What is that Connection?

I have attended a few musical concerts, thanks to my dad. Some of these concerts feature what they call as a ‘JugalBandhi’. The tradition of JugalBandhi in the Carnatic and Hindustani styles of music is an age old one, where two skilled musicians, perform together. This duet could be instrumental or vocal. . Even when two soloists perform together, they divide the improvisation between them so that there is still only one vocal part. Their music making is co-operative, not competitive and it takes considerable skill and intimacy to create a performance to which each contributes equally. What defines Jugalbandi is that the two soloists be on an equal footing. While any Indian music performance may feature two musicians, whether vocalists or instrumentalists, a performance can only be deemed a Jugalbandi if neither is clearly the soloist and neither clearly an accompanist. In Jugalbandi, both musicians act as lead players, and a playful competition often ensues between the two performers.
Jugalbandhi is ideally between two performers but in some concerts like Shakti which is a concourse of musical geniuses, they get together for a piece like JugalBandhi wherein one of them starts with a note and others play it in their own styles in succession. This section is eagerly awaited and completely livens up the stage. There is one thing I have observed in almost all of these stage shows that seems almost magical to me. It’s the subtle communication that the musicians have amongst themselves while performing live. Music maestros like Shivkumar Sharma, Mandolin U.Srinivas, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Shankar Mahadevan etc don’t get time to rehearse before they have to perform together on the stage, yet there is a clear understanding between each of them. It comes across so smoothly that you feel they know each other since time immemorial. The mischievous look on their faces while playing a difficult note to copy, their gesture of appreciation, the instinct of knowing what the other one is about to play livens the show all together. It feels as though they are talking through musical notes and facial expressions. There are unsaid signals, nods, smiles etc between them which they understand and the music that comes out as a result is absolutely flawless. Is it the years of practice or simply an instinct one doesn’t know, but its something that cannot be clearly explained. The instruments trying to match up to each other as their masters skillfully brought them to life takes the audience to a different level. I relish these very dynamic talks on the stage. It is seen even amongst vocalists on stage, they look at each other and sing a few lines just to enjoy and know what his/her partner is about to do next and somehow you just get that cue.
. Though not exactly the same but somewhere I have experienced it too. Me and my sis used to learn music together. Whenever we had to sing in public for e.g. during family get togethers, we had a few songs which were amongst our favorites. There were times when we had a unspoken communication, like by way of raising eyebrows telling wow you managed that difficult line, signaling a two while putting the taal to say lets sing this line twice, a nod during the last line to say lets not sing the same line twice. All this was never planned before, it just used to happen.
Coming back to concerts, I cannot forget to mention that the connection is not just between those playing, it is also seen amongst those listening. We say that we all are different, our tastes are different but how is it that in the middle of a song a crowd of over 700 people stand up and clap, it means each one there feels that, that particular section was worth a standing ovation. There are times when you hear a wave of whistle or cries of “once more”, i.e these few people sitting away from each other felt the same impulse to appreciate that section of song. It feels like the auditorium is one small world of its own with the only aim being to enjoy music. One must go for a live concert just to experience the pleasure of being an audience.
I have always wondered what this connection is that binds us all together while performing or listening, but decided that it is best left experienced than explored.