Composer and singer Anup Jalota and his protégé (of 40 years) Sumeet Tappoo unveiled their music album, Legacy on December 17 at Mumbai’s J.W. Marriott. The event marked the culmination of four decades of a profound Guru-Shishya relationship that began when Sumeet a three year-old boy at Fiji Islands, where his family runs a free hospital for heart patients that is about “All dil no bill” as their motto goes.
The evening was graced by Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia (the chief guest), Anuradha Paudwal, Jaspinder Narula, Talat Aziz, Pt. Somesh Mathur, Pt. Bhavdeep Jaipurwale, Penaz Masani, A. Balasubramanian (MD, Aditya Birla Group), Ashok Khosla, Chandan Dass, Ghanshyam Vaswani, Pratibha Singh Baghel, Anveshi Jain, Vipin Aneja, Akriti Kakar, Meenal Jain, Sudeep Banerji, Ram Shankar, Kshitij Wagh, Priyanka Vaidya, Mayuresh Pai, Sraboni Chaudhuri, Narayan Agarwal and many others.
The album, a symphonic celebration of seven tracks spanning classical, devotional, spiritual, ghazal, Sufi and geet genres, is a tribute to the enduring power of music and the sacred Guru-Shishya bond.
Speaking at the event, Jalota reminisced about the origins of his relationship with Tappoo. “I’ll never forget my first trip to Fiji, where I met Sumeet’s family. Young Sumeet, a toddler then, attended all my concerts, soaking in the music. I saw in him a spark, a connection that was unmistakable. Today, witnessing his growth as a world-class artiste fills me with immense pride,” said Jalota, who kept on repeating that Tappoo had sung “better than me as he is a better singer!” He stated that nothing gave a gurugreater joy than having his shishya go ahead of him.
Sumeet Tappoo, visibly moved, expressed his heartfelt gratitude. “Meeting Anup-ji was life-changing. The bond we share is not confined to this lifetime — it feels eternal. This album reflects the guidance, love, and inspiration he has given me. I am sure it will enthrall music lovers the world over.”
The album’s tracks exemplify the duo’s unparalleled artistry. The lead track, Chaturang, rooted in the Shyam Chaurasi Gharana, and originally composed by Purushottam Das Jalota, Anup Jalota’s father, was shown on the occasion. It also featured Prachee Shah Pandya in a spellbinding dance as then cadences of the song moved upwards to a faster taal (rhythm).
The unveiling ceremony was made even more poignant with the display of a nostalgic photograph from four decades ago, capturing a young Sumeet in the arms of his guru on a sunlit beach in Fiji — a moment that symbolized the start of their extraordinary journey.
A touching moment came when Ustad Zakir Hussain was remembered at the start of the event with a minute’s silence. The late tabla maestro had been present at the last release of Tappoo and as Jalota stated, “Woh India se the, par sirf India ke nahin the (he was from India but not India’s alone)! but the whole world called him their own.”
The highlight of the evening was a typically effervescent Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia quipping, after he launched the album, that he hoped to get a loving and affectionate guru like Jalota in his next birth! “I had a guru who loved me a lot but would scold and whack me frequently!” he smiled.
(Used with permission)
