Profile in brief……
'..
It was lyric, soulful, twenty-five minute presentation, with no break. Match that to any Western Classical Symphony ! ....Jayanta Banerjee is certainly a master of his difficult intrument. ..He made this a memorable evening....'-- William Allin Storrer in 'Classical New Jersey'
A ganda-bandh (formal) disciple of
Aftab-e-Sitar Ustad Vilayat Khan , Jayanta Banerjee has evolved a style of flute playing which is a synthesis of two main streams of North Indian Classical Music, the Tantkari-Ang (string-like ) and the Gayaki/Khayal (vocal-like) style. It is known that Pandit Pannalal Ghosh , the pioneer of Bamboo Flute in Classical Music, was himself deeply influenced by the Beenkar (Veena Player) Ustad Dabir Khan. Jayanta took inspiration from this thought and worked hard to evolve his unique style where both these styles combine. For this he has had to develop his own sound, style of blowing and finger placement on the flute.Jayanta was born in Calcutta in a family devoted to Classical Music. He started learning vocal music at a tender age from his illustrous father Late Shri Purna Ranjan Banerjee, the disciple of Late Shri Girija Shankar Chakravarty and Shri Jamini Ganguly of Calcutta, and his uncle Late Shri Bijoy Ranjan Banerjee, a disciple of Sangeetacharya Tarapada Chakravarty of nd the violin maestro Pandit V.G. Jog.
He learned flute for more than twelve years from Pandit Ravi Garud of Indore, senior disciple of Pandit Devendra Murdeshwar, the son-in-law and foremost disciple of the Flute Pioneer Pandit Pannalal Ghosh. He also recieved guidance from Pandit Ramdas Moongrey , disciple of the great maestro Pandit Kumar Gandharva. Jayanta was fortunate to have received guidance in the traditional Beenkar-Dhrupad style by the great Beenkar (Veena Player) Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar for sometime just before the maestro's demise. He also learnt for quite some time from the only living direct descendent of the ancient Gwalior Gharana Pandit Balasaheb Poochwale , the son of the great exponent of Gwalior Gharana, Shri Rajabhaiya Poochwale.
Jayanta has had the honor of performing at many major music festivals in India including ones at Bombay, Bhuvaneshwar, Kolkata, Delhi, Bhopal, Vidisha, Ujjain etc. as also the Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in North America where his collaborations with some of the most respected western musicians in the International field of Music has drawn attention of the Western Media. He was awarded the title of SUR MANI (Jewel of Music) by Sur Shingar Samsad, Bombay. He performed regularly for All India Radio till his travel to the United States of America in the year 1998.
Jayanta works as Project Manager for a Fortune 10 pharmaceutical company in the United States, where he lives with his wife Swati and their children Parama and Indra.