Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no more

Remembering musicians of the recent past
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arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by arasi »

Varsha,
Thank you for bringing the vidushis' elaborate treatment of two of our modern composers' songs. I haven't heard 'nidam orutharamEnum' in ages, and that too sung for that length of time!

annamalai
Posts: 355
Joined: 23 Nov 2006, 07:01

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by annamalai »

I love this movie song rendition of Jayalakshmi - Maname Muruganin Mayil vahanam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uKUXueJYDc

what a voice.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by rajeshnat »

slo
Ramasubramanian M.K wrote: In 1990, when one of the Mylapore sabhas(probably Bharathi Vidya Bhavan or Karthik Fne Arts) decided to observe Mayuram Viswanatha Sastry's Birth centenary(Mayuram Viswanatha sastry composed patriotic songs in Sanskrit and popularised by GNB--Jayati Jayati Bharata Mata,Samarasabhavana etc) Sastry's son himself in his late eighties was feted--my father was one of the speakers and when the question of WHo to invite to sing some songs of Sastry my father suggested the sisters and they rendered a few songs--that was the last public appearance that I was aware of.
MKR Sir,
At the age of 55 to 60 looks like they faded out . This is just happening all the time for many many musicians . Possibly the dual musician slots were slowly taken by Bombay sisters, Priya sisters and RG sisters as time rolled by. Have they participated in giving any lecdems workshops etc in 70's and 80's that you know of ??. I think one way to stay longer in musical circuit that too from second half of careers is slowly "brand yourself as a great GURU" and possibly give lecdem and thematic concerts - possibly they did not do that at all.
Last edited by rajeshnat on 31 May 2014, 09:53, edited 1 time in total.

rajeshnat
Posts: 9907
Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by rajeshnat »

A bunch of songs is uploaded by raju asokan. They stayed intensely classical despite their film career which to me is quite an achievement.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... atic+songs

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by arasi »

Rajesh,
I don't think many women musicians gave lec-dems and workshops then! Even if one did, one had to be a product of a music school and prabably had to be teaching in one too??

Narasimha
Posts: 33
Joined: 01 Feb 2013, 08:15

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by Narasimha »

Looked like Radha was unwell from quite few years and they had to stop performing from past 2 decades.

CRama
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Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by CRama »

Sorry for chipping in very late. I was on a long tour - from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Returned just a couple of days back.

The demise of Smt Jayalakshmi is a great loss to the music field. The duos were one of my favourite musicians right from my young age. My parents also liked their music very much. I have heard lot of their live concerts and records from Radio Ceylon and AIR right from my childhood. One of the earliest concert that is still in my memory – 1970 -was in Tagore Theatre, Trivandrum for the AIR conducted Swathi Thirunal Festival- a concert of full ST Kritis. I distinctly remember an elaborate Bhavapriya (Mamavasritha) and Bhairavi (Palayadeva deva- a very rare song) in that concert. To our surprise, they also sang verses from Utsavaprabandham and Panchasayaka janakan in Neelambari in faultless Malayalam - a surprise for us in those days.

Next to the Female Trinity of CM, they sang in all the sabhas. I have heard them in TVM (many venues), Bangalore and Chennai. In Ninetees I heard many memorable concerts in Bangalore. I immensely enjoy the expansive alapanas of Kambodi, Shanmugapriya, Subhapanthuvarali etc by Jayalakshmi. Their LP records were also in great demand. The two Thyagaraja Kritis LP records were well packaged. Sogasuga, Rama nee samana, Lavanyarama, Ninnuvina namadendu, Ennalu Oorage were all top class. They used to sing all the sangathis in Ninnuvina namadendu in a commendable manner which is normally played only in instruments. (MS also used to sing similarly). Their Purandaradasa Kritis and ugabogas are a rage among Kannada knowing people. Very recently I got a song Nee maayayolego – a composition of Kanakadasa in Yadukulakambodi- simply haunting. People used to look for ragamalika slokams in their concerts. In the Keerthana casette of Pancharathna Kritis, each song was preceded by a slokam.

I remember reading a review by Subbudu in his characteristic style- where he rated Jayalakshmi's voice much superior to that of Parveen Sultana.

In fact, Radha began losing her voice in the late eightees, but Jayalakshmi's voice was sweet and pliable till the last concert. As to their last concert, Music Academy bestowed TTK Award on them in 2000 – a poor compensation for not awarding SK- and at that time, they presented a concert of GNB Kritis in Academy. That may be their last concert.

Many of their film songs – mostly in carnatic raga based were popular. In the Malayalam film Kumarasambhavam in the early seventees, acted by Gemini Ganesan and Padmini, there was a dance by very young Sreevidya and Rajasree for which a marathon song in Khamas- Maya natana viharini which included a plethora of swaras in Khamas and also ragamalaka swaras was sung by Jayalakshmi and P.Leela. This is a must hear song- akin to Ellam inba mayam of MLV and P.Leela. This song is sung by many children in the final round of Super singer series in Malayalam. The only film song sung by both the sisters is Thiruchenduril por purinthu in the film Deivam- This is a very melodious song in Kavadichindu form music scored by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan. Jayalakshmi will live through her innumerable concert recordings available with music lovers.

arasi
Posts: 16774
Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by arasi »

CRama,
Thank you for your post.
I knew they had their share of playback singing, but not to this extent. I wanted to listen to the khamAs song, and also wanted to see Srividya in the dance sequence. I found a link to the movie, and it comes on in about thirty minutes. Yes, there is a bit of rAgamAlikA too, and a volley of svarAs.

Who is the young woman dancing with Srividya? Was Kunnakkudi the music director? I can't read malayALam :(

Hope you all had a lovely trip of bharath darSan.

CRama
Posts: 2939
Joined: 18 Nov 2009, 16:58

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by CRama »

Arasi madam, The music Director of Kumarasambhavam was Sri.Devarajan, the most famous music director of Malayalam films. All the songs in that film were classical hits sung by KJY, Jayachandran, Madhuri, P.Leela, S.Janaki etc. The film was directed by P.Subramanyam of Merryland, TVM. Happy to note that you enjoyed the song. The other dancer is Ms Rajashree, who has acted in many Tamil films as well. She was paired alongwith Ravichandran in the ever green hilarious film Kathalikka Neramillai.

MY long trip was a very happy and enjoyable trip which will remain in our memory for long. Even though I belong to TVM and visited the town umpteen number of times, this was the first time I visited Suseendram temple and Padmanabhapuram palace.Simply marvellous.

ganeshkant
Posts: 963
Joined: 05 Feb 2010, 11:59

Re: Vidushi Jayalakshmi (of Radha-Jayalakshmi Duo) is no mor

Post by ganeshkant »

CRama,I as a rasika can't but concur with your views about JL.I am really sorry that I haven't heard any of their concerts in person.One can easily understand the latent emotional appeal and love for the artist in your post.Let us all stand together in our love for music as also the artists.

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