Kailash Kher

I was at the Kailash Kher concert at the IIM-Bangalore grounds on 29th Jan 2012. This is a fabulous time of the year for music. From October to February as the weather cools down across India, it has been the tradition to get the musicians to strut their wares. This is show time folks. From Indian classical music concerts that start in the evening and end up in the wee hours of the morning, these concerts have seen the launch (and demise) of many a musical career. Some of the conferences like the Dover Lane Music Conference has a cult following. Chennai has its famous Kutcheri circuit where each year the maestros rub shoulders with the young artistes who are unafraid to experiment with form and structure of what has been the traditional definition of Classical music. There are Jazz fests, the universities have their share of rock concerts as part of the cultural festivals. All in all it is a happy time to be around.I have had the opportunity to hear Kailash Kher live during a concert of AR Rahman in Nov 2007. (Read about it here). During these four years Kailash Kher has become a lot more established as a singer. Thanks to all the Reality TV shows we have seen him on prime time. His band Kailasa has some talented musicians. Kailash is releasing his fourth album Rangeeley (colorful). Watch him do an acoustic version of the song with the two Kamath brothers (Naresh & Paresh) who play rhythm and bass guitar for Kher's band and do the back up vocals.Kailash Kher has a few hits to his credit. Saiyyan is certainly one of them. I like the music but I don't think much of the lyrics of the song. He sings passionately and has an awesome range especially when he hits the high notes he does a great job.Kailash certainly sounds better in the recorded and mixed tracks that have been processed in the studio than during a stage performance. He has a unique sound. So where is the catch? I think he is a good singer and a poor performer. Every great singer is not necessarily a great performer. Performers have the ability to take the audience along with them. They speak to them, they laugh, they respond to the catcall... it is all of that.Kailash Kher is awkward to say the least. He switches between the language that he can communicate in ie Hindi to one which thinks he OUGHT to communicate with ie English. He is awkward in English. His humor is puerile and all this takes away from the performance. A performer may have a pre-determined list of songs that he/she intends to perform. If the crowd requests for a specific song, a performer will rework their own sequence. The humor of a performer is spontaneous. Singers tend to use canned humor and it inevitably fails. Kailash struggled to connect with the audience. At the IIM-B concert he tried to and tried too hard but hit the false notes in trying to make up his mind between being a good singer and being a performer. Performers have charisma. They have attitude. They are not afraid to speak their mind. They are not afraid to lead. This is what Kailash Kher lacks.Lata Mangeshkar is a great singer but she is not a performer. She is an amazingly gifted singer. Three generations of Indians have grown up with her voice. Her sister Asha Bhosle is a natural performer. Asha B will narrate anecdotes, crack jokes, share amusing insights and quirks about her co-singers, pull the leg of other artistes on stage and even mimic her elder sister Lata-didi's style of singing. Sonu Nigam is a performer. His ever evolving hair style moves from cool to crazy every month while his wardrobe could be the envy of a clotheshorse. That he is an awesome singer makes him a performer par excellence. The other performer is Shreya Ghoshal. I am fan of her voice. It also helps that she is edgy in her views and stylish - all of which makes her much more than a singer. The tabla player was always supposed to be in the background with the sarangi player or harmonium player who accompanied the classical singer or instrument player. That was the case until Zakir Hussain came along. He is a performer par excellence. He brought up the stature of the tabla and moved it from the backdrop to one that got as much of the audience attention as the main artiste. That is what a performer can do to an instrument.What should a singer do to become a performer? Be unafraid to experiment and have a point of view. I think ... for starters.