Carnatic Music and anything else

GNB & Kamalambam bhajare

2012-02-02T08:48:00.000+05:30

This is a story that I heard from my grand aunt Smt Rukmini Rajagopalan almost 30 years ago. Sometime in the fifties GNB had just begun singing Kamalambam bhajare in concerts. He had sung the song in a concert at RR Sabha, and again in a sabha in Egmore (probably the Jagannatha bhaktha sabha) and repeated it in a concert in Tambaram. My grand aunt being a GNB fan had of course heard all the three concerts, in the space of about 2-3 months. GNB was due to perform on the radio, and my grand aunt specifically sent a message to GNB asking him to avoid Kamalambam bhajare in the programme! As it so happened GNB did sing Kalyani and Kamalambam bhajare in that concert as well!

Later when they met my grand aunt enquired as to why he sang the same song. GNB had only this to say, "Mami, I sing at 3 different places in the city and a radio programme that goes out to so many others who haven't even attended those concerts. If you choose to attend all those concerts, I cannot do much about it!" My grand aunt told this to me when I was reluctant to repeat songs early on in my career. She explained this story and said that it is important for you to sing a song repeatedly at different venues to get a better grip and the rendition is bound to sound better everytime you sing it!

Chat Show with Yugi Sethu - Part 2

2012-01-22T07:15:00.000+05:30

Chat show with Yugu Sethu - Part 1

2012-01-22T07:14:00.000+05:30

Engum nirainthirukkum - Sanjay Subrahmanyan Live on 5th Jan 2012

2012-01-09T14:33:00.000+05:30

Happy 2012 !!!

2011-12-31T20:32:00.001+05:30

As the curtain comes down on 2011 here's wishing you all a very Happy New Year!! As I sat down to write this post I just looked back at what I wrote last year - http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com/2011/01/happy-new-year.html and I realise that a lot of these things I could write again! It has been a great year and a wonderful season to cap it. The overwhelming response from the audience as always humbles me completely and I only wish that I could do more than what I am doing at the moment. Performing concerts is so exciting and every day and every kutchery is a new experience.

This season has been a kind of breakthrough in the carnatic music world I should say. A new generation of musicians in the age group of 20 - 35 are blossoming into young stars and it is so great to see. Their efforts and patience is finally paying rich dividends and the listening audience is beginning to notice this. Each of these musicians are coming out with a solid plan of how they want to perform and what areas to concentrate on and doing it with so much professionalism and perfection. I don't think I knew so much about what I was doing 20 years back compared to what these guys and girls are doing. Hats off to them and I hope they very soon reap the rewards in a big way. And of course it gives me even greater pleasure to see that some of them are my students!! I am a positive guy and I believe music is doing very well today. Yes, it has changed and I like that. Art is something that evolves over time. Sometimes it needs to shed itself from the shackles of the past if it needs to go forward, sometimes it uses the past itself as a launching pad. That is the beauty of artistic evolution. As far I am concerned I am perfectly ok whichever direction the art form takes.

Technology is such a wonderful part of our lives these days. I am so happy and greatful that I am living through this great digital enhancement that is happening to our lives. Right from the year 1995 I have embraced technology completely and I fancy myself pretty highly on the "geek score" very much similar to my own self estimate of my cricketing skills and knowledge! The past year has also been significant in that I have managed to get the Sanjay Mobile App released for both Android and iPhone. There are some teething problems but we should be able to achieve a lot more in the coming year with the app.

For those who have not checked it out yet here is the link

http://sanjaysub.com/Mobile/app/

The other significant technological highlight for me is the launch of the website http://www.sanjaysub.com - A special thanks to Yessel Narasimhan, an old friend who came with a proper plan to implement these. Also a special thanks to Girish Hariharasubramaniam and his development team at Clairvoyant Technosolutions for making it all possible.

Twitter is a great place for conversation and I am having a great time tweeting especially on cricket. So if you are on twitter and keen on cricket you can see me frequently agreeing with the Indian team and disagreeing with every other team at http://www.twitter.com/sanjaysub

Hope the new year brings in the elusive 100th hundred to a great man as well as peace and prosperity to every one!!! Happy New Year!!

Shri ramam - Narayanagowla - Sanjay Subrahmanyan Live on 19th Dec 2011

2011-12-28T09:43:00.000+05:30

Evvare ramayya - Gangeyabhushani - Sanjay Subrahmanyan Live on 14th Dec ...

2011-12-24T09:22:00.000+05:30

sanjaysub.com is Live now

2011-12-24T07:49:00.002+05:30

Hello,

We take great pleasure in launching www.sanjaysub.com, a portal that
contains the music of Sanjay Subrahmanyan. This will be the main
repository for Sanjay's music -- in particular, his live concerts.

You need to register (or use Facebook-Connect) to get access to the
concert repository. You can either purchase full concerts or a single song
from concerts. You can preview a song, buy a song, buy a concert, search
for a song or request for a song. This portal features exclusive content
that is of high-quality and is recorded professionally.

By logging through Facebook-Connect, some of your activities will also be
posted onto your Facebook Wall. Content that is posted on your Facebook
Wall can be controlled through the "Settings" option.

For further details on the portal including payment options and Terms &
Conditions, please register now.

We hope you like the portal and look forward to your feedback.

www.sanjaysub.com - Dev Team

Sivakamasundari - Mukhari - Sanjay Subrahmanyan Live on 16th Dec 2011

2011-12-21T11:14:00.000+05:30

Kuvalaya - Natakurinji - Sanjay Subrahmanyan Live on 17th Dec 2011

2011-12-18T23:50:00.000+05:30

Chetashri - Dwijavanthi - 10th Dec 2011

2011-12-12T12:12:00.000+05:30

Jaya TV concert - Harikesanallu Muthiah Bhagavatar

2011-12-12T10:41:00.001+05:30

Every year I really look forward to singing in the Margazhi Maha Utsavam organised by Jaya TV & Maximum Media. This is is one concert where I have tried to bring out a number of Tamil compositions that are not very common. There has and continues to be criticism that there are not enough Tamil compositions that are "heavy" or "classical" to be included in mainstream concerts. I use the opportunity given by this concert to specifically focus on composers and compositions which seek to invalidate this criticism.

This year I chose Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar as the composer to focus on. Muthiah Bhagavatar was a versatile composer and a pioneer of several innovative concepts in composing and composition. He is often portrayed as a maverick who composed on odd and rare scales and ragas. It was interesting to study his compostions in detail and when doing so one realised that here is a composer who deserves to be put right up there with the best in the business.

My interest was of course was in his Tamil compositions in the context of the Jaya TV concert and I found that he had composed 27 songs that have been published. It is possible that he may have composed more than that in the Tamil language. Also the compositions were in ragams like Todi, Sankarabharanam, Kalyani, Kambhoji, Yadukulakambhoji, Mukhari, Begada etc. Of the tamil compositions the most famous was the song "Andavan darisaname" in Jonpuri that was a classic hit of SG Kittappa in the nineteen twenties. My grandfather, Thyagu, used to sing this song a lot and he told me a story of how his grandmother would make sweet rice pudding (arisi kanji) and keep some for him, but give it to him only after hearing him sing Andavan darisaname. Later in the 80s DK Jayaraman used to sing this often.

Madurai TN Seshagopalan who belongs to the Muthiah bhagavatar sishya parampara has popularised so many rare and uncommon songs both of the classical and quirky variety. Of the tamil songs he used to sing "Aarukkum adangaada neeli" in Begada as well as "Manadirkkisaintha manaalan" in Sankarabharanam quite beautifully. Back in 1995 I gave a concert of 20th century Tamil compositions for the sabha Mudhra when they had their festival in the Rama rao Kalyana Mandapam. It was also the first time that veteran mrudangam artiste and one of my childhood heroes Vellore Ramabhadran played for me. My guru Shri KSK taught me "Moovaasai konda thirumaal" in Karaharapriya by Muthiah bhagavatar and I sang it that day as the main piece. A listener reminded me that day that Shri TNS has given an album of Bhagavatar songs exclusively with that song as the main piece!

Coming back to my concert yesterday, I wanted to sing a few of the songs that may not have seen the light of day. A ragamalika of 9 ragas with the raga names intelligently woven into the sahityam and some sparkling chittaswarams, revealed the classical depth and knowledge of the Bhagavatar and I was determined to learn it up and sing it. As I was going through the process I realised I had a tough task on my hands as the whole song could take almost 25 minutes to render. Thankfully for me Shri Varadarajan, the violinist, also took pains to learn up the song and that really helped yesterday. Special thanks are due to mrudangam artiste Neyveli Venkatesh who played so appropriately to suit the tempo and feel on the concert.

Here is the list of songs rendered yesterday

Thuthikkakkuriya aadhiye - Poornachandrika - M Chapu
Aarukkum adangaada neeli - Begada
Avan seyal andri - Hamirkalyani
Unnai ninanthu - Ragamalika (Sankarabharanam, Mohanam, Vasantha, Sahana, Todi, Nayaki, Kannada, Saranga, Sri)
Moovaasai konda thirumaal - Karaharapriya
Shanthamaaga kaatchi thanthidum - Yadukulakambhoji
Maavoor valam peruga - Sindhu bhairavi
Thunga maal vidai - Surati

Ethanai koti inbam - Desh - Subramania Bharathi - Dec 2011

2011-12-09T07:36:00.000+05:30

Win 2 free tickets to my Brahma Gana Sabha concert on 14th December 2011

2011-12-02T12:46:00.001+05:30

You could win two free tickets for my Brahma Gana Sabha concert on the 14th of December at the Sivagami Petachi Auditorium in Alwarpet, Chennai.

All you have to do is download the Sanjay Subrahmanyan Mobile App either for iPhone or Android. In the "Follow Sanjay" screen, "Like" us on Facebook and your name will be entered into a random drawing and the winner will be announced on the 10th of December.

In case you have already downloaded the app, don't worry, your name has already been entered for the drawing!

Below are the links for more information and how to download/install the app on your iPhone or Android device.

Android - https://market.android.com/details?id=com.androidcore.Sanjay&feature=search_result

iTunes - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sanjay-mobile/id447339851?mt=8

In case you need a detailed description of the app and its features click below

http://sanjaysub.com/Mobile/app/

Jaya TV Dec 2010

2011-11-29T11:36:00.000+05:30

Getting creative on 11-11-11

2011-11-11T15:00:00.001+05:30

My twitter timeline was getting filled with 11/11 tweets and I could not resist adding the Carnatic music dimension to the whole thing. So I began with the following tweet

"If I had a concert today I would have sung an RTP in Kokilapriya - Melakarta no 11 :)"

Immediately I got the following response from Ashok

"@krishashokAshok

@sanjaysub In a 11-beat tala with the pallavi having 11 syllables in its verse"

That got me going with this

"Ok getting creative now - A thematic concert on the 11th melakarta and its janyas featuring 11 songs with mrudangist playing the 11 nadai"

Then I started thinking generally about thematics and how with a bit of planning we could have had a one day festival on the 11/11 theme with the following thematic concerts/programs

9.00 - 10.00 am - "The musical significance of the number 11" A lecture demosntration

11 minute coffee break

11.11 - Group chanting for 11 seconds of the rhythmic syllable "th ka thi mi tha ka janu tha ki ta"

11.12 - 12 noon - The difference between the Tyagaraja & Dikshitar schools in the handling of the 11th Melakarta - A special talk

12 noon - 1.00 pm - RTP concert in Kokilapriya with a 11 akshara talam.

Lunch break - Special menu with 11 items

2.00 - 3.00 - A group rendition of the "Ekadasa Rudra kritis" of ES Sankaranarayana Iyer by a group of 11 singers

3.00 - 4.00 - A special tiruppugazh concert with focus on the 11 akshara chandam and its different possible divisions like 4+7, 5+6, 3+8 & 2+9

4.00 - 5.00 - Special tala vadya concert featuring a 11 akshara talam in a 11nadai with a special 11 akshara kuraippu featuring 11 different percussion instruments

5.00 - 6.00 - Honouring 11 great artistes with a cash award of Rs 1,11,111.11

6.00 - 7.00 - Release of the book "11 11th century personalities in Carnatic music" and audio visual presentaion

7.00 - 8.00 - 111 akshara talam - The modern reply to Simhanandanam - A special presentation

8.00 - 9.51 - 111 garland of ragas - A concert featuring 111 different ragas performed for 111 minutes

Admission - Rs 111/-

Venue - Any auditorium in Chennai - 11

December 2011 Season Schedule

2011-11-11T10:15:00.000+05:30

Live on 23rd Oct 2011 - Viruttham in Khamas, Saveri & Kapi

2011-10-28T09:17:00.000+05:30

Acceptance Speech by Sanjay Subrahmanyan

2011-10-19T20:18:00.000+05:30

Huseni in Pitchavaram

2011-10-15T09:44:00.000+05:30

The Begada journey from Aaraar Aasaippadaar

2011-10-13T15:11:00.000+05:30

Indira Sivasailam award function - 6th Oct 2011

2011-10-13T08:06:00.000+05:30

Click for more photos

Navarathri Mandapam 2/2

2011-10-04T18:54:00.000+05:30

Navarathri Mandapam 1/2

2011-10-04T18:44:00.000+05:30

Thiruvadi Charanam Part Two.mpg

2011-10-04T16:10:00.000+05:30

Kannada raga alapana - Live 5th Sept 2011 @ Chennai Soorya Festival

2011-09-29T10:02:00.000+05:30

VENUGANALONA.vob

2011-09-15T09:34:00.000+05:30

Sanjay Subramanyam_Mamavasada_Kanada_Vittal Ramamurty_Kanchana Ishwara B...

2011-09-10T08:01:00.000+05:30

Attarunam - Bhairavi (24th August 2011)

2011-08-31T20:04:00.000+05:30

Unnati, Bangalore (16th Aug 2011) - Ragam Navarasakannada, Swati Tirunal composition

2011-08-23T14:37:00.001+05:30

Angai kodumalar (From a recording in March 2007)

2011-08-14T12:06:00.000+05:30

The above song is a comosition of Thayumanavar and was believed to have been set to music by Pudukkottai Dakshinamoorthy Pillai. This was taught to MSS by him and she used to sing it quite regularly in concerts. The unique feature is that the lyric has been set to a 19 aksharam time cycle and the talam is rendered as a combination of 2 talams - a misra jhampa (10 beats) followed by a khanda triputa (9 beats). The two ragams are Senchurati and Nadanamakriya.

Evolution of the App - 2

2011-08-14T08:13:00.002+05:30

Technology experts world over are pushing for apps as the way to the future. Homes are seeing a massive increase in smartphones and tablets. These devices are making the whole web experience as well access to data and entertainment very personal and super fast at the same time. Traditional websites have all launched apps which provide standalone access to what they have to offer. Personally I have explored most of the mainstream avenues to include carnatic music in this technological experience. So the development and launch of the Sanjay Mobile App is the latest step in this direction.

The first point of discussion in the app development process is whether the whole thing will be free or is it to be priced. We immediately agreed that there is enough and more free material available on the net in the first place. Secondly the stats regarding spending on apps is so high that people will not hesitate to pay if it is reasonably priced and has enough to offer. So, yes the app is not free and is priced modestly.

Coming to the aspect of content, the first point of value to the user of the app is availability of exclusive material. Here we have made an effort to include audio content from my past concerts. They have been hand picked to ensure that the user is able to get a wide sampling of what I have sung in the past. We were faced with a choice of less number of complete pieces versus more pieces which sample a wider gamut. We went with the latter option for the moment but we have retained the option of changing based on the feedback we get.

Today on the net you can see a wide variety of content about me at the following places.

1. Sanjay Subrahmanyan Youtube Channel

2. Sanjay Subrahmanyan blog - Carnatic music and anything else

3. Sanjay Subrahmanyan Twitter page - You can follow my tweets which are more cricket based than music.

4. Sanjay Subrahmanyan Fan Page on Facebook

5. Audio content through CDs and digital downloads on iTunes and charsur.com

The Sanjay mobile app can provide a single platform to access all the above content and more. We have also attempted to include a searchable schedule so that you can easily find out information about my concerts in your city and elsewhere.

If you haven't checked out as yet here are the links

Detailed description of the app and its features click below

http://sanjaysub.com/Mobile/app/

Here are the links to the app pages on the respective markets.

Android - https://market.android.com/details?id=com.androidcore.Sanjay&feature=search_result

iTunes - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sanjay-mobile/id447339851?mt=8

App evolution - 1

2011-07-17T09:02:00.000+05:30

My first experience with technology and carnatic music came in 1995 when I was exposed to the internet and the usenet newsgroup rec.music.indian.classical. When I came back to India after that 1995 tour of Australia and North america,, the first thing I did was insist on getting a computer and paying 15000/- Rs to get a TCP/IP account with VSNL which was the only Internet Service Provider then. In fact I still remember setting up my own homepage on Geocities sometime in 1996 and then later continuing it on Tripod in 1997.

Here is a snapshot from the Tripod homepage from Dec 1998 -

http://web.archive.org/web/19981202013247/http://members.tripod.com/~sanjaysub/

Some of the things I started back then have of course been duplicated by many much later. My motivation to start Sangeetham.com was also because there was a dominance of Hindustani music based discussion on the usenet newsgroup and I wanted a separate bulletin board for carnatic music exclusively.

Here is a snapshot from January 1999 of Sangeetham.com -

http://web.archive.org/web/19990125103013/http://www.sangeetham.com/

The concept took root and more players have entered the space and have continued quite successfully.

Later with the advent of mp3 and compressed audio I set up an account on mp3.com to actually produce and sell digital downloadable music online. Following this I have had a great time launching and doing a podcast "The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show." One reason I could do all this then was that I had a lot of time and the process of assembling and putting it all together was so much fun for me personally.

I still remember spending a whole night setting up a new bulletin board on Sangeetham with a free service called UBB.

Here is a snapshot from Mar 2000 of that first UBB Sangeetham talk -

http://web.archive.org/web/20000305084658/http://www.sangeetham.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi

Anyway it was a year back when I actually sat down and thought that we really need to move ahead and keep pace with technology. The iPad had been launched, Android was ready to take on the world and apps were going to explode on the scene. I had already experienced apps on my iphone and was quite keen to come up with a Sanjay Subrahmanyan app.

Here is an excerpt for a note I wrote to myself as early as 5th May 2010 -

Permanent

Basic details -
Short bio, pictures, sample tracks

Web links -
Blog, Podcast, Facebook, Twitter. Youtube videos etc

Albums data

Downloadable
Updates to online content
Changing dowloadable sample tracks
Latest releases on charsur
Music season - schedule
Big tours like US schedule

I even sent this to some who were beginning development of apps to explore the possibility. Then about 4/5 months back I got a call from an old friend Yessel who was bringing an app developer interested in doing something with me. He brought Girish of Clairvoyant Technologies and we started talking about getting the whole thing together. More in the next post.

Announcing the SanjayMobile App for Android and iPhones

2011-07-15T19:57:00.000+05:30

It's finally here. The official Sanjay Mobile App is available for both iPhone as well as Android smartphones. The last few months have been really exciting for us in developing this app and I am thrilled to announce the official release of the same.

So what is this app? Those who already have an iPhone or an Android smartphone are well aware of apps and so can probably relate to it easily. The others can understand it as some kind of a mobile website wherein you can access a lot of information from the convenience of your mobile device.

In case you need a detailed description of the app and its features click below

http://sanjaysub.com/Mobile/app/

Here are the links to the app pages on the respective markets.

Android - https://market.android.com/details?id=com.androidcore.Sanjay&feature=search_result

iTunes - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sanjay-mobile/id447339851?mt=8

This is just the first in a series of posts that I hope to write and make up for my earlier "sporadic" activity on this blog!

Some interesting stats

2011-07-14T08:45:00.000+05:30

A few days back I had announced a new initiative http://www.sanjaysub.com that is to be launched very soon. I know some had asked about when this will be launched and in true "IT" fashion we are hoping to launch it sometime in the middle of Q2 of the current financial year!! Meanwhile in case you had visited the above link you would have seen a request for registering your email id to get the latest updates on the launch. We have been able to collect some interesting statistics based on the email ids and I thought I can share it here.

So far we have had registrations from nearly 15 different countries all over the world. As expected 56% is from India and 25% from the United States. Countries like the UK, UAE, Australia, Singapore & Canada make up the rest. Historically these are the countries where musicians have and are still travelling to and performing for a substantial South Indian/Sri Lankan Tamil population that make up the majority of Carnatic music rasikas. I am happy to say that there has also been registrations from Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Poland, Belgium and Switzerland!

Of the registrations from India unsurprisingly 40% is from Madras. Bangalore and New Delhi have about 20% each and the rest from Bombay, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Hyderabad etc. I would have a liked a few surprises like Gauhati or Shimla!! Anyway this is just a very preliminary analysis based on a very limited field test. Hopefully in the months to come we will be able to collect more data to make me sound like a qualified markeing pro!!!!

Nadopasana 12th July 2011 - Video clips

2011-07-13T15:07:00.000+05:30

BROCHEVA-SWARA-CHINGLEPUT RANGANATHAN

2011-07-12T13:26:00.000+05:30

National programme on Doorarshan

2011-07-11T16:34:00.001+05:30

Recently Chennai Doordarshan recorded my concert and a half hour segment was telecast on the National Programme of Music. Please ignore the slightly "outdated" set and backdrop :)

Ragam Tanam Pallavi and some innovations

2011-06-26T06:53:00.000+05:30

Here is a link to a review of my recent Sydney concert tha appeared online

http://sydhwaney.com/swaralaya-festival-of-music-2011-part-1/

Quoting from the review " Instead of presenting trikalam (singing the pallavi in three speeds), Sanjay sang kalpana swarams in different speeds (slower speed, tisram and tisram fast speed) ensuring the purvangam (first half) of the pallavi finished on the arudi. “This is similar to a technique used in Hindustani music” observed Mohan Ayyar, a senior instrumentalist and avid rasika in Sydney. "

It is interesting to note that this technique is identified as being similar to something used in Hindustani music. Personally I am not familiar with how it is employed in Hindustani music, but as far as Carnatic music goes, it was Madurai TN Seshagopalan, who started doing this frequently on stage. None of the earlier "greats" have done this atleast from the evidence of the recordings that we have with us. TNS has been a real innovator as far as the modern RTP goes and many of the things that I do are inspired from what he did atleast 40 years ago!

Just another point regarding the above qoute - There is a special item in Nadaswaram called "Rakthi melam" which was a specialty of the Sembanarkoil lineage. In this they generally played kalpana swarams to 6 different eduppus in 6 different kalams to get the jathi to the arudi. According to my guru Sembanarkoil SRD Vaithyanathan, their family has being doing this for several generations! The only difference from an RTP was that Rakthi was a single line jathi, with no sahityam, set to a talam.

Please check this out

2011-06-25T10:07:00.001+05:30

Some new stuff coming very soon!!!

Fort St George and the new Assembly complex

2011-06-18T19:34:00.000+05:30

There was an interesting discussion yesterday at the Madras Club library between the two Chennai based historians S Muthiah and V Sriram about his the former's recent book "Madras revisited." Almost at the end of the discussion Mr Muthiah made a nice point about why the Fort St George is so important in the context of the history of modern India. It was from this fort that the city of Madras rose and it was the nerve centre for the growth of modern India under the British. The former CM, Mr Karunanidhi wanted a new Assembly complex only because the fort was a British legacy. What Kalaignar forgot or rather chose to ignore was that the fort did follow South Indian architecture, was built by Indian, specially Tamil & Telegu, artisans and used locally produced building materials. On the other hand the new Assembly commissioned by the Kalaignar has been designed by a German architect, and built using imported materials by Hindi speaking labour from Bihar & Jharkhand who could give our Hindi Prachar Sabha students a run for their money! Another point that Mr Muthiah made was that in all his earlier designs like the Valluvar Kottam, the Rajaji memorial, Kalaignar did try to bring out elements of the South Indian, specifically Chola style of building.

Narada Gana Sabha - 2nd June 2011 - Begada varnam clip

2011-06-03T16:32:00.000+05:30

Narada Gana Sabha - 2nd June 2011 - Kalavati swarams clip

2011-06-03T16:31:00.000+05:30

Sanjay SuNarada Gana Sabha - 2nd June 2011 - Arabhi song clip

2011-06-03T16:30:00.000+05:30

Tanjore S Kalyanaraman (SKR)

2011-06-02T15:57:00.000+05:30

GNB was a name that frequently came up in musical discussions in my home. Sometime in the late seventies my grandfather Tyagu was narrating about how there were tears in the rasikas' eyes the year GNB died and they heard a young and energetic V Ramachandran at the Music Academy. Soon a youngster like me, who was already fascinated by GNB (He was as legendary as Bradman!) wanted to know about his students as well. Of course MLV was also well known and she had sung for my parents' wedding. The next name was S Kalyanaraman. It must have been 1980/81 when I made my first visit to Tiruvayyaru. After the heavyweights had finished SKR was due to sing late at night. My dad said we'll stay and listen and then leave. I still cannot forget ana alapana of Dhenuka that he sang that night. He was struggling for breath, the voice was husky and even sounded crackled, but the brighas were there and that was all that young GNB fan wanted!

Later as I progressed to more advanced levels in music, Kalyanaraman always remained in the background especially because of his GNB leanings. I did get to listen to several of his live concerts in the eighties but then those were days when I was following so many other musicians that I hardly noticed SKR beyond the GNB branding. Then when I started learning from KSK in 1989 he talked a lot to me about SKR. As I shrugged my initial reluctance to sing the melakartas that were not so popular, especially the vivadhis, my guru kept reminding me of the fact that BMK and SKR were the true great exponents of the 72 melas. Even before his death in 1994, I had a chance to spend a long 3/4 hour session in SKR's house. Unfortunately I hardly utilized that opportunity to pick his brain on a few more things especially his handling of things like Dwi madhyama ragas. Even as I grapple with "Karasri" today I kick myself for not having used those chances back then!

Anyway slowly SKR and his music started taking over my life. It was 1995 and the first death anniversary of SKR. They were starting a new Trust in his memory and I was to give the concert. My Guru was also to be honoured on that day. I will forever treasure that recording of SKR that Bhushany Kalyanaraman sent to me asking me to sing if possible "that same todi." This was a fantastic recording of SKR where he has sung Nadasudha in Arabhi and Chesinadella in Todi. That is one of my favorite recordings and I have even discussed stuff in one of my podcasts. Anyway I could not learn Chesinadella then nor could I accede to Bushany's request to sing a Dwi madhyama ragam. This concert and my subsequent association specifically with Nagai Muralidharan & Srimushnam Raja Rao got me deeper into SKR and his music. I got some of his tillanas from Raja Rao and learnt quite a few things about singing vivadhi ragamas from Nagai.

SKR was really one of those great unsung heroes of Carnatic music. He was a true artiste who created without expectations. He never really bothered about the "greater good" of the art. History shows that the great creators were radicals who challenged institutions. These radical efforts later became institutions by themselves. Further radical efforts only challenged these newly created institutions! So the cycle will just continue. Sometimes it is possible to get caught in a particular "time warp" and then it is difficult to get out of there. The truly creative artiste just soldiers on! During a time when artistes shunned the vivadhi melams, SKR sang them with gay abandon without "publicising" his creativity! Later he ventured deeper into the scales and came up with the fascinating 36 dwi madhyama panchama varja ragams!

He was one of the first to explore hindustani ragams in the seventies. His singing of bhajans were a great source of inspiration to several of his junior contemporaries. If GNB was a modernist of his times SKR only carried on that legacy of innovation and brilliance to the next level. Today SKR stands as a towering source of inspiration for many many musicians. Personally I am thankful that I discovered him at a time when my restless mind was looking for things to do. I am happy that he more than anyone else has been singularly instrumental with his music in getting me to where I am today. It will indeed be a great honour for me to receive the SKR Award of Excellence as his students celebrate his 81st birthday today at the Narada Gana Sabha in Chennai.

Dynamic views on the blog

2011-04-01T09:24:00.000+05:30

In case you are bored at looking at this page you can change it yourself dynamically. Though Google released this yesterday it is not an April Fool's Day joke.

Check it out

http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com/view/

http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com/view/flipcard

http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com/view/mosaic

http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com/view/snapshot

http://sanjaysub.blogspot.com/view/timeslide

The last one is really nice I should say.

The making of the album Kshetra - Kanchi

2011-03-01T12:02:00.000+05:30

In 2003/04 I was discussing with Charsur about another album in their Kshetra series. My first one Chidambaram had done well and we were keen to continue with another kshetra. My choice for Kanchi was because it offered a variety of dieties to sing and would be different from the earlier Siva based Chidambaram. The first obvious diety for Kanchi was Kamakshi and the first song was Devi brova in Chintamani. I had just heard the MSS rendition of it and completely fell in love with it. If I sang this song it could only be this version. The idea was to include from one each of the Trinity and so for Tyagaraja I went with Vinayakuni (Madhyamavati) and for Dikshitar, Kamakshi varalakshmi in Bilahari. This was also the time when the SSP (Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradarshini of Subbarama Dikshitar) bug had caught me. I had just given a lec dem at Cleveland (along with Rk Shriramkumar) on this subject and was keen to see if the songs could be sung as per the original tune. I had sung Shri krishnam in Rupavati in an AIR concert, but not entirely as per the original. I felt that, one should go forward with these versions and innovate according to one's manodharma without changing too much of the original. In some cases the original gives a perspective that is not very common and can provide a good platform to base one's innovations. (Like Stephen King using Clint Eastwood as an inspiration for the Dark Tower series!) In the case of Kamakshi varalakshmi I had added a few sangathis here and there in addition to rendering the chittaswaram that was available and not often sung. So the Trinity was used exclusively for the Goddess of Kanchi.

I then decided to go with Tamil songs for the other three deities to be featured - Vishnu, Siva & Muruga (Basically the murugan at Kumara kottam). My first source for Siva was Dr Prameela Gurumoorthy who was kind enough to selct some verses from the Tevaram on the Ekamranatha swamy. She gave me a choice of 2 tevarams and I chose Adutthaanai in Yadukulakambhoji. She also suggested that I preface the tevaram with a Thiruviruttham again referring to the Kacchi ekambaram deity however, she said there was an issue with singing thiruviruttham as it was normally rendered in Poorvikalyani or Bhairavi, so I chose the latter. Interestingly I did get to sing this in a concert and prefaced the Yadukulakambhoji with the said virutham in Poorvikalyani. Of course I had to make an announcement to clarify this before people jumped to the conclusion that this was one of my own zany modern innovations!

For the Vishnu song violinist S Varadarajan gave me a few verses with help from his father Shri Santhanam. I decided to sing the Adaikkalappatthu of Vedantha Desikar. This was a long piece, and so in true traditional style I just took three stanzas and set them up in Ahiri, Hamirkalyani and Surati and ignored the rest as they did with other such long pieces! This was quite a popular piece in Vishnu temples. I remember vividly chanting "Thirumagalum thiruvadivum" as well as "aaru payan verillaa" at the Lakshmipuram temple in Royapettah during Margazhi every day to get the wonderful pongal! The pongal dropped down from the Bhattar's hands and made for good catch practice! Invariably when we dropped catches our seniors would advise us to go regularly to the temple for pongal!

Finally for Muruga the wonderful internet gave me direction to choose "Arivilaa pitthar" for the Kumarakottam Murugan by Arunagirinathar. I set the tune up in jaganmohini and rendered it in the sandha talam, that is putting the talam according to the metre of the lyric.

Recording albums with Charsur was a great experience then in the studio. It was a lot fighting and argument about the choice of songs, tempo sangathis etc. We really put in a lot of time and effort. I must have sung Kamakshi varalakhmi atleast 30/40 times before okaying the final version. These days I prefer doing live concerts even if they are to be thematic.

The above album is available online for sale at the below link

Kshetra - Kanchi

Nadamuni Band-Nadachi Nadachi.wmv

2011-02-28T21:56:00.001+05:30

Some 30 years ago I came across the name "Nadhamuni Band" from a friend's father. The first thing he said was "They were famous for Nadachi nadachi!" Of course I have also come across the word band (not specifically Nadamuni) on two occassions. One was when a very bady affected voice emitting types of different sounds was called "Band vadhyam" not in a very complimentary manner unfortunately. Another rather uncomplimentary reference was about a young and upcoming Clarinet artiste who was dismissed to the rear of the procession headed by Nadaswaram vidwans as just a mere "Band vadhyam!"

The Nadamuni Band however seemed to have enjoyed a lot of popularity and played quite frequently on the Marina beach near the Kannagi statue. Anyway thanks to a kindly soul we can still sample the original Nadamuni Band and their famous Nadachi nadachi.

Mela-Janya

2011-02-25T07:31:00.000+05:30

The mela-janya relationship between ragas has been in existence for a long time. However in the last 100-150 years there has been a shift in the nature of this relationship. Increasingly we have moved to a purely swara based classification of a janya under its parent mela. The modern ground rule has been to include a raga as the janya of the first mela that carries all its swaras. This rule goes against a much earlier method of classifcation which used the raga's melodic and aesthetic structure to determine its parent.

The need to write a lot about the music especially in a global scenario where things are expected to be spelt out in more detail before being actually experienced is one of the reasons for the popularity of the mela-janya system among musicians and music lovers. My guru was of the firm opinion that the mela-janya system itself is irrelevant to performing musician and it serves only academicians. For instance how much does the study of phonetics help in our communication skills. In today's context when communicating with others we hardly employ the theories of language. Similarly the grammar for a system of carnatic music may have evolved into a complex structure but it should not come in the way of performance or experience.

In my own experience I have often encountered the question from rasikas when faced with a fairly uncommon raga - Which janyam is that raga? This is often like asking what the ingredients are of a new dish that we eat! Practically however there is a paradox in this question. For instance lay listeners often identify a raga with something that they have heard in th past. So some parts of mukhari may sound like bhairavi. Especially when they hear a more uncommon raga like Narayanagowla - "Does it sound like Kedaragowla a bit?" is a common doubt. This is actually uderstandable. But when someone wants to what janyam the ragam is then there is a clear case of not understanding musically but demanding pure academic information. Here is my argument - The modern mela-janya relationship is based on swarams. So if Senchu kambhoji is a janyam of Harikambhoji then it means it carries the same notes of HK, but with a different musical structure in its scale, not because it sounds like Harikambhoji. If one wants to know this with a view to understanding the musical notes of the raga then one should be able to differentiate between the suddha and the chatusruti dhaivatam when actually sung. So if one can understand that difference, one can also know which notes occur in the raga being sung. It is then a question of basically applying those swaras to the mela scheme to derive the parent raga. The problem comes when I sing Shamalangi in a concert and a rasika asks me "Which janyam is that ragam?" Classic Catch-22!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T11:59:00.000+05:30

Here's wishing everyone of you a very happy and prosperous new year! It has been a hectic and momentous twelve months for me musically. Personally this should rank as one of my all time favorite music seasons. Not since the times when I was singing in the afternoon slots have I looked forward to every concert so much. A huge reason has been the condition of my voice that has really stood by my this year especially compared to last year. I did say a big thank you to all the rasikas who stood by me last year and I continue by saying a big thank you to each and every one of you who had taken the trouble, braving so many hazards, to actually come and sit in the concert and show support.Some have observed to me that this was a more conventional season for me in terms of the choice of ragams, compositions etc. As far as I am concerned there is something for everyone that the system offers and it is upto us musicians to keep digging and coming up with what we can be it the conventional or the exotic. One of the highlights of this season for me has been the wonderful talk that Sriram V gave on Tiger Varadachariyar at the Tag centre. For many years Tiger has remained as that silent hero in the back of my mind ever since I heard my Guru Shri KSK speak about him and sing snatches of his music. I still remember when I played him a recording of the Kalyani ata tala varnam and his face glowed with pride. He immediately took out a book and showed me Tiger's Kalyani varnam - Karunai kadale and said that if there was an adi tala version of the great Vanajakshi then it had to be this. Later I was hunting for more Tiger compositions at the Kalakshetra library and Shri Rajaram gave me a copy of the Tiger centenary volume with some varnams printed on it. I sourced the Hindolam varnam - chalamu from Shri BV Raman some months before he died. This year I managed to learn the Begada varnam - Sariyo nee and sang it at the Music Academy.

Anyway 2011 is already looking bright with England having retained the Ashes and India the no 1 Test ranking. So bring on the World Cup and let Sachin retire in a blaze of glory while w lesser mortals keep grappling with this great and wonderful art form that is consuming as day and night! Happy new year!

Karubaru_Mukhari_Adi_Tyagaraja

2010-12-23T08:07:00.000+05:30

Buddhi radu_Sankarabharanam_MChapu_Tyagaraja

2010-12-21T11:21:00.000+05:30

Enneramum_Devagandhari_Adi_Gopalakrishna Bharathi

2010-12-20T07:48:00.000+05:30

Sadachaleswaram_Bhupalam_Adi_Muthuswami Dikshitar

2010-12-18T09:57:00.000+05:30

Enna rakshiso_Subhapantuvarali_Rupakam_Purandaradasa

2010-12-16T09:46:00.000+05:30

Jaya TV concert - Dec 11th 2010

2010-12-12T09:50:00.001+05:30

Yesterday I sang for the Margazhi Maha Utsavam, Jaya TV. Every year I try to take up a new theme to work on compositions that are not much in vogue. My focus has been only on tamil compositions as I feel they have not been given their due. This year I chose the theme "Bharathi Moovar" focussing on the compositions of Kavi Kunjara Bharathi, Mazhavai Chidambara Bharathi & Suddhananda Bharathi.

Kavi Kunjara Bharathi was the grandfather of the other great vaggeyakara Koteeswara Iyer who had composed in all the 72 melakartas. As early as 1915, Koteeswara Iyer had published the lyrics of Kavi Kunjara Bharathi (1810 - 1894). Koteeswara Iyer writes in his preface that he has sung all those songs, but unfortunately he did not publish them with musical notation. Later, KKB's Azhagar Kuravanji (the popular padham Ivanaro in Kambhoji is part of this) was published in musical notation by Shri Nagamani (son of Koteeswara Iyer) . I know for a fact the Shri TN Seshagopalan has given a full programme for the Tamil Isai Sangam based on the Azhagar Kuravanji and his rendition of Ivanaro was indeed very very special. Later Shri Dandapani Desigar had set the song Siddhi vinayakane of KKB in Jaganmohini and sung it quite often. I was not aware of the MMD tune and I had already set Siddhi vinayakane to the ragam Kalavati (the Tyagaraja Ennadu jootuno version of the ragam), and that is how I sang it yesterday. The 1915 publication does mention the ragam of this song as Bilahari, but I decided to renew the licence that Shri Desigar had used to come with my own version :) The other KKB song that I sang yesterday was Deivam undendru nambu maname in Kalyani. This song is also mentioned as Kalyani but the musical framework that I adopted is just a "cover" version of the great compositions that I have heard in Kalyani! I had not intended to sing Ivanaro yesterday, but as I was getting ready to stop for the Q&A session, Subashri (who probably was not ready with the final list of questions!) asked me to continue, so I just decided to slot that in.

Mazhavai Chidambara Bharathi, a contemporary of Kavi Kunjara Bharathi, was the grandfather of Mazhvarayanenthal Subbarama Bhagavatar on the maternal side. It is said that MSB used to sing many of these compositions in his concerts. I had learnt an MCB song (Kanmaniye solladi in Saranga) from my grand aunt Smt.Rukmini Rajagopalan many years back and used to sing it quite often in concerts. Later I came to know that the Saranga was a GNB tune and that the original was in Kapi. I even remember lsitening to a beautiful slow rendition in Kapi by Tanjavur Sankara Iyer. About 15 years back, I was at Madurai for a concert. An old man named Ramani knocked on my door at the hotel. He actually sang the song Karunai vaitthennai aalamma in Begada and said it was an MCB song and that he was a disciple of Subbarama Bhagavatar. I remembered that it resembeled the Ramaswami SIvan song Kadaikkan vaitthennai aalamma and he said that the MCB was the original and that it was later copied. The Music Academy has published a book on the compositions of MCB in musical notation and that is where I picked up the songs Poomel valarum in Anandabhairavi and Karunai thanthennai in Begada that I sang yesterday. This book also has a nice introduction by the noted Tamil writer Chidambara Subramaniam, who was also a grandson of the composer.

Suddhananda Bharati is an interesting composer and personality. I think he was more of a poet and all his songs have been set to music by others. My Guru Shri KSK has set a number of songs to music. I have sung songs like Aaduguraan kannan in Kapi and Ellaam SIvan seyal in Vasantha in the past. In fact there is a nice version of Ellaam sivan seyal in Kalyani in one of the Annamalai Univ publications, I think set to music by Tanjavur K Ponniah Pillai. I had specifically asked my Guru to set that song up in Vasantha for me to sing. Another is Brindavanam iduvo in Suddha dhanyasi about which I have written earlier. I also came across a book called "Suddhananda Melarnavam" having songs of Suddhananda Bharathi in all the 72 melakarta ragams set to music by Shri TS Raghavan. For yesterday's concert I had chosen the song Ullam urugi urugi in Kanakangi. Hopefully I'll be able to sing a few more of these melakarta songs in the years to come. The other song of SB that I sang yesterday was a patriotic viruttham and song from the book "Singa nadham". I had set the song to the ragam Patdeep which is basically s g m p n / s n d p m g r in the Gowrimanohari scale.

List of compositions sung

1. Siddhi vinayakane - Kalavati - Adi (KKB)

2. Poomel valarum - Anandabhairavi - Adi (MCB)

3. Ullam urugi urugi - Kanakangi - Rupakam (SB)

4. Karunai thanthennai - Begada - M Chapu (MCB)

5. Deivam undendru - Kalyani - Adi (KKB)

6. Ivanaro - Kambhoji - M Chapu (KKB)

7. Vazhiya bharatham - Viruttham - Ragamalika (SB)

8. Enthaai vaazhgenum - Patdeep - Adi (SB)

Sriram Guruswamy's photos from the above concert.

Durbar alapana

2010-12-11T06:58:00.000+05:30

Concert schedule Season 2010

2010-12-01T13:31:00.001+05:30

Here is my schedule for this year's season.

09/12/2010 Kartik Fine Arts (Narada Gana Sabha auditorium)
11/12/2010 Jaya TV (Chettinad School auditorium)
15/12/2010 Brahma Gana Sabha (Sivakami Petachi Auditorium)
17/12/2010 Bharat Kalachar
19/12/2010 Vani Mahal
20/12/2010 Narada Gana Sabha
22/12/2010 Indian Fine Arts (German Hall)
23/12/2010 Music Academy
25.12/2010 Krishna Gana Sabha
26/12/2010 Kalarasna (Rani Seethai Hall)
28/12/2010 Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha (Vidya Bharathi kalyana mandapam)
29/12/2010 Tamil Isai Sangam
31/12/2010 Kalakshetra
02/01/2011 Rasika Fine Arts (Jaigopal Garodia School, Postal Colony)
05/01/2011 Bhairavi Gana Sabha (Vidya Bharathi kalyana mandapam)

Season 2010

2010-12-01T06:33:00.002+05:30

Another season is upon us! Something about the season gets me in the mood to write. So maybe this blog will get some attention! There is something about turning 40. It makes you want to look back and remember a few things that happened sometime ago. How we hated it when they talked about 'those' days. Now we can happily start a conversation with '20 years ago' and feel nice about it.

December 1 was really looked forward to every year. The list of concerts in every sabha would be out. In the seventies when I was still learning the violin my interest was primarily in seeing who my guru's sons were accompanying at the academy. I think for a few years L Subramaniam played for KVN and L Shankar played for Madurai Somu at the Academy. I still remember the concert at the Academy, where L Shankar was playing for Madurai Somu. CS Murugabhoopathy was on the mrudangam. The RTP was in the raga Swarnangi. As L Shankar began his turn of the alapana and moved on to the upper shadja, Somu stopped and asked him to play a bit more in the panchamam range! The advent of the internet and publishing of online schedules makes it that much less interesting to go through the Dec 1st newspaper, but there are still people who do that. The other day I was at a friend's house and this doctor came up to me and asked me how many concerts I was singing this year. I have known him for so many years and he has never bothered to ask me this in the past. I guess recent declarations by some about cutting down prompted him to ask me this! Anyway I just said that he can always count the number once the schedules are out and his response was "Yes, I can see it on the newspaper on December 1st !!"

Titles have increased so much that there is not much excitement about who is getting what. However the Sangeetha Kalanidhi still retains its primary status as the one everybody covets! This year the Bombay Sisters have been chosen. An excellent choice by the Academy. Yes they could have given it this one or that one, but who they have chosen really deserves it. There is a saying in tamil "patti thotti yellaam paadiyirukkaal" meaning that they have sung in every nook and corner. That is exactly what the Bombay Sisters have done over the last 40 years. They have never denied the rasikas an opportunitiy to listen to them whenever they wanted. This is the best service for the art form that any musician can do. The number of recordings they have released is really amazing. After Dr MBK they were the first artistes to release 100 pre recorded albums for the Sangeetha label, a remarkable achievement! I have attended a couple of their recording sessions when Shri L Krishnan was supervising and composing music for them. Their professionalism, diction, discipline in rendition etc were a real lesson for an aspiring musician like me.

As I started typing out this post, I glanced at my previous posts on the Season and realised that the theme of " not writing regularly and hoping to write more" has been recurring. So in the name of "Sampradaya" I won't change that theme. This year my first concert will be for Karthik Fine Arts on the 9th. My Jaya TV concert is on the 11th and the theme I have chosen this year is "Bharathi Moovar" - Compositions of Kavi Kunjara Bharathi, Mazhavai Chidambara Bharathi & Suddhananda Bharathi. A little more detail on these composers will follow soon on this blog I promise!

Memories from the eighties

2010-07-12T14:56:00.000+05:30

The Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram had a great scheme for promotion of talent in music, dance etc. One generally applied as individuals and then they put you together as a team of 3/4 artistes and got you to perform at 4 different venues in Tamil Nadu, one of which was Chennai. It was in 1987 that I applied for an audition and got selected to perform at the 4 venues. Basically this is how the scheme operated. Sabhas all over the state would register with the IINM and they would be allotted artistes to perform there. The payment was fixed by the IINM and the sabhas got a grant also from the IINM but I am not sure about that. anyway as a main artiste I was paid Rs 225 per concert. Anyway for a budding 19 year old it was the experience of travelling and perform at varied locations that was most interesting and educative.

As soon as my letter arrived I found that my accompanists would be TS Seshadri - Violin and Kovai G Prakash - Mrudangam. TS Seshadri, at present is a music teacher at the Rishi valley school but back then he had just finished from the Madras Music college and was playing concerts and free lancing and teaching. As a sidelight, I was going through a phase in 1982, when my violin teacher Shri V Lakshminarayana had moved to the US. I was to continue lessons with Tirupparkadal Veeraraghavan but that never materialised. I did have a couple of lessons with Kanyakumari but I could not live up to mother's condition that I had practice everyday if I wanted to continue learning from her! Meanwhile Ghatam artiste Umayalpuram narayanswamy was our neighbour. Once when Shri Parur MS Anantharaman visited his house, he called me to come and play for him. Shri Anantharaman chided me for not continuing on the violin and asked his student TS Seshadri to come and teach me. These classes continued for a few months and stopped.

Anyway coming back to the original story I managed to reconnect with Seshadri for these IINM concerts again. The first concert was to be at Gobichettipalayam. I got letter from the organisers about the dates etc. The mrudangist Prakash, who is now a staff artiste at AIR Coimbatore, also wrote to me and confirmed the dates etc. COnsidering the speed at which communications happen today, I wonder how we survived writing and posting letters then! the acceptance letter I wrote back must have been the first official letter that I ever wrote in tamil apart from the letter writing question that I attempted in my Tenth std public exam! Seshadri and me promptly landed in Erode and took a bus to Gobichettipalayam. The stay was at the "mappillai's" room at a kalyana chattiram where the concert was to be held. Seshadri also warned me that any number above 10 in the audience could be a new record for the sabha!

We had a whole day to kill and promptly decided to see a film. Seshadri also told me that there would be morning shows in these parts at about 10.00 am and we landed at nearby theatre to see "Michael raj." The film starred Raghuvaran as the hero and the "dusky" Madhuri as the heroine! Later in the afternoon Prakash joined us from Coimbatore and we had a rollicking time discussing GNB and Prakash generally mimicking the top mrudangists of the day as we practiced in teh room. As expected the audience was 9 in number but I managed a 2 hour concert and left back home after pocketing my 225 rupees.

The next concert was in Chennai and at the Sastri Hall for the Saraswati Vaggeyakara Trust. Being one of my early "Mylapore" concerts I had decided on a "heavy" menu with Atana, Begada and Todi. As I began Todi alapana, in walked Hariprasad Chaurasia and Anindo Chatterjee!! My cousin Sharada, who was organising Hariji's concert for Spic Macay brought him straight to Sastri Hall. The great man was gracious enough to stay till the end and bless me. After all that the secretary Shri NVS came up to me and said "I expect more Dharmavati/Hemavati" from you! Here I was growing up in the "heavy" atmosphere of Begada/Sahana/Surati etc and someone coming up to me and suggesting such "mere" scales??!!?? Anyway it was only a question of time before I was moving on with exploring more ragas and singing more of these "mere" scales!

Next in the circuit was to be at the Tamil Isai Sangam in Tiruvayyaru. We also had the RR Sabha in Trichy on the agenda, so Prakash managed to write to the organisers and ensured that we had back to back concerts so that we could save the train fare etc. I landed in Tiruvayyaru after receiving a "shock" letter that said that the concert was to be of only Tamil songs! Imagine my first concert at Tiruvayyaru and I cannot sing Tyagaraja kritis! Of course it did not matter that much since I was comfortable singing Tamil songs always. At Tiruvayyaru I also met nadaswaram artiste Vyasarpadi Kodandaraman who was there with his elder brother E Uthirakumar, who played together with another brother E Haridas as the Tiruppulivanam brothers. Kodandaraman had also won the AIR competition the year I won in 1986 and we knew each other. Uthirakumar promptly started singing in teh room and asked me to sing Huseni! As I was struggling he quietly said " Sa pa sa vecchu paadunga!" Just keep singing sa pa sa and automatially Huseni will come through! The concert that evening was at the Panchanatheeswarar temple and the crowd was decent.

The next day we performed at Trichy at the RR sabha. A moderate crowd but we had already given a 'bigger' status to this concert and the menu had to include an RTP as well. As I was getting into the main item in walked P Unnikrishnan. He had just finished performing at Karur the previous day and was spending the day in Trichy. I cancelled my return ticket that night, spent the post concert with Unni and we came back the next day by bus.

These are the song lists from my old diary that I still have with me!

Maharajapuram Santhanam Rasikas Trust

2010-06-24T06:52:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I sang a concert for the Maharajapuram Rasikas Trust at the Krishna Gana Sabha auditorium. The trust is run by Dr Ganesh, a senior disciple of Maharajapuram Santhanam, who accompanied him a lot in his last years. After the concert my mind went back a lot to the late seventies and early eighties. As a young kid, apart from GNB, the other big name in the family was Maharajapuram. My grandfather lived in Tiruvalangadu in Tanjore district, and Maharajapuram was a neighbouring village. It must have been the mid seventies when my grandmother was training me to identify ragas in a simple manner. This was my paternal grandmother, Bhagyam Subrahmanyan, and not my musical guru. It must have been 1975 when I first heard a recording of Naajeevadhara by Maharajapuram Santhanam. I had also started learning the violin and my grandmother taught me a simple way to identify ragas. "Try and sing all the compositions that you have learnt in your mind and see if it is similar to what you hear"-she would say. Of course my grandmother also knew the songs that I had learnt and so if I had a problem, she would not accept no for an answer. On one such occassion I managed to identify Bilahari based on my recollection of the Naajevadhara recording! In those days there was a general feeling in the family that the Maharajapuram legacy will be carried on successfully by Santhanam and they were all behind him in full spirit.

Again in the early eighties as TNS was breaking fresh ground, Maharajapuram Santhanam had established himself as one of the leading lights of Carnatic music. His concerts drew big crowds, accompanists like Lalgudi Jayaraman, TN Krishnan, MS Gopalakrishnan as well as some of the top mrudangam artistes supported him on stage. Some of his memorable concerts included a "Yaaro endrennaamale" in Sankarabharanam with MSG and a Saveri RTP at the Academy with Lalgudi. Once after an Academy concert where he had sung songs like Seetavara in Devagandhari and Naradaguruswami in Durbar, I met the Hindu critic NMN in the lobby and he was all praise for the concert saying that Santhanam could sing in anyway he wanted depending on the occassion/audience.

Another reason for the proximity of my family to Maharajapuram was Maharajapuram Nagarajan. Nagarajan is the son of MR Krishnamurthy, the cinema actor and younger brother of Viswanatha Iyer. Nagarajan had taught music to my mother and aunt in Tiruvalangadu and my grandfather was a sef appointed promoter of Nagarajan's music. I think it must have been a late seventies mid year series in the Music Academy when I heard two concerts of Maharajapuram Nagarajan and the Tirukkodikaval brothers (they hailed from the same village as my maternal grandmother). My grand aunt Smt Rukmini Rajagopalan had also harboured hopes of getting Santhanam and Nagarajan to perform as the Maharajapuram brothers but it never materialised. The story goes that Santhanam was ready but Nagarajan declined. I have vivid recollections of listening to Nagarajan especially in Tiruvayyaru. Once a stunning Mohanam followed by Dayarani by Nagarajan had the legendary Madurai Somu nodding away, sitting on the ground in the first row.

Later in eighties when Santhanam floated the Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer Trust, I was one of the first receipients of the scholarship. The scheme devised by Santhanam and Maharajapuram Srinivasan had a syllabus that included learning pancharatnams, swarajathis, navavarnams, pallavis, besides a working knowledge of theory including the 72 melakarta scheme etc and learning to write music notation. There were periodic appraisals that had people like TMT as judges. Once B Rajam Iyer was a judge and he was very upset that I did not know how to write notation. Santhanam sir later took me aside and told me to learn it because it will really help me in the long run. In 1986 I had won the AIR music competition and in the finals I had sung Kapali in Mohanam. I was a huge fan of Santhanam and had copied several things from his Nannupalimpa recording. Later at the audition for the Trust scholarship Santhanam with a twinkle in his eye, asked me if I had sung Kapali in the AIR competition!

Coming to Dr Ganesh I was introduced to his father Shri Radhakrishnan at the lobby of the Music Academy in the late seventies. Shri Radhakrishnan was with LIC in Tanjavur and came to Madras every year for the music season. He used to personally type and cyclostyle schedules of all the sabhas and give to free to a lot of us. In fact he was the pioneer of the now popular "Nalli" book that has all the sabha schedules. Shri Radhakrishnan wa a big fan of Santhanam and Nedanuri Krishnamurthy. In fact I have seen sit him behind Nedanuri on stage at the Academy like a disciple!! I was hardly 10/12 years old and he used to call me and make me sit next to him on the stage at the Music Academy to listen to concerts. My mother never gave me money to buy tickets for the evening concerts, and people like Shri Radhakrishnan have just taken me inside to the stage. Later I think in 1985/86 Ganesh came to Chennai and joined the Veterinary college. It was the Dishitar kritis competition at the Music Academy and I was participating. That was when Shri Radhakrishnan introduced me to Ganesh and said he was in Chennai and was learning from Santhanam. It was also Dr Ganesh who first published a musicians diary of addresses and phone numbers before Mudhra took it over from him.

Anyway it was a pleasure to perform for the Maharajapuram Santhanam Rasikas Trust in memory of one of my musical heroes.

Chitti 100

2010-05-10T11:10:00.000+05:30

Chitti alias PG Sundarrajan belonged to the Manikkodi generation of Tamizh writers. Yesterday I had attended his centenary function and blogged about it in Tamizh. I thought I could share a few music related issues on this blog also. My first exposure to Chitti was when I read a book about the river Kaveri that he had co authored with another celebrated Tamizh writer Thi Janakiraman. At that time I had only read the English translation but the book is a wonderful travelogue on a trip down the river Kaveri from its source in Mercara all the way down to the coast. My personal interest was centred a lot on the musical references as well as the description of the Tanjore delta in that context.

About 5 or 6 years back, when I was being approached for a concert at the Ratnagireeswarar temple in Besant nagar, I met Mr Venugopal who introduced himself as Chitti's son. This was when I started getting interest in tamizh literature and I decided to go and meet him. For a nonagenarian he was mentally very alert and ready to share a lot of stories and anecdotes My interest at that time was mostly musical. He and a group of his friends were huge fans of Madurai Mani Iyer. They always referred to the "Madurai Mani Kacchery" as "Maduraa Bell Court!" In Trichy there was a place where Madurai Mani sang regularly in a mandapam, and this big gang of his fans that included Chitti never missed the concert. Violinist Tiruvalangadu Sundaresa Iyer referred to the location as "Mani Mandapam!"

Maybe someone can help me out on this but I think Madurai Mani Iyer has sung a song "Mahathmavin vazhi nadappom" In Shanmukhapriya that was written by Chitti. Anyway the more interesting story was the year MMI was given the Sangeetha Kalanidhi. Chitti had drafted MMI's acceptance speech and had been requested to read it out on the day. Somehow the Academy officials were not keen to let someone like Chitti read out the presidential address. So on the morning of the function MMI was informed that the person reading out the speech had to be either a relative or a student. They could have just said "It cannot be Chitti!" MMI was quite upset but could not really do anything and finally TV Sankaranarayanan, his nephew, read out the address. MMI however made it up with Chitti the following year when the Tamizh Isai Sangam honoured him and Chitti read out the address on his behalf! After Chitti was a Tamizh writer and the TIS would not have any objections!! Today when an institution like the Music Academy can call people from other walks of like like Viswanathan Anand, they should bring in writers like Jeyakanthan, Ashokamithran or Ki Rajanarayanan who are senior and have written a lot on music.

Coming back to Chitti, he attended my concert at the Ratnagireeswarar temple. I sang "Marivere" in Shanmukhapriya and he was so happy because he remembered MMI's wonderful renditions of that song!

Youtube Channel

2010-05-07T18:04:00.000+05:30

For years people have been searching finding and enjoying music on Youtube. I see that several of my videos are actually scattered all over the place. I thought it would be easy for people to find my videos on Youtube if I did the hard work and put them into organised playlists on a dedicated "Sanjay Subrahmanyan Channel" on Youtube. I started this yesterday and the technology just kept drawing me in as usual. So the whole of today I have been digging up some old VCDs of my concerts to see if I can upload them on to the Youtube channel. So here is the first instalment and hopefully I should get some more in the coming weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/sanjaysub

Even as I uploaded, the response has been great and suddenly I find myself rising in the rankings of the Top Viewed Musician (Today) in India on Youtube. Google has a way of inflating your ego immediately by putting all this info on the channel page itself!!!

Grappling with Youtube's interface was like getting the hang of singing neraval for a 4 kalai pallavi! It took me some time and a few avarthanams before i could figure out how to set up playlists and edit videos to add the info I want. And of course it takes some time before you realise that tisram is not normally done for a 2 kalai 3/4 eduppu pallavi unless you are a hacker/geek or one of those unix/linux types who like that black screen with only text! What I mean is that I cannot edit the info on the videos that have been uploaded by others. I can only share/tag them onto a playlist. Next, I had uploaded a clip and found that it was more than 10 min. So then it was "nadai pallavi" time as I got started on iMovie to edit the clips!

Youtube Channel

2010-05-05T16:03:00.003+05:30

Have just set up a separate youtube channel of my videos found. They can be viewed at one place instead of searching for them repeatedly. Just started and will keep adding stuff when I can.

http://www.youtube.com/sanjaysub

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T07:09:00.001+05:30

Another year comes to a close tonight and 2010 is upon us. I just paused for a second to look back on a fairly eventful year in my music career. It was quite a hectic one with a lot of travel and concerts. The Europe tour early on in summer, the fairly hectic US tour in the fall and of course the season here at home in Chennai in December. 23 years have gone by since my first season as a performer and I m still already looking forward to the next one. Afterall it is this feeling of looking forward to the next concert that keeps musicians like us going. As long as that feeling is there it automatically motivates us to work harder to do better each time.

Like in the previous years this season has also been very special for me personally. Beginning with the Jaya TV concert and a few more concerts still to happen, it has been great but a little hectic. I am indeed moved by the overwhelming response from the rasikas and music lovers. Every concert, the audience has patiently put up with my music, my difficulties at times and have always been there to tell me that they deserve nothing but 100%. They have braved the traffic, sometimes overcrowding, good/bad sound systems and still turned out in large numbers in all the venues to accept whatever I had to offer.

Musically of course the journey continues for me with more ragas, compositions and other forays that promise to be filled with exciting potential. Thanks once again to all of you and wish you all a very very Happy New Year!

Dec 2003 concert available for download from Charsur

2009-12-09T16:58:00.004+05:30

Charsur has made available another concert of mine from the December season 2003. This was held on 5th of December 2003 at Narada Gana Sabha under the auspices of Karthik Fine Arts. The concert had MR Gopinath - Violin, Mannargudi Easwaran - Mrudangam and S Karthick - Ghatam as the accompanists. Click here for a review of that concert that appeared on the Hindu dated 19th Dec 2003. Interestingly Suresh of Charsur called me up and said that he was planning to release this concert but did not know who the accompanists were. I did a simple search on Google and came with a link to the concert review! The internet is just changing the way we do things completely.

Here is the link to the download page for the concert.

Download December Season 2003 Live concert for Karthik Fine Arts

Please support legal downloads and refrain from uploading these concerts to free servers as Charsur is making special arrangements for royalties from these downloadable concerts to reach all artistes including the accompanists.

Season kick off and Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri

2009-12-05T15:15:00.002+05:30

Another season kicks off today with a concert for the Margazhi Maha Utsavam. I have been silent these past months on the blog. A couple of reasons. Travel has been hectic and the creative juices are not flowing. This is just a note to say that I do intend to keep this going in whatever way I can. The Jaya TV concert annually has been my season beginner and I do enjoy it so much. It is a concert where I can tap into this huge library of music and come up with compsitions that go on to occupy a regular place in my concert repertoire. In the eighties when I was still in the process of learning songs, the biggest motivation came from competitions and thematic concerts. Everytime there was a competition one had to learn many songs of a composer and thus one managed to expand one's repertoire. Later when I started performing there was an explosion of thematic concerts in Chennai. This gave me another opportunity to learn songs. Some of those themes from the early nineties that I have sung included Songs on Devi by Tyagaraja, Harikambhoji and its janyas, Ambujam Krishna songs, Papanasam Sivan songs, Koteeswara Iyer (a special recording for Charangi, then run by Mr RT Chari of Tag centre), Gopalakrishna Bharati special concert at Anandatandavapuram, Swati Tirunal, Compositions of Annamacharya, Bhadrachala Ramdas & Narayana Teertha, several concerts of Dikshitar kritis by Guruguhanjali where a songlist was given to me in advance and I hardly knew a single composition!

Jaya TV gives me the perfect space to work out a theme, do some 'data mining' and come with a list of songs. The thing I like about these concerts is that because of the tremendous reach of television so many people listen and come back to concerts with requests of the same. This kind of ensures that these songs do not die prematurely as a one off effort as in some cases. Instead they enjoy a decent lease of life and I also get to keep singing fresh songs rather than repeated requests from some of my old recorded commercial albums. I have also concentrated a lot on tamizh composers and compositions. After all it is the language I am most comfortable with. I grew up speaking it everyday!

This year's theme is interesting in that I have chosen an almost forgotten composer. Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri was a vaggeyakara in the true sense of the word. I have heard a senior musiclogist once mention about the composer Tiruvarur Ramaswamy Pillai as a 'vidwan' who also composed. So also were composers like Patnam, Poochi, Muthiah Bhagavatar, Papanasam Sivan and Mysore Vasudevacharya from the early days for the 20th century. Mayuram Viswanatha Sastri was a brilliant composer who unfortunately did not enjoy the patronage of performing musicians like many others. Only GNB and later DK Pattammal sang some of his songs. In fact his most popular song, Jayati jayati in Khamas became well known mostly thru GNB's record. There is a story that Jayati jayati made it to the final round for selection as the Indian national anthem. Another sidelight on Viswanatha Sastri is that the Music Academy had organised a competition to encourage vaggeyakaras and Viswanatha Sastri won the first prize.

During the eighties Viswanatha Sastri's brother Shri Vaitheeswaran used to conduct concerts dedicated to his compositions annually. I have heard concerts of musicians like Kalakkad Ramanarayana Iyer and Manakkal Rangarajan in Sastri hall singing these songs. After that nothing much was heard except that I know Vidwan Bagalore S Shankar belongs to Viswanatha Sastri's sishya parampara and has sung many of his songs. During the Jayalalitha Govt rule in Tamizh Nadu, Semmangudi had publicly asked for musicians to take up Viswanatha Sastri's Tirukkural madura keertanaigal to increase the presence of tamizh songs in concerts. In this connection the then Chief minister had awarded a financial grant to the Viswanatha Sastri family for popularising his compositions. At that time, a close relative of Viswanatha Sastri met me in Bangalore and gave me several of the books with his compositions and asked if we could do a recording sometime. Somehow I never got the time to sit down and examine the songs. Thankfully the Jaya TV concert has given me the perfect forum to bring out some of these hidden gems. As I perused the songs I was stunned by the musical quality of the songs I really felt bad for having ignored him. As in the case of Dandapani Desigar last year Viswanatha Sastri is another excellent composer who's songs need to be sung more on the concert stage.

Apart from his tirukkural madura keertanaigal, where he has set the tirukkural to music in kriti format, he has also composed songs like murugan madura keertanaigal, krishna madura keertanaigal and bharath bhajan - a collection of sanskrit songs with a patriotic fervour. He has also explored several composition forms like varnam, kriti, swarajati, ragamalika, folk tunes, nadai changes in songs etc. I really enjoyed learning up these songs and I hope rasikas will support this and more of his songs will become popular.

Looking forward to yet another season and hopefully a few more posts before the year is over!

A Knowledgeable Rasika - 2

2009-08-14T08:23:00.001+05:30

Srinivasan has been quite active on the internet these days. He had seen places where people discuss carnatic music online. He loved these discussions. There was so much to be learnt from so many knowledgeable persons. Also the huge amount of music available online for download was such a boon. Any musical point was immediately demonstrated with a downloadable link to a piece of music. He started slowly posting about his own views and opinions. He had cultivated friendships online with a number of like minded music lovers from all over the world.

Last week he had posted a long detailed post on some rakti ragas like Mukhari and Dhanyasi and as a result found some rare recordings of Ramnad Krishnan posted online. He loved both these ragas and thought that a number of modern day artistes were ignoring them. He had gone to attend a family wedding in Coimbatore and met a distant uncle of his who was a long time lover of carnatic music. He had heard several of the great masters and would usually be happy to talk about his experiences. Here is a gist of the conversation.

S: Mama (in an excited tone) I have just got some very rare recordings of Mukhari and Dhanyasi alapanas.

Uncle: Oh! Where do you get all these?

S: From the internet. Nowadays you can get anything online. Have you heard any of the great masters sing these ragas in your times?

U: Let me see. These were generally considered minor ragas. It was only after Ariyakudi and Maharajapuram that these ragas were sung more often. My father used to tell me that in the early twentieth century they still sang only the major ragas like Kambhoji, Todi and Sankarabharanam. Ariyakudi wanted a lot of variety in his concerts and so he increased the number of compositions presented. This resulted in a need to learn up more songs so that he does not sound repetitive. Otherwise our music would have retained the creative aspect like Hindustani music.

S: But these are such beautiful ragas and so classical in their nature. Why are modern day musicians ignoring them? Look at the way Ramnad Krishnan sang these ragas.

U: Yes Ramnad Krishnan was an exceptional singer. But he was not very successful commercially. Listeners don't have the patience to listen to an elaborate Dhanyasi with intricate phrases. It is all right in front of a knowledgeable audience in a small place. For instance my father would tell me that he has heard Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer sing Narayanagowla. Even your so called great masters have not sung this ragam. When Maha sang Chakravakam nobody even knew the name of the ragam. Patnam Subramaniya Iyer composed a varnam in Balahamsa. Does anyone know what it is today? Afterall if Patnam thought a raga as rakti and created a major composition like an ata tala varnam, why did 'your' greats ignore it? Today you don't like it if someone sings some rare raga. But you don't mind something that was considered rare a 100 years back?? I don't understand your logic. In my father's time Ariyakudi was considered an upstart who had diluted carnatic music with his new kutcery bhani. Today he is hailed as a margadarshi. I have heard so many people lamenting about how Ariyakudi is primarily responsible for killing creativity in carnatic music. But Ariyakudi's success is enough to say that he was a man ahead of his times. You have to understand that especially in India people have to wait much longer to be recognised for their efforts in the larger scale of things. Also everything that attracts attention will not set a trend. GNB introduced a lot of innovations in his time. Not all of them have become a trend. For instance he sang Sanmukhapriya for 45 minutes. No musician is doing it these days. Even when they try they are so repetitive that it gets boring from the 6th minute. I am comparing GNB's music with today and saying this. But when my father heard GNB in the 40s he never liked it. He said that college students were unnecessarily hyping him up. Today you are so excited with the music of Ramnad Krishnan. But we all never considered him so great. He got away with singing minor ragas like Mukhari and Dhanyasi. I also see a lot of people getting excited over MDR. Have you heard the great Tiger? MDR was just a pale imitation! But then there is no access to Tiger's music today and so we have to be happy with what we get. One thing I can definitely tell after more than 60 years of listening to music. Thee will always be a group who preferred an earlier generation to the current performing generation. That is why the fans of Maha and Patnam don't like the fans of Ariyakudi and Maharajapuram, who don't like the fans of GNB and Semmangudi, who don't like the fans of MDR and Ramnad Krishnan, who don't like fans of KVN and Nedanuri, who don't like the fans of Seshagopalan and Sankaranarayan who don't like fans of Unnikrishnan and Vijay Siva, who don't like fans of Sikkil Gurucharan and Balamuralikrishna!

Note: This is entirely fictional.

Dec 2002 concert available for download from Charsur

2009-07-25T15:12:00.003+05:30

This concert, available for download at the Charsur site now, is from Narada Gana Sabha, December 2002. There is an interesting story behind this concert. A particular rasika, who was also a retired officer of the bank where I have my account, met me there sometime in the ebginning of December 2002. As we were talking he asked me if I could sing Bhavapriya sometime. I told him I have never sung it but would definitely do so if he told me which concert he is coming to. On the 16th of December, the day of my NGS concert, he called me to remind me that he was coming to the concert and if I was going to sing Bhavapriya. I realised that I did not know any composition in Bhavapriya and so sang an RTP at the concert that evening! The accompanists were RK Shriramkumar, K Arun Prakash and KV Gopalakrishnan.

Here is the link to the download page for the concert.

Download December Season 2002 Live concert for Narada Gana Sabha

Please support legal downloads and refrain from uploading these concerts to free servers as Charsur is making special arrangements for royalties from these downloadable concerts to reach all artistes including the accompanists.

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 11 - Chat with Dr N Ramanathan and Sriram V

2009-07-10T15:14:00.003+05:30

Chat with renowned musicologist Dr N Ramanathan and Sriram V.

Click below to listen

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 11 - Chat with Dr N Ramanathan and Sriram V

A December 2001 concert available for download

2009-06-24T17:18:00.006+05:30

Charsur has made available a December 2001 concert of mine on their website for download only. This concert was held as part of the series organised by the Mylapore Academy at the RR Sabha hall. The concert featured S Varadarajan, Srimushnam Raja Rao and G Harishankar. The 2001 season was very special for me because Shri Harishankar played several concerts for me in a period of about 2 months. He was quite keen to play more but unfortunately he passed away in early 2002. If I remember Charsur had released another concert from December 2001 that I sang in Kalakshetra with Nagai Muralidharan, Trichy Sankaran and G Harishankar.

Charsur usually followed a practice of recording 3 or 4 concerts every season and releasing only one in CD form. Now with the new website and digital downloads possible more concerts from earlier seasons will be released in the coming months.

Here is the link to the download page for the concert.

Download December Season 2001 Live concert for Mylapore Academy at RR Sabha Hall.

Please support legal downloads and refrain from uploading these concerts to free servers as Charsur is making special arrangements for royalties from these downloadable concerts to reach all artistes including the accompanists.

Radio interview in Dublin

2009-06-11T19:27:00.003+05:30

Here is a link to an interview I did with Vincent Woods of the Arts Show for RTE Radio 1 in Dublin, Ireland last month.

Interview for RTE Radio 1, Dublin, Ireland

Scale and Rakthi

2009-06-11T05:59:00.002+05:30

As a young and upcoming musician in the late eighties I have for long heard experts talk about ragas being classified as 'scale' ragas and 'rakti' ragas. The rakti ragas were supposed to be more classical and aesthetic and provided a better listening experience to the connoisseur. There was always the dismissal of the scale ragas as being a mere collection of notes that lacked any innate aesthetics and that raga elaborations invariably 'descended' to an intellectual exercise of playing on the notes. This argument continues and musicians and rasikas have very strong view points on this matter.

A historical analysis of the evolution of ragas will clearly show that there are ragas that were born out of melodies whilst others that were born out of scales. A melody is just a collection of notes that one gets to hear. For instance a classic case is the raga Neelambari that traditionally owes its roots to the folk tradition. Neelambari has been associated with 'Taalaattu' or the song that puts children to sleep. Different variants of the lullaby generally conformed to a melody that became Neelambari. Similarly academics have traced the origin of ragas like Anandabhairavi and Huseni also to the folk versions and their interpretations. There is also strong evidence to suggest that the ancient tamizh music with their 'panns' influenced the evolution of ragas atleast in South India. Subsequent research of the traditional temple music and its singing by the 'odhuvars' lends credence to some of this. Before we jump to any conclusion we have to understand that all this has happened over a fairly long period and much of the evolution process has not been exactly documented for us to comprehend it completely. So what we have today is a collection of the so called 'rakti' ragas or those that have an inherent aesthetic to them as a result of continuous singing and polishing that has happened over so many years.

In the modern day, a 100 year analysis of raga evolution can show us how much change has happened to the nature and scale of ragas. Ragas have a capacity to slowly evolve and change over time because of the way musicians handle them and explore them. A classic parallel to this is the evolution of colours in the spectrum. How today a computer can generate millions of colours that change the way we look at art as compared to the traditional usage of the same. Can scales acquire 'rakti' or can musicians over a period of time polish and shape a raga to such an extent that the listener feels that he can experience an innate aesthetic beauty in the raga. This is really the point of the proponents of innovation. My guru Shri KSK believed very strongly that ragas evolve and acquire 'rakti' with time. He gave us the classic example of a raga like Charukesi. A reasonably modern raga, it became popular after the success of some film melodies like Aadal kaaneero, Manmada leelayai and Vasantha mullaippole vanthu. Afterall the most popular kriti in Charukesi was Adamodi and it became well known mostly through Madurai Mani Iyer. Musicians senior to MMI like Maharajapuram, Ariyakudi and Musiri hardly sang Charukesi. This raga by the seventies had gained so many different colours in the usage. There was a lighter version, an intellectual scalar version and of course a 'rakti' version if one might call it that. The bottom line is that today Charukesi is a beautiful raga that has also been borrowed by Hindustani musicians. (There is a commercial release of a Charukesi by Ustad Amir Khan)

Now let us look at some of the ragas that came into vogue after Tyagaraja or to be more specific those that Tyagaraja composed in. Compared to some older ragas these are quite modern. There is the argument that it was first handled by a musical genius, but then the same music genius' handling of several ragas have been dismissed as scalar. Let us consider two ragas like Jayantasena and Nalinakanti. The former is a typical rakti raga in the eyes of many while the latter belongs to the 'dismissed as scalar' category. Both ragas have become known through the two Tyagaraja pieces Vinata suta and Manavyala kinchara. Vinata suta became popular after it was taken and polished by Kancheepuram Naina Pillai. Since then the song has a basically common structure that most musicians stick to in their renditions. Manavyala on the other hand has been exploited by all and sundry and has gained the status of Charukesi in the modern time. The GNB and Sankara Iyer compositions in Nalinakanti give it the intellectual and rakti colours respectively, while Manavyala changes colour according to the artiste.

Being the young upstart music student that I was in the eighties, I have had long arguments with my Guru. In order to show how much rakti meant to him he said "Do you know I prefer Sourashtram to Chakravakam." This was a man who had composed his first tune in Gopikatilakam, a 'not exploited scale' in the early forties. So much for rakti! He then proceeded to tell me how any raga is only a collection of notes and the beauty comes from the handling. He said, "I'd rather listen to a satisfying Ranjani than a badly sung Sahana." But then I have heard some 'knowledgeable' rasikas (like our own Mr Srinivasan) tell me that they'd rather hear (or even read) about a Begada (even if sung badly) than a brilliantly sung Dharmavati! Finally it is a matter of taste and things boil down to individual likes and dislikes. It is however interesting to see how people like to justify their likes by adding phrases like rakthi or classical.

Another last day of the tour ordeal!

2009-06-01T14:34:00.004+05:30

As I am waiting to be kicked out of my hotel room in Paris because they have a check out time, I though I'll jot down another 'last concert of the tour' ordeal that happened yesterday.

Somehow these last concerts of a long tour have something about them that make it quite a long and arduous affair. Though there are a lot of pleasant memories about yesterday's experience (which I will write shortly) I just felt like describing the 'ordeal' part of it.

Saturday night we had a big concert at the Theatre de la Ville in Paris and by the time everything ended, we had dinner and crashed it was 2.00 AM. We were due to travel to Correns in the south of France for our last concert of the month long European tour. The train was at 7.15 am, and was a 3 hour ride on the TGV from Paris to Aix en Provence. From there we had a an hour's drive to Correns. The train was comfortable but then we had to get up early and be at the station. After we got into the train, we found that the staff at the cafe on the train was on strike, so no refreshments available. Fortunately I had bought some breakfast stuff at the station even though our contact had said we can eat on the train. That atleast gave us the fuel to last the train ride.

We reached Aix en Provence at 10.30 and were picked up by a car. Halfway through the drive they realised that we had not picked up another musician who was due to perform at the festival in Correns. So we went back to pick him up and by the time we reached Correns it was 12 noon.

We had some good food waiting for us and an hour's rest before the sound test at 1.30. It was bright and sunny and the venue was an open air one. As we finished the sound test at 2.00 pm clouds gathered! Our concert was only at 5.00 pm so people were not really worried. We roamed around the streets of the quaint little village for a few minutes and came back to get some rest. This was a festival and there were several bands and musicians. So resting place was most noisy with musicians playing and singing etc. A jolly experience by itself but not for us three weary travellers from India at that moment.

Meanwhile the sky was getting darker and the technicians started covering the stuff on stage. We still did not know whether they will go ahead with the concert because of the rain threat. It was a bit like a cricket match with the skies darkening just before start of play. At about 4.45 they decided that since it had not started raining they would go ahead with concert. We got ready and as we were about step on stage it started to rain! It was dark, gloomy and chilly for 3 hours and raindrops fell at that precise moment when were due on stage.

So within 10 minutes an alternate venue was set up, and the concert began immediately in about half an hours time. The wait and uncertainty had really made us nervous with some of resembling expectant fathers outside the maternity ward at Isabel's hospital in Chennai as we paced up and down looking at the sky!

The concert went off well, the people were most gracious and accepting and we had a good time on stage. As I finished Kambhoji raga alapana, and the audience was still unsure whether to clap or not, because they did not know if they should at that moment, a young kid lying down on his mom's lap launched a spontaneous applause!

Anyway we finished dinner, drove back through a long winding mountain road on a full stomach clutching our intestines, as the driver with his experience of taking fast turns with power steering on a speedy Peugeot van reminded us a of a ride from Kothagiri to Coonoor on a Matador van! We reached the station and caught the train to reach Paris at about 1.00 am and in time to be in bed at 2.00 AM! I looked back at a post I made some months back on a similar 'last concert of the tour' exerience and thought to myself history has a way of repeating itself.

An update and some news

2009-05-28T14:30:00.004+05:30

The last three months have been really hectic with travelling, concerts etc. There has been no time to sit down and write something. Also the Charsur studios were going through a major renovation and things were down at their sound production facility. So no podcasts as well. Anyway things will soon be on track with more posts, podcasts etc once I am back in town sometime mid June. I know this post itself is about 2 months late in coming but then we like to reach the 'edam' of the pallavi even if there is a struggle in doing so :)

The important news is that the new and revamped Charsur website is up and running with all the earlier downloadable concerts etc. They have also set up a page where all the previous episodes of my podcast are available for people to download.

A knowledgeable rasika - 1

2009-03-11T16:52:00.001+05:30

Srinivasan turned 41 last week. He has been listening to carnatic music since the age of 5, or was it 3, anyway he cannot remember. It was in the mid seventies, growing up in Madras, that he began listening to carnatic music. He belonged to a typical south indian brahmin family and listened to music being played on the radio everyday. As soon as the programme was on he would eagerly wait for the announcements to find out the name of the kriti and the raga so that the next time he heard the song he could connect it to the raga name he remembered. This was his first steps into raga recognition, the skill that all aspiring carnatic music rasikas yearned to master as quickly as possible. Afterall when sitting at the concert, there was this mama in the front row who nodded aggressively as soon as the first phrases of an alapana began, for he had found out the raga instantly in his mind. Srinivasan was invariably embarrassed to ask his neighbour the name of the raga. He would rather wait for the kriti to start before hazarding a guess in his mind. As the years progressed by the time he was about 14 he could identify a number of ragas instantly. There was this concert of Balamuralikrishna where he had elaborated on the main raga. The audience was generally confused as they could not identify the raga so easily. Srinivasan, who by now had developed a decent sense of the note as well managed to fix the scale as Natabhairavi and was elated when the maestro started the pallavi ' sa ri ga ma pa da ni paadenaa!' Srinivasan's guess was confirmed as he had heard the maestro's HMV record of this same pallavi.

In the eighties as Srinivasan entered college he was a regular at the music concerts in Madras and got familiar with a number of knowledgeable listeners and rasikas. Cassettes were the main source of listening to music besides the live concerts and the radio. In the seventies it was far more difficult to access recorded music because the whole process of acquiring and playing spool tapes was too cumbersome. But cassette revolution changed all that. It was so easy to go to some collector's house and copy concerts in a flash.then there were these double cassette decks with speed dubbing facilities that made things easier. Yes, the empty cassettes were a bit expensive. The genuine collectors only preferred TDK tapes and not the cheaper local Meltrack variety. Some of the techies insisted only on 'metal' or 'chromium' tapes because they lasted longer. And then they would insist on breaking the seal off the edge of the tapes so that nothing could be recorded over it by mistake.

When the nineties hit his life Srinivasan was a seasoned listener. He had a cousin in Singapore who sent him a steady supply of TDK tapes and he had built up a very good collection. No more listening to the radio. He wanted the old masters. He wanted MDR, GNB, Semmangudi, Madurai Mani Iyer, Ramnad Krishnan etc etc. Anything that was recorded before the mid seventies was fine. This was the music a genuine connoisseur would listen to and he did not want to be left behind. The present day music was already getting too commercial for his liking. A number of young upstarts had appeared on the scene. Some of them had talent and respect for the elders but some of them were in a hurry to achieve fame. Srinivasan took a fancy to a couple of the younger lot. He thought there was hope if these musicians could be made to understand the greatness of the old masters. Srinivasan would go to the afternoon concerts and then quietly whisper in the ears of the musician that hew as welcome to come home and take whatever he had to offer. This way the musician could really get enriched and become a better musician.

Srinivasan was interested in the future of the art. He did not want commercialism to overtake the mindsets of the musicians. Fortunately there were still some who could make a difference and he felt that it was his duty to try and expose them to the wonderful treasure he had with him. Slowly he started contacting and talking ot the musicians directly. He was a back bencher for a long time but of late he wanted to get influential. He would call up a musician before the concert and suggest that he/she sing this or that piece. A typical conversation would go like this.

S: What are you planning to sing tomorrow at the MFA?

Musician(M): Dharmavati and Mohanam.

S (In a slightly disappointed tone): That's ok but why don't you sing Mukhari? Nobody sings Mukhari these days. Have you not learnt Karu baru? It was a favorite of Ramnad Krishnan. Your teacher was a big fan of RK. I am sure you would have learnt it.

M: But that is too slow and may not be impressive in a 1 1/2 hour concert.

S: Don't worry about all that. Just singing it will bring a special grandeur to the concert. Don't be mislead by these modern trends. Why don't you sing Varali as well instead of Dharmavati. Forget all these silly scales that just exhibit permutations and combinations when they are sung. Go for the more rakti ragas. The bhavam is so inherent in them that it will carry your concert very well.

M: But why do you say that about Dharmavati? Artistes like TMT and Kalyanaraman have sung it so well. Even musicians like Lalgudi and MLV give so much dimension to it.

S (now getting a bit angry): What are you talking? have you heard Alathur Brothers or Ariyakudi or Semmangudi sing Dharmavati? Never! Did they not have the capacity to sing it? They chose not to because they knew that these ragas were mere scales. Further have the trinity composed as many songs in Dharmavati as they did in Varali?

M: The Trinity also composed so many songs in Narayanagowla. These stalwarts never sang that. I think that you are unnecessarily belittling the brilliance of musicians who can explore and give life to these unexplored ragas.

S: I am not belittling these musicians. I am only saying that if you are as brilliant as these people then you can also pull it off. But until you reach that stage you have to take the time tested path. All these experimentation will get you nowhere. Prove your worth and then start doing what you want.

M: But did not these rebels start off early themselves. Did they not go against people like you and still manage to blaze a trail.

S (now getting really irritated): All you young people think too much of yourselves. Even before singing a few concerts you want to blaze a trail. Is it so easy? Do you know how much hard work it takes? How many years of toil before you can sing one phrase? Just because you have sung a few concerts and a few people are listening to you, you cannot think that you are going to change the face of carnatic music. This system has stood the test of time for centuries!

M: Ok sir I think will just have to disagree on this point. (But the musician thought to him/herself - Even without singing a single song on stage, this guy can talk and argue so much. What will I do if he can get up on stage and even sing a song at the Tyagaraja aradhana!)

To be continued.

Disclaimer: This is entirely fictional.

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 10 - On Dandapani Desigar with Sriram V

2009-01-28T15:51:00.004+05:30

Chat with Sriram V on MM Dandapani Desigar.

Click below to listen

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 10 - On Dandapani Desigar with Sriram V

PS: Due to a technical problem the title music comes for a few seconds as I am talking at the beginning of show. Please bear with me as I did not have the time to listen to it before uploading. So really sorry but I can assure you that not much would have been missed in the context of the topic of the show :)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T07:13:00.000+05:30

The curtains have down on 2008 and the new year dawns yet again.

But do things really change so much? I am just doing what I am doing. Even as I sit down to think back on the season that just almost completed, it is as if another season has already begun. I have already started travelling down south with hardly a couple of days to sit back and breathe easily.

The last year has been quite memorable in so many ways. Here are some of my personal highlights from last year.

1. Back to the net - It was in 1995 that I was introduced to the fascinating world of the internet. The rec.music.indian.classical newsgroup was quite a riot with reviews getting posted. It was probably the first time that carnatic music was being reviewed by all and sundry at a location other than the mainstream press. Then of course the Great Sangeetham.com Affair started and fell in my life and I vowed to take a break as others got in to do what I had tried. Last year with growth of social media and web 2.0 there was a lot going on that it got my interest tickled again. So my blog/podcast/facebook/twitter/friendfeed etc etc are really keeping me going at the moment.

2. Travel - This has been one of the most travelled years in the last decade or so. The US tour was quite a whirlwind affair with 17 concerts in 35 days. 2009 promises to be just more and more of travel.

3. Students - A number of my students have finally started moving along well and had a great season. This is so gratifying for me personally though I know I am guilty of not giving them enough time because of my own travel commitments. But the recent series of concerts that I organised has given me the confidence that they can handle themseves pretty well. So all the best to them!

4. On a personal note I am most thankful to people like my guru Shri SRD Vaidyanathan, Shri N Ramani, Shri Nagai Muralidharan and Shri Guruvayur Dorai who continue to inspire me and guide me through so many difficult periods musically or otherwise in my professional career. These are people with tons of experience and their insights have been invaluable.

5. All my accompanists on stage have been such great people. It is not easy for people to travel with each other and spend days on end. Forget about the times on stage. Afterall that is what we are all paid to do. It is all those days that we spend off it that can get trying. But i have been lucky and am thankful that they continue to be such a comforting influence for me. Afterall they have to put with so much of my idiosyncrasies like playing all these obscure board games that I carry.

6. Finally it all of you who read this blog, post comments, download podcasts, send me emails who are the real motivation for me. Please keep it coming.There are times when I may not reply to everything. But I can assure you that I read everything. My travel schedule can get in the way of my not being regular in my updates but I will try and do my best to better myself this year.

Happy New year!

Kalayami raghuramam

2009-01-07T21:59:00.003+05:30

Kalayami raghuramam

Kalayami raghuramam is a composition of Swati Tirunal in the ragam Begada and set to Misra Chapu. I first heard this song in a GNB recording of his 1964 Music academy concert. For many years that Begada alapana for me was the very definition of the ragam and I used it as a template for my practice. The first time I heard that concert recording must have been sometime in 1980 or 81. There were only two things that I remember from that first listening. My dad told me that it was GNB's last concert at the Music Academy. He also said that the first three or four phrases of the alapana were to be heard, savored and memorised because they were so perfectly rendered and symbolised the essence of Begada.

Many years later I had just sung a concert in which I sang Ragasudharasa in Andolika. My guru who had come to the concert told me the next day, that though I gave a decent account of Andolika, he thought that the raga had been done to death. If I wanted to take a leaf out of GNB's book, I'd be better off singing something like Kalayami in Begada!

Later in 2004 I was on tour in the US and Shri Mannargudi Easwaran who was accompanying me asked if I knew Kalayami in Begada. He even asked me to learn it and sing it sometime. I had completely forgotten about that incident. A week back I was just thinking of the songs that I could sing at the Kuthiramalika in trivandrum and thought I should sing Kalayami. It is a song I have heard many times and it should not be difficult to learn up the song quickly and would be a change from the otherwise usual stuff. I met Varadarajan, who was to accompany me in Trivandrum, a couple of days back and told him that I was planning to sing Kalayami in Trivandrum. He immediately said "Easwaran sir will be very happy!" Of course Shri Easwaran was supposed to play for me and I thought maybe it was becasue he had requested it some years back.

Yesterday at the concert in Trivandrum, as soon as Varadarajan finished his turn of the Begada alapana, I started Kalayami. Shri Easwaran got so excited that he shook his head, uttered a loud "sabhash" and immediately leaned over and patted me on the thigh, before beginning to play. After the song finished he called me aside and said "janma sapalyam" or words to that effect. Later that evening when we were having dinner he told me he heard that song for the first time in 1964 sung by GNB at the Music academy. Ever since he has been wanting to play for that song and never got an opportunity. Inspite of having played so many concerts for artistes of the GNB school like S Kalyanaraman, ML Vasantakumari and Trichur Ramachandran, he had never played for this particular song. He then recalled how he had asked me some years back and was so happy that I sang it!

It is interesting how certain songs have that effect on people. For me it was that Begada alapana form that same cocnert wheile it was that song for Shri Easwaran. I would have heard that alapana atleast a 1000 times in the last 25 years or so! And poor Easwaran sir would have been dreaming about that song every time someone sang ana alapana of Begada. Anyway this morning as I was chatting with Shri Rama Verma beforing getting back to Chennai, we discussed the Kalayami incident and how Easwaran sir got so excited. He said that as soon as I started Kalayami, he had leaned over to his father and whispered "It is GNB's birthday today!" The icing on the Kalayami cake finally came from Shri Rama Verma's mother who said, "According to my grandmother Maharani Sethu Parvati Bayi, GNB was the best exponent of Begada and I beieve he flirted with the ragam!"

Sriram V is blogging actively

2008-12-19T13:33:00.001+05:30

In case people have missed it Sriram V has been blogging quite actively especially about the morning lec dems.

http://sriramv.wordpress.com/

Chrompet

2008-12-12T15:40:00.002+05:30

Chrompet has been an active centre for promoting Carnatic among the many Chennai suburbs. In the eighties the prominent music promoting suburbs were Nanganallur, Chrompet and Tambaram. Several small organisations were running annual and monthly music programmes typically for the local population who found it difficult to make the trip to Mylapore and T Nagar. My personal attachment to Chrompet goes back to the mid eighties. Chrompet had a sizeable young musician community. Led by the dynamic mrudangist, laya aficionado and TNS fan, Venkatavaradan, the Vasanta mandapam in Radha Nagar had a Tyagaraja Aradhana every eyar. Mr Seshandri as well as the Chrompet Cultural Academy also did their bit in organising concerts on a regular basis. There was also a financial nidhi company owned by musician Dr MBK and an auditorium there where concerts were held.

Shri MA Venugopal, the younger brother of MA Kalyanakrishna Bhagavatar, was a big teacher who conducted music classes. Some of his disciples included CB Ramanarayanan (currently known as Shreyas Narayanan) and R Suryaprakash. There was another singer called Vasu, a disciple of TNS who later moved to the States. Of course there was violinist Kanchi Janardhanam, who has produced the outstanding S Varadarajan. Varadarajan's brother Raghavan, another guy called Easwar (who later moved to Hong Kong) and several other mrudangists would join in the Aradhana proceedings. Venkatavaradhan also got several of us younger musicians from Mylapore. I was quite a regular, along with Arun Prakash and Sriram Gangadharan. Many times we would take my old and rusty Bajaj M 50 and ride all the way from Mylapore. Sometiems I would meet up with Arun at the Mambalam station adn take a train. The Aradhana was an all day affair with Pancharatnams in the morning. Tanjavur Sankara Iyer was a regular. So was Nanganallur Ramanathan, Karur Krishnamoorthy, Visalur Gurumoorthy and V Sundaresan (a disciple of DKJ) from Tambaram.

I will never forget an incident with Tanjavur Sankara Iyer there. We were sitting and listening to someone sing. The violinist finished the Kalyani alapana with the very popular phrase 'g g r s ri , s' with a slight extension on the ri at the end. Sankara Iyer leaned over to me and said " This final sangati that he played is a Soundararajan sangati. Have you heard Sinthanai sei maname. He finishes with maname and the g g r s ri , s in akaram! Have you ever heard Ramanuja Iyengar or Madurai Mani Iyer sing this sangati??" Many years later I was at a concert in Coimbatore. That afternoon in the hotel room I narrated this incident to the violinist. That evening I sang Kalyani and the violinist finished his alapana with the exact same sangati! As I smiled he realised what he had done and sheepishly grinned and we had a good laugh later. On another occasion Shri VL Janakirama Iyer the younger brother of VL Vedagiri was singing. Easwar asked him to sing Marubalka and he sang a superb rendition with multiple kanakku versions of the word 'ramana' in different speeds to land on Marubalka.

Yesterday I sang on Chrompet after a few years and Varadarajan and me were talking about all this when he told me that the Vasanta Mandapam was under renovation and that was why the concert was held at the current venue. As I was singing the concert there were continuous disturbances with fire crackers. Seshadri who gave the vote of thanks said that he was reminded of the film Tillana Mohanambal where the Nadaswaram player walks out of a concert because of disturbances from the fireworks. Fortunately for me the Chrompet crowd stayed to listen to the music and I also am not as skilled or as sensitive as Sikkil Shanmughasundaram to get up and leave!!

Photos of the Chrompet concert by Sriram Guruswamy

Kartik Fine arts

2008-12-11T16:52:00.002+05:30

1987 was the first year when I sang in the formal music season in December. Kalarasna and Karthik Fine Arts were the two sabhas that gave me a chance to perform in the season. These thoughts went through my my mind as I sang my annual Karthik Fine Arts concert at the Narada Gana sabha last week. Karthik Fine Arts used to have their concerts in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, especially the junior slots. Once they started organising the main slots at the Narada gana Sabha, it was the goal for most of us to move there. KFA also was the sabha with multiple venues. At one point they had concerts at Narada Gana sabha, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, RR Sabha, a solitary KJ Yesudas concert at the Kamaraj Hall and their Tamizh Isai festival at the Valliammal college in Anna nagar. KFA was also one of the first organisations to honour younger musicians with their Isai Peroli title. The sabha has been growing from strength to strength spurred by their dynamic secretary Shri Rajagopal and a dedicated team he has built up. Shri Rajagopal was one of the pioneers of the Mylapore Fine Arts before he moved out and got involved with KFA. Rajagopal's team also has a number of sabha veterans who have been active in this unique culture that promoted music, dance and theatre in Chennai and revolutionised the way Chennai developed into the cultural capital of India.

I have had a very personal relationship with the sabha for over twenty years. Much before that, my father, a member of Cho Ramswamy's drama trouple had very close friends in the sabha and this was responsible for me even getting a chance in 1987. To this day, after every concert several members will come up to me after the concert and casually mention that they met my father at the concert and that they share a long time relationship with him. Many years back, I had decided to take a break in the season and sing in only the Music Academy because I was preparing for my ACS exams, which i never wrote! My dad actually chastised me for that and said that I should have sung atleast in Karthik Fine Arts!

I used to have a small notebook where I wrote down song lists for my first 15 or 20 concerts before I got bored of it. One of the several times I had begun and stopped this exercise. Anyway here is an image of the KFA songlist for 1987.

Photos of the Kartik Fine Arts concert by Sriram Guruswamy

DR MBK's take on tradition - Interesting stuff.

2008-12-04T20:08:00.002+05:30

MM Dandapani Desigar

2008-12-04T19:01:00.001+05:30

My first introduction to Dandapani Desigar was through the film Nandanar. Though I had not seen the film, I did listen to the songs and enjoyed them, especially songs like Kaana vendaaamo, Pitham teliya, Iyye methakadinam. I had also heard the naamaavali 'Ennappan allavaa' being sung by Sethalapathy Balu at the bhajan sessions around the Kapali temple, but realised it was from Nandanar much later when I saw the film finally. My Guru Shri KSK always spoke highly of Desigar and his musical abilities. KSK introduced me to the compositions of Desigar like Unnai andri in Bhavani, Arulvaai angayarkanni in Dharmavati and Ennai nee maravade in Amrutavarshini. I came across a book of Desigar's compositions in my Guru's house and got intrigued by ragams like Tandavam and started singing it in ragamalika swarams etc. I was also introduced to the ragam Komalangi and a tune of Desigar's of the words Narayananai tuthippaai written by Raghava Ramanuja Dasar. Nearly 20 years back I heard a superb rendition of this song by Shri 'TAFE' Mahadevan, in a concert for the Rama Nama Yagna Mandali in Sastri hall. Incidentally Shri Mahadevan's grandson is cricketer Abhinav Mukund, who opens the batting for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji trophy and is in the Chennai Superkings team in the IPL - Just some trivia on the side! If I remember right, Shri Mahadevan also song Bhavani ragam followed by Unnai andri in that concert. I also started singing Komalangi in viruttams and ragamalika swarams. I even did an RTP once in Krishna Gana Sabha. Once after a concert in Bharath Kalachar, the stage and film actor ARS (remember the police IG who begs Kamal for help in the tamizh film Nayakan!) came up to me and said he liked Komalangi very much because it was the name of a drama character from an old historical play he had done! The next few times he came to my concert he kept asking me if Komalangi was on the agenda!

Coming back to Desigar, my Guru wanted me to sing some of his compositions and I sang Arulvaai in a radio programme. Palghat Raghu who played mrudangam for me that day enquired about the song and was quite impressed with the quality of the composition and its classical nature. A few years back I had travelled to Cleveland with Shri AKC Natarajan and he sang Oho kaalame ( a composition of Vedanayakam Pillai and set to music by desigar) and said that no one sings it these days and that I should sing it. I kept bugging him time and again for the notation and could not get it. Later I found a recording of Desigar's rendition and learnt it up immediately. AKC also mentioned about Tirumagale in Todi, that Desigar had set to music and how AKC wanted to learn it so that he could combat the Tamaden swami rendition of Karakurichi Arunachalam.

My guru also narrated an interesting story about the ragam Saranga tarangini. GNB upon once being told that Rajarathnam played Kalyani and did an expansive vinyasa omitting the ~~rishabha~~ gandhara for some time. GNB hummed the phrases and found it had enough to be a ragam of its own and composed the song Samana rahite. Since the raga name was not known GNB decided to christen it Ramaasadani and TR Balu sang it on the radio. Desigar, after listening to the radio programme immediately called GNB and congratulated him and also said that the raga had an older name called Saaranga tarangini.

A few months back I got a call from Shri Muthukumaraswamy Sarma a disciple of Desigar and a very close associate of guru asking me if I could write something about Desigar for a small magazine in Tamizh that he was editing. It was he who told me that this year happened to be the birth centenary of Desigar and he wanted to have a special programme on that occassion. I mentioned this to Sriram V and he immediately got Sruti to write a special article. Sriram V gives annual talks during the music season to an invited audience every year on various music related topics especially personalities organised by Mr Chari of Tag centre. This year one of the talks is to be on Desigar. Since this is not an open event I hope to get some clippings of that recording and play it on the next episode of the podcast and talk to Sriram about Desigar and the info that his 'historian' mind managed to dig up.

As I was sitting and thinking about a suitable theme for this year's Jaya TV concert, I decided MM Dandapani Desigar would be a good theme especially in the context of his birth centenary. The Jaya TV concert every year has been a good forum for me to concentrate on programmes with specific focus on different themes. I have particularly enjoyed the experience of sitting down and preparing for the concert and it has been a challenge to remain fresh every year. Fortunately the presence of so many different composers and poets helps me in my efforts. This year I have mentioned MM Dandapani Desigar as the theme and and intend to sing some of his compositions as well as a couple of songs that he has set to music. A book of his compostions "Tamizh Isai Paamalai" and some help from Shri Muthukumaraswamy with musical notations of Shri Desigar's tunes has been invaluable.

Perusing the 60 odd compositions of Desigar and another 50 odd songs that he set to music, it is evident that mainstream carnatic music missed out on a real classy vidwan with a firm grounding in traditional values and a rebellious mind that dwelt into the realm of the unfamiliar and novel. Apart from the innumerable rare ragams that he has employed, he has also been at ease in his setting of Tirumagale in Todi or Ezhisai aagilum in Kalyani cascading the pallavi with many beautiful sangatis. Today I can only say that it is sad that Desigar has not been given his due mostly due to the politics of his time more than anything else.

The season has begun!

2008-12-04T11:03:00.005+05:30

Ah! The season has begun yet again. I think this time I will try and write a bit more about whatever happens. Also maybe a couple more episodes of the podcast if I can just get myself the time I need for that. Definitely one more episode.

Here is an interesting article by Sriram V on what could be called the 1st Music Season!

A Tale of two Advertisements

A few had posted on the reasons for blacking out the header on the blog and what it can do. Well some go and light candles, some say a silent prayer and I black out the header on my blog. Just a symbolic way to express my personal anger at the perpetrators of this act. That's it.

It has been a week now, life returns to normalcy, Cafe Leopold has reopened in Mumbai and the blog gets back some color on its header. More soon.

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 9 - Chat with Subashri Tanikachalam

2008-12-01T08:02:00.002+05:30

Chat with Subashri Tanikachalam, the producer of the highly successful Margazhi Utsavam on Jaya TV

Click below to listen

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 9 - Chat with Subashri Tanikachalam

Header blacked out as protest

2008-11-29T11:25:00.004+05:30

Upon advice from Sathyanarain I am just blacking out the header of my blog as a protest against the terrorist attack on Mumbai. Let us all do this!

Is it the mad season?

2008-11-29T05:52:00.001+05:30

In the late eighties the Sruti magazine began a campaign labeling the music season in madras as the "Mad Mad Mad Season." Till this day it continues to view the music season as an exercise in madness with the volume of concerts increasing so much without a corresponding increase in rasikas. How mad is the music season. Aren't people looking forward to it so much that it is not as mad as it has been made out to be? Here is my personal take on the same. For years we have seen the steady increase in the number of organisations and sabhas promoting music and having festivals during the month of December. We musicians have also seen the increase in the number of concerts that we perform in December. While the mainstream media as well as rasikas debate about the problems the season throws up I would just look at the positive side of things in this post.

1. It is the singular most looked forward to event in the carnatic music world. Much like a world cup that is held once in 4 years or the Wimbledon championships that happen every year in June, December is very very significant.

2. An event of this magnitude can never grow to its current proportions if there wasn't support from the public. This really means that the people have spoken! They throng the concert halls and create the atmosphere that we have all experienced and look forward to every year. Most of the major sabhas especially during the period of 20th - 31st December do draw huge crowds for the premier performances. Yes there are a lot of other concerts that do not get a crowd but so what. When I first sang in 1987 in Kalarasna I had a record audience of 21! But then 21 people brought in 81 in 1988 and we did not even have our photographs printed on the newspaper back then. Newspaper reviews in the Hindu for instance did not carry photographs of carnatic musicians till the early nineties. The power of the 'word of mouth' is such that a good performance will immediately create attention around the city.

3. Season is also financially very successful. Sponsorship money comes in. Corporates are looking to cash in on the publicity that is generated at a fraction of the cost they would have to incur for a single 20-20 game. Musicians also benefit with more concerts and hence more money, so I am not complaining there.

4. Media and its obsession to sensationalise everything is a big plus especially for the 'young and upcoming' as well as the 'old and downgoing' crop. A number of younger musicians can just have their say, get themselves written about and have their pictures plastered hoping that it will help accelerate their success. While their performance on stage will be the final factor to decide, this will definitely give them a big push initially that needs to be capitalised. On the other side of things there are a number of fading seniors who can again go to the media with stories of nostalgia, decry the current state of music and say that they still have something to offer and try and revive a failing career.

5. Chennai traffic can be a nightmare. The once famous internal bus system is not exactly preferred the way it used to be especially for attending concerts. Urbanisation and extended suburbs are making it difficult for rasikas to make the trips to Mylapore and T Nagar every day during the season. This where the localised sabhas have got into the act seizing an opportunity to recreate the season magic in their own locality. Tiruvanmiyur, Villivakkam, anna Nagar, Nanganallur, Chrompet, KK Nagar have all managed to draw their own crowds for concerts.

6. Television, especially Jaya TV with its Margazhi Utsavam is also hyping up the season in a big away. All the news channels are scouring the sabhas to get a 'byte' from musicians or rasikas. Internet sites and blogs are flooding the web with information. More and more artists are joining the blogging bandwagon to 'connect' with the rasikas. People use cell phones and mp3 recorders to save and upload stuff like pictures, audio and video.

All this points to a great music season all round. Even as Mumbai slowly picks itself up yet again after the innumerable attacks on its flourishing life, we in more sober Chennai hope the rains will stop soon so that we can welcome our own special music season! Here's to another great music season!

Season Curtain raiser

2008-11-27T11:31:00.001+05:30

As December 1st approaches the media in Chennai gears up with curtain raisers etc. Here is a typical list of questions asked by journalists.

1. Is the season very special to musicians?
2. What will be the highlights in your concerts this year?
3. What is your favorite venue?
4. Are concerts in the season different to others?
5. Do you think more youngsters are attending the concerts these days?
6. Is there an overdose of music in Chennai during the season? Could it not be cut down and staggered throughout the year?
7. How do you take care of your voice?
8. Any special moments from the season that you can recall?

And some typical answers

1. The season is the most important period in a carnatic musician's performing schedule. The sheer no of concerts, the pressures of performing before the very knowledgeable Chennai audience and the hype created by the rasikas and media makes it special in more ways than one.
2. I am planning to add a number of new songs to my repertoire. I have also been working on some special items, the details of which I cannot disclose at the moment.
3. The Music Academy
4. They are very different for some of the reasons said earlier.
5. Definitely this is a very welcome and positive trend. After all it is the youngsters who will take this art form forward.
6. Definitely not. It is the volume that makes the season what it is. But it would be nice if the sabhas can come together and get into some sort of understanding but it is very difficult.
7. I rest my voice adequately, do not answer too many phone calls, and have strict control over my diet.
8. Many moments among them the visit of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer to my concert in the Music academy.

Vakkeel Venu

2008-11-11T07:58:00.002+05:30

Vakkeel Venu was a very good friend of my grand uncle, the younger brother of my earlier mentioned grandfather Tyagu. This grand uncle Tambirajan, was very closely associated with musicians like PSN, Flute Ramani and Vellore Ramabhadran. In fact it was he who, first made me sing a wedding concert with Tirupparkadal Veeraraghavan and TK Moorthy some 20 years back. Tambiraju mama's house always had a number of people trotting in an out and many of them were very musically inclined. One such person was Vakkeel Venu as he was called. Venu mama was an advocate and a keen music enthusiast who could sing very well. He was a huge fan of Ramnad Krishnan as well as TMT besides GNB etc etc. He was a regular at the academy lobby especially during the morning sessions and it was quite common to see him and a few others hold fort on the previous evening's concert. I would always linger in the periphery and listen in on all the dope.

Once I was in Tambiraju mama's house watching a cricket match (we never had television in our house for a long time) and Venu mama just walked in. He asked me "What song are you learning now?" I said "Maa ramanan" in Hindolam. He asked me next "Ah good. Have you heard TMT sing this?" I said no but the முந்திரிகொட்டை (eager beaver) that I was, I immediately said I have heard of a GNB recording. He just brushed it aside and gave me a stellar demonstration of how TMT had sung it. It was terrific and his voice intonation also sounded exactly like TMT. Many years later I got a recording of TMT singing that same song and realised what he had meant then.

Another day he walked in and asked me if I heard the Mali radio program that morning. I said no and he immediately sang a few choice phrases of Pantuvarali (or the original Ramakriya as some should call but do not do so) and said that was what made Mali such a genius. He once said about a renowned Justice of the High court who was also a much sought after 'chief guest' in music functions, "I don't know which is worse his knowledge of English or his knowledge of Law!"

Once there was a detailed discussion about Ramnad Krishnan and how he was one of the most underrated musicians of his time. Venu mama insisted that Ramnad Krishnan suffered from a weak voice that was unsuited for concert performance especially in the times when people still considered volume an essential ingredient for a good voice. If one's voice was softer (பூஞ்சை) then they were asked to take up an instrument. This was why Krishnan was never too popular with the masses, though he was musicians' musician. I was sitting next to Venu mama when Ramnad Krishnan's portrait was unveiled at the Music Academy for their 'Hall of fame' and TMT gave a stirring and emotional speech. As we came out, Venu mama proceeded to sing a delectable Sahana in true Ramnad style and said "you should listen to his rendition of Shri kalamambikayam!"

Once I was at home practicing when Venu mama dropped in. I was singing the Todi kriti "Nee dayaravale" and he just sat and heard it. Then he said that the alst time he heard anyone sing the sing was GNB many years back and immediately sang a brilliant GNB sangati in the charanam line. He then asked me to sing Kambhoji ragam. As I began in the style of my then favorite Alathur Subbayyar, he just stopped me and said "Chi Chi! Don't sing like this!" when I protested saying this is how Subbayyar sang, he just brushed it aside saying "Subbayyar can sing what he wants. You sing normally." He then launched into a terrific Kambhoji alapana and I understood what he meant. But then even today when I dig out some of those Subbayyar phrases in a concert I remember Venu mama!

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 8 - Happy Deepavali!

2008-10-27T17:53:00.001+05:30

Joined by Sriram V to chat with a special guest.

Click below to listen

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 8 - Happy Deepavali!

Happy Deepavali!

2008-10-27T06:18:00.002+05:30

Wish you all a very Happy and Musical Deepavali!! For years Deepavali has been celebrated musically as Dikshitar day. After all it was this day that Dikshitar made his students sing Meenakshi me mudam and passed away. Invariably my grandmother would come up to me on the morning of every Deepavali and ask if there was any Diskhitar day concert in the city! This Deepavali is of a special kind to me because I gave a special concert at the AIR studios a couple of days back and it will be relayed on the radio this morning.

Moving away from music just a bit, the first thing noticeable this morning is the very very limited amount of crackers being burst. The noise is just picking up but it really is nothing compared to the days we were growing up. Yesterday a group of over 40s at my son's swimming pool were recalling the cracker types like the unpredictable aeroplane, the train that moved on a piece of string, the paper snake that swirled ahead on the ground, the 'vengaya vedi' that you could smash on the floor and that ugly black tablet called a snake that when lit up grew in some obscene shape with an even more obscene smell! My dad went some decades earlier to recall thing like the 'olai vedi' which I have never seen but only heard of.

Finally whenever I sang an alapana at home in clas with my grand aunt Smt Rukmini Rajagopalan, she would aske me to sing an 'out sangati' and I never understood the meaning of it. Apparently the 'out' was a type of firecracker that just lit up like a flower pot and burst suddenly. She explained that GNB always sang some sangatis like the 'out' but then can we mere mortals even dream of such 'out' sangatis! Like the 'out' vedis the sangatis have also gone out of vogue. Happy Deepavali!

Concert available for download

2008-10-21T20:36:00.005+05:30

My recent concert at the Ayyappa Temple in Anna Nagar is now available for download at the charsur website.

Click here to download

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 7 - Answering some questions

2008-10-21T07:17:00.003+05:30

Answering some questions from listeners and blog readers.

Click below to listen

The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 7 - Answering some questions

Disclaimer: These answers will be deemed as inspiration for other musicians to use when answering such similar questions. Any strong resemblances will not be considered coincidental.

Podcast next episode - Send me some quesions

2008-10-18T21:24:00.004+05:30

I have been on a hiatus from doing the next episode of the podcast. Firstly I am just recovering from the pretty hectic US tour. Secondly sometime next week I am getting another guest for the podcast and that might be a pretty long one that covers 2 or 3 parts. In the meanwhile, I thought I could record a slightly shorter episode just answering some questions. So let us say that the next episode will be a kind of "Answering some questions" episode. Please just use the comments section of this post and send in some questions. Of course you can also email me at sanjaysub@gmail.com with your questions.

Note: I have closed the comments on this post. I think I have enough questions for the moment. Thanks to everyone who posted immediately. Meanwhile you can still email me with questions and hopefully I'll take them up in future episodes. Am off to record the next episode and get it online soon.

Sruti

2008-10-16T11:14:00.004+05:30

Sruti is 25 years old. My family was full of music enthusiasts and stories about musicians dominated a lot of the chatter at home. Especially in December every concert heard was analysed and talked about. I was 15 years old when Sruti was launched back then. My dad went and got the first issue and since then it was a permanent fixture in our house. Even today every single one of the old issues is a collector's item. The in depth profiles of the greats, the war of words in the Letters column, the vintage photographs, reviews etc etc. Whispering gallery was another favorite column and it was great fun to try and guess the people being mentioned. Shri Pattabhiraman ran the magazine with a missionary zeal. Later in the early nineties my Guru Shri KSK became a part of the editorial board. During this period I got to know Shri Pattabhiraman a little better. He was quite influential and played the diplomatic game very well. There was a time when he was a close confidante to Shri TT Vasu and kept recommending artistes for the Sangeetha Kalanidhi. He was also quite influential in Delhi and sat on many of the awards committees there as the Southern representative. One of my favorite columns in the early issues was the Bullseye column which ran detailed critiques of some of the top ranking musicians of that time. The articles were very incisive and pointed and highlighted both the stronger and the weaker areas of the musician.

One of the main reasons for the revival of the RTP in modern day concerts was the efforts taken by Sruti. In the eighties a series of RTP concerts were organised and it sparked off a trend with sabhas like the Academy insisting that musicians sing a pallavi in all the senior concerts. Sometime in the nineties Pattabhiraman got fascinated with the concept of 'raga' music whereby he felt that every aspect of carnatic music sought to portray the raga primarily. He wrote extensively on this and wanted to establish that even though kritis with their rich lyrical content emphasising on bhakti were performed extensively, they still used the raga as the main vehicle for exploration. The kriti was just another method for raga exploration. Unfortunately this concept did not take off in a very big way as Pattabhiraman expected.

In his last years Pattabhiraman concentrated a lot on his pet project Samudri. He had a mega vision to create a big one stop destination for all things carnatic. The plan was grandiose and Pattabhiraman with his long experience with the UN went about it in a systematic manner, planning and executing his vision. Unfortunately his death kind of put a stop to that completely and one doesn't know what happened to all that was collected including money and material like photographs, recordings, books etc.

Today, Sruti still enjoys a premier status as an English magazine dedicated to carnatic music. Its modern look and feel under the new management is definitely more impressive that its earlier avatars. Hopefully the content will also come upto scratch soon.

Singing before my Guru

2008-10-15T05:09:00.000+05:30

I have several instances of singing concerts before my gurus. For now I will just illustrate 2 examples of concerts which Shri KSK attended. The first was a concert at the TTK library inside Shri TT Vasu's house. It must have been 1991/92 am not too sure. I remember singing an RTP in Natakurinji. I don't think I was too nervous or anything but I was definitely keen to impress him. After the concert when I met him the next day he told me "You are not old enough to sing Natakurinji, but despite that you did a good job." I never understood what he meant by that. After all should there be age criteria for singing ragams? The during one of my guru's concerts, I was singing along and I heard him sing Natakurinji and realised a few things about what he said. Finally I heard some of my students sing I knew exactly what he meant!

The second instance was a concert at the Kasturi Srinivasan Hall for the inauguration of the S Kalyanaraman Trust in memory of his 1st death anniversary. I had sung Todi as the main piece. After the concert my guru told me "The beginning stages of the alapana you did well. But later you realised that you are a performer and had to do a few things to please the audience. I don't blame you for this." Again I never got what he meant. Several years later I realised it was probably the "Gentleman" in him chiding the "Player" in me!

Presenting some students

2008-10-14T15:36:00.000+05:30

The last four days, some of my students were presented in Ragasudha hall in a concert series. In the late eighties and early nineties younger musicians got tons of opportunities. In the current situation I did find that it is increasingly difficult for many younger musicians to get concert opportunities. I thought getting together a series of concerts with experienced accompanists would give the boys something to think about. I am happy to say that all the four did an excellent job. They hardly discussed anything with me in advance, but they definitely did think and work hard and came up with a noteworthy performance on all four days.

The first day featured Prasanna Venkatraman with RK Shriramkumar and Neyveli Venkatesh. He is a talented youngster who was trained by Smt TR Balamani in Mumbai. He moved to Chennai and has since also had training with Shri TK Govinda Rao.

The next day featured Sandeep Narayan with MA Krishnaswamy and K Arun Prakash. Sandeep was born and brought up in Los Angeles. He learnt from his mother Smt Shubha Narayan. He also took a year long break from school and spent the time in India learning from my guru Shri Calcutta Krishnamurthi. The last few years after completing his studies he has been living here in Chennai.

The third day was V Bharath Kumar with MR Gopinath and Trichy Harikumar. Bharath is the son of musician Smt Suguna Varadachary. He has also learnt from my Guru besides learning the violin from Shri M Chandrasekharan.

The fourth day featured B Swarnarethas with S Varadarajan and P Satish Kumar. Swarnarethas had early training from Smt Indira Ramanathan. He also learnt the mrudangam from Ramanathapuram MN Kandaswamy Pillai.

Overall it was a satisfactory experience for me. It has been a long time since I went out and sat through four complete concerts on consecutive days. I must specially thank each and every one of the accompanying artistes who did a wonderful job to inspire these youngsters. I spent some thought into putting together the list of accompanists for these concerts. I wanted musicians who were popular, skilled and experienced. They also had to be people who were accompanists in the true sense of the word. They would not be big names with bloated egos who wanted to constantly remind these musicians of their stature. Instead the accompanists all played with sincerity and exuded so much warmth on stage. Everyday I could see the tension in the youngsters' faces at the beginning of the concert. Everyday I could see that as the concert progressed, they loosened up to relax and give their best. This is the inspiration that youngsters seek from senior accompanists and I am so happy that they got it from them.

Special thanks to Jaya of Ragasudha hall for giving the right ambience and to all the rasikas who came in to support this venture. Thanks are also due to Suresh and Charu of Charsur. They have recorded these concerts and will be putting them up online for people to download.

The longest day of this tour

2008-10-07T13:53:00.001+05:30

Am sitting at the Logan airport in Boston as I type this. Another tour of the US is over and it has been so power packed and hectic. Thanks to the tour sponsor Bhargavi Sundarrajan, my accompanists Nagai Muralidharan and Neyveli Venkatesh and the warmth and love of the numerous rasikas, organisers and hosts, I go back in an extremely happy and joyous frame of mind. It has been like this every single time I finished an overseas visit and this time it is no exception. The only difference to the previous occasions is that I sit down and pen my thoughts immediately in this blog. For years I wanted to write a diary and never could do it. There was this pressure to write something every day and things never got on track. Blogging is so different. I can write or not write and still not feel any pressure. At the same time I can record a few things that I go through and feel nice about it.

17 concerts in 35 days can be quite exhausting but my experience has been more on the lines of a great workout at the gym. Am feeling so refreshed and ready to get back home and start looking forward to more activity. US tours have a way of rounding off one's music. I always felt that my first tour in 1995 was the one that convinced me that I could take music as a serious full time career. After several such tours today my mind is already thinking about the things that I tried here, managed to pull off, flopped here and there. I am already excited about taking them up in India especially in the music season. For instances I sang some RTPs in ragams that I had not done in past like Desh and Dwijavanti. I was particularly happy with the latter as I had struggled with it in the past. I must say that a recording of TNS that I found and some help and encouragement from Nagai Muralidharan helped me along more than anything else.

It felt good to catch up with a few old friends from previous tours and things have hardly changed. Yes the price of gas has gone up, so has the cost of food in airports not to mention Starbucks. But I made a start by getting used to some of the black coffee served on the planes especially Southwest and this basically took care of my daily quota of caffeine. The disappointment was not being able to keep up with a thirteen year tradition of visiting Dayton, Ohio this time.

So after all that the last concert was probably the longest day of the tour. On saturday last we had just wrapped up the concert at Austin, TX and went to sleep only by about 1 am. We had a flight to catch the next morning at 7 am. So we got up on Sunday at 4 am. We reached the airport only to discover that the flight was delayed. As it is we were due to arrive only at 1.40 pm in Boston and they had already postponed the concert by an hour to 5 pm. By the time we landed in Charlotte to catch our connection it was 12 noon.We had to traverse the entire airport in Charlotte to reach our gate and the walk was a good 25 minutes even at a brisk pace and I am reasonably fit at the moment I tell you. We just had time to grab a bite before we boarded the flight especially given that it was lunch time and there were long queues at all the food joints. We landed in Boston at 3 pm and had to wait 35 minutes for our baggage to arrive. US Airways yesterday put the Indian Airlines of old to shame! We finally managed to reach the venue directly from the airport experiencing a bit of the famed 'Boston dig' and missing our way as the GPS got as confused as everyone else.

We still managed to start the concert on time after a few visits to the restroom who's location was the farthest I have seen on the tour from the performing stage. Thankfully the concert went well and the audience was in a more forgiving mood to tolerate what I managed. The saving grace was that I pulled off the Dwijavanti in the midst of all this. I think the adrenalin was pumping more because it was the end of the tour. After the concert we reached the hosts' place only to find the outside temperature at the lowest since we landed 5 weeks back! So in what was the longest day of the tour we had so many different varying experiences that more than made up for everything else to give us the usual well rounded US tour experience that we may have missed!

Things haven't stopped because I reached the airport and found an attendant telling me that my reservation has been canceled and I cannot get back home! So finally after more talk and explaining etc etc I am here at the gate waiting for the announcement to board the flight. I am probably writing more of this because things have gone like clock work and a special special thanks to Bhargavi Sundarrajan for planning and executing things to perfection.

Ps: Sitting in Brussels airport with access to the net I think I can finally post this today.

Carnatic Music and anything else

GNB & Kamalambam bhajare

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Chat show with Yugu Sethu - Part 1

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Live on 23rd Oct 2011 - Viruttham in Khamas, Saveri & Kapi

Acceptance Speech by Sanjay Subrahmanyan

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The Begada journey from Aaraar Aasaippadaar

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App evolution - 1

Announcing the SanjayMobile App for Android and iPhones

Some interesting stats

Nadopasana 12th July 2011 - Video clips

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National programme on Doorarshan

Ragam Tanam Pallavi and some innovations

Please check this out

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Jaya TV concert - Dec 11th 2010

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Concert schedule Season 2010

Season 2010

Memories from the eighties

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Youtube Channel

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Dec 2003 concert available for download from Charsur

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Dec 2002 concert available for download from Charsur

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