The Nightingale Lata Mangeshkar gets together with Ghazal guru Jagjit Singh ...again

22 years after they collaborated on the historic album Sajda, Jagjit Singh is all set to reunite posthumously with the Nightingale Lata Mangeshkar, albeit in a most unexpected way. An undiscovered devotional song about Lord Krishna has been gifted by the late and much-missed maestro’s wife Chitra Singh to Lataji. That undiscovered gem by Jagjit would now be part of Lataji’s new album of Krishna Bhajans entitled Shri Krishna Namah. The landmark album would be released on Lataji’s own label LM Music. Says Lataji, “Actually Jagjit Saab is better known for his Ghazals. But he also sang devotional numbers beautifully. This chant sung by him devoted to Lord Krishna was given to us through composer Mayuresh Pai by his wife Chitraji. We’ve incorporated it into my album of Krishna Bhajans.” Lataji who has lately been singing sparingly feels film music has reached a point where she has little to contribute. “The songs today do not interest me. That is why I started our label LM Music. I’d be able to sing the songs that I want. A lot of today’s music is downloaded from the internet by consumers. So we’re keeping our music label afloat by recording the kind of music that the internet cannot do justice to.” Looking back on 2013 Lataji says, “I can’t think of one film song that I’d have liked to sing in the year that’s gone by. A sad year in many ways, because I lost one of my favourite colleagues Manna Dey, and my favourite cricketer Sachin Tendulkar retired.”