Memories of Manohari Singh (1931 - 2010)

Manohari Singh (March 8, 1931 -- July 13, 2010) was an Indian saxophonist and a key member of Bollywood film composer Rahul Dev Burman's team.

Born in Kolkata in a family of musicians, Manohari Singh watched his father - originally from Nepal - and uncle play in brass bands. In 1942, he joined the brass band at Bata Shoe Company, Bata Nagar in Kolkata, under its Hungarian conductor Joseph Newman. When Newman left in 1945 to join HMV, Manohari and his uncles followed. From classical music, he started playing Hindi and Bengali songs for the HMV orchestra, since Newman arranged music for many composers like Kamal Dasgupta, S D Burman, Timir Baran and Ravi Shankar. He also played flute and piccolo at the Calcutta Symphony Orchestra. Through fellow musicians such as Francisco Casanovas, deputy conductor at the Symphony Orchestra and band-leader at Firpo's Restaurant, George Banks, trumpet player at the Grand Hotel, and others, Manohari was introduced to the Calcutta nightclub scene. He had already tried his hand at the English key flute, the clarinet and the mandolin, but now he decided to learn the saxophone in order to be able to play at nightclubs.

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