu parchha (Nepali songs should team up with literature and bring revolution),” when he sang Aja rati sapana ma by poet Manjul. With Oi Tenzing he brought back the memories of a village lifestyle and even made the audience laugh. Aavas performed 14 songs all together.