{"id":3994,"date":"2013-02-08T10:24:09","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T10:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/?p=3994"},"modified":"2013-02-08T10:29:35","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T10:29:35","slug":"lost-to-the-world-of-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/?p=3994","title":{"rendered":"Lost to the world of memories"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jimpets Mohan became the hot favourite of music lovers all over Karnataka; for Dr. Rajkumar, a music show without Mohan was unthinkable. \/ Courtesy family album \/ The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Jimpets Mohan comes from the interesting world of orchestra music in Karnataka. The top-class musician, who could sing Kishore Kumar songs with striking brilliance, passed away recently<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Not many know Sangamesh Hiremath is Jimpets Mohan. Even the name Jimpets Mohan is familiar to the orchestra lovers of the State, of the 70s and 80s. The recent passing away of Mohan brought back many memories of the days of live music and the musicians who spent an entire lifetime perfect and practising the immortal melodies.<\/p>\n

The Devil of Kishore. .. <\/em>so was he known in the music arena for his robust, and mature voice, similar to that of Kishore. Born as Sangamesh Hiremath in Bijapur, in a lower middle class family, he did his B.A. in Kannada, and was more inclined in achieving something in music, his foremost priority since childhood.<\/p>\n

It was the early 70s when Bangalore practically did not have a night life, especially for music. Except for one or two night clubs in the Cantonment, where cabaret dance was in vogue \u2014 evening and night \u2014 with a half an hour film music slot. At this juncture, it was Hotel Swiss Cottage on the Race Course Road, Bangalore, owned by Prem Agnani, who first wanted to experiment and ventured to start an Indian musical band playing film music. This was in 1972, the same year that saw the arrival of Sangamesh Hiremath in pursuit of music. The venture being successful, slowly Bangalore opened its eyes for the night life. During his early days, a staunch follower and hardcore fan of Mohammed Rafi, he never believed in any other singer\u2019s style. One evening during the early 70s, Bijapur witnessed a Musical Nite by Kishore Kumar. With not much of interest he happened to attend the show on the insistence of his friends. As usual, Kishore with his gimmicks and tantrums on the stage gave a call asking \u201cis there anybody who can sing along with me?\u201d Before anyone could think what was happening, Sangamesh\u2019s friends literally pushed him on the stage saying \u201cwe have him!\u201d. Sangamesh sang with Kishore on the dais, giving equal\u00a0saath <\/em>to him. Kishore was very impressed and appreciated his versatility and approach of singing on a stage. This left a lasting impression in the mind of Sangamesh. With a strong urge to go up the ladder, he was in a dilemma whether to go to Bombay or Bangalore, he eventually chose Bangalore. It was a sheer coincidence that he landed in Hotel Swiss Cottage, for an audition, where my colleague K. Sreenivasa Murthy (who is the music conductor for A.R. Rahman now) was playing violin in the band along with Kamini. With a handkerchief tied to his forehead, a body language and showmanship hitherto unknown to local customers, they were all stunned with his rendering of \u2018Aye Sachchaayee Chup Nahin Sakthi\u2019, \u2018Main Intzaar karoon\u2019from Rajesh Khanna\u2019s hit film\u00a0Dushman<\/em>, Sangamesh was immediately absorbed in the band and singer Mohan was born. Further, he established himself as Jimpets Mohan till the end, from the time he launched his own orchestra, \u2018Mohan\u2019s Jimpets.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Often in and out of the night club singing, he used to talk about starting an orchestra. The result was Mohan and Party, a four-piece orchestra with James on the keyboard, Aaron on guitar, I was on triple congo\/dholak, and Bobby on the drums. As a musician of high calibre, he always wanted to be different.<\/em><\/p>\n

He was never satisfied with simple and ordinary songs and always used to opt for a song that challenged his ego and capacity \u2013 for example, if others were choosing \u2018O Mere Sona Re\u2019 he used to make the orchestra work on \u2018Aaja Aaja\u2019 or \u2018Tumne Mujhe Dekha\u2019 from the film\u00a0Teesri Manzll. <\/em>If everyone was singing \u2018Chura liya\u2019 his was \u2018Lekar Hum Deewana Dil\u2019 from\u00a0Yaadon ki Barath; <\/em>the title song of \u2018Satyam Sivam Sundaram\u2019 was others\u2019 favourite, but he used to choose \u2018Yashomati maiya se\u2019. With his untiring zeal and drive for something unusual, he went on to be a terror in the orchestra field, singers and musicians were scared to share the stage with him as he never used to compromise in quality.<\/em><\/p>\n

As he had learnt harmonium and tabla to an extent along with singing, his capacity to explore and exploit was much stronger compared to his contemporaries. He was a task master, he was also a large hearted pay master. He was a rare artiste, who never forgot his yesterdays.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1976-77 Mohan and Guru teamed up to form the Sound of Music orchestra, shaking up all of Karnataka as far as the orchestral music was concerned. With Mohan\u2019s Kishore numbers, Guru with Rafi and other numbers, Mahesh on Mukesh and Manjula for the female vocals, the group was almost posing a threat to other orchestras with the quality of music they provided. All because of Mohan\u2019s leadership and guidance in running the show. But they soon parted ways, and Mohan\u2019s Jimpets was born in 1979.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mohan was a challenge to other music troupes including the reigning Sound of Music. His sincerity and dedication caught the attention of Dr. Rajkumar. Their association started in the 80s and continued till Rajkumar\u2019s last performance in 2004, coincidentally in Mohan\u2019s native place of Bijapur. Rajkumar was dependent on Mohan completely and it only speaks volumes of Mohan\u2019s involvement and dedication.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once, when we were rehearsing here at Rajkumar\u2019s residence for the Bijapur show, Mohan heard that his father was no more. Mohan never uttered a word about it to anyone and continued rehearsing with the orchestra.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mohan was picked up by Salil Choudhry, and apart from that he also sang for the Vishnuvardhan starrer\u00a0Onde Roopa Eradu Guna,<\/em> Love Letter, <\/em>and everyone remembers \u2018Innoo guarantee, Nanjundi Kalyana\u2019 and a few others.<\/em><\/p>\n

And<\/em> I can never forget the brilliance with which he sang Kishore\u2019s\u00a0\u2018<\/em>Chalte Chalte\u2026Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna\u2019\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

source: http:\/\/www.TheHindu.com \/ Home> Arts> Music \/by Bali Iyer \/ Bangalore, February 07th, 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimpets Mohan became the hot favourite of music lovers all over Karnataka; for Dr. Rajkumar, a music show without Mohan was unthinkable. \/ Courtesy family album \/ The Hindu Jimpets Mohan comes from the interesting world of orchestra music in Karnataka. The top-class musician, who could sing Kishore Kumar songs with striking brilliance, passed away … Continue reading Lost to the world of memories<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture-entertainment","category-leaders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3994"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3996,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3994\/revisions\/3996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bangalorefirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}