veena & sitar jugalbandhi

Ramnath Iyer · Post by **Ramnath Iyer** » 08 Apr 2008, 07:16

After listening to that clip of Balachander (still can't get that music off my mind 24 hours later) posted by Mr Coolkarni I am prompted to ask for this....Does anyone have a recording of a jugalbandhi between S.Balachander and Budhaditya Mukherjee ? I have heard that they have performed a few jugalbandhis together.
regards
Ramnath

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 08 Apr 2008, 13:06

s balachandar himself was a great sitar player. at the tender age of 9 or 10 years i. have heard him play about 65 years back at the residence of mrs Lalitabai shamanna, vidwan and coach.at Salem. her son is SRavindran, a top grade veena artist of AIR madras. i have not heard about him recently. will vainik give any information about him. he was a top ranking official of Tamilnad state govt gobilalitha

Ramnath Iyer · Post by **Ramnath Iyer** » 08 Apr 2008, 17:10

Dear gobilalitha
I know Mr S Ravindran very well. Met him during season this year also in chennai. Heard his veena concerts as well (he did not play during this season due to illness).
By the way, did Balachander play carnatic music on the sitar ?
thanks
Ramnath

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 09 Apr 2008, 08:52

sir, I am balasubramanian fromBangalore(gobilalitha for forumites) ...at this very distant date, i do not remember what he played, in those days, sitar itself was a strange instrument at Salem, a small town then .Ravi knows me as balu , brother of rajamani,cricket mates then,from Little flower high school, salem. you may be aware that ravindran's brotherDr.S.Ramaswamy, a medical practitioner is a very good singer. used to sing regularly at AIR,Madras.in those vdays sabhas rarely gave chances to not so well known singers. there were no sponsors. sabhas existed with gate collections and princely subscriptions of 5,3,2 per month. many singers had to be content with AIR, doing a yeoman service for carnatic music inthose days.. Lest some forumite may remark about straying away from the main subject, let me add that sometimes , the world being amall , some old friend may try to contact me,by my references of the past

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 09 Apr 2008, 09:33

Ramnath Iyer wrote:By the way, did Balachander play carnatic music on the sitar ?

Ramnath - I have read in Sruti magazine's feature on Balachandar that he played Sitar, Tabla and Harmonium (and some other instruments) in his teens. He was also a AIR staff artiste on the Sitar (Carnatic). I think the magazine had a picture of him playing sitar as well. Only later, did he switch over to the veena.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 09 Apr 2008, 09:41

True. Not forgetting that he could sing and play chess like a champ (I know, the latter doesn't come under music).

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 09 Apr 2008, 10:11

Arasi...and he was an excellent cine director as well....Anda Naal, Kaidhi, Bommai just to mention a few

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 09 Apr 2008, 10:57

mohan wrote:
Ramnath Iyer wrote:By the way, did Balachander play carnatic music on the sitar ?
Ramnath - I have read in Sruti magazine's feature on Balachandar that he played Sitar, Tabla and Harmonium (and some other instruments) in his teens.

And the Kanjira !

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 09 Apr 2008, 20:50

And I forgot to mention the khanjira and the movies. His brother might be able to add on to the list of Balachandar's talents, who knows? My! What a gifted family!

Ramnath Iyer · Post by **Ramnath Iyer** » 10 Apr 2008, 06:22

Mohan,
I should have worded my question better - 'Did Balachander play Cranatic or Hindustani that day when Mr Balasubramaniam listened to him ?'. Basically I was trying to find out if Balachander started with HM and then moved to CM.
Ramnath

Kanti Dattani · Post by **Kanti Dattani** » 10 Apr 2008, 14:14

Are Veena/Sitar jugalbandhis very rare? I have over one hundred Jugalbandhi CDs of almost all HCM and CCM instruments and vocals, but only TWO Veeena/Sitar recordings. If you know of any more by any artistes, please let me know. Thank you. The two I have are:-

1. Purbayan Chatterjee/Jayanthi Kumaresh, CD SWM100, 'Mandala', Ragas Hansadhwani, Karaharapriya and Bhajan. Great CD; very good music and expertly recorded in my opinion
2. Ras Behari Datta/Mustafa Raza, EUCD1392, Charukeshi. Average music and recording in my opinion

Kanti Dattani

gobilalitha · Post by **gobilalitha** » 14 Apr 2008, 18:10

further to post no 2, in this thread , after scratching my brainsfor so many days, i now think balachandar might have played raag durga or its carnatic dostin a slightly different manner. now I remember telling a gentle man sitting near me that the raag is somewhat like the thosedays' favourite hindi film song 'Sundara naari preetam pyaari', sung by KCDey(always on mylips), .in those days at the age of 9or 10, I began to take a liking for songs ofsaigal, pankaj mullick, noorjahan etc. it is another matter I was snubbed by an elderly hindi knowing man whenI asked him what the words cited above meant telling me boy ,it is not for you

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 20 Apr 2008, 02:54

I was told by a very reliable person- do not wish to divulge the name because of certain sensibilities etc- that Sri.S.RAJAM the elder brother of S.B. actually taught him Veena initially; He already knew it etc and the family was involved as a group in movies, concerts, etc.
VKV ..... I am being very careful in stating this because S.B. has claimed that no one taught him Veena etc

Im A Skal Man · Post by **Im A Skal Man** » 07 May 2008, 22:18

Kanti Dattani wrote:Are Veena/Sitar jugalbandhis very rare? I have over one hundred Jugalbandhi CDs of almost all HCM and CCM instruments and vocals, but only TWO Veeena/Sitar recordings. If you know of any more by any artistes, please let me know. Thank you. The two I have are:-

1. Purbayan Chatterjee/Jayanthi Kumaresh, CD SWM100, 'Mandala', Ragas Hansadhwani, Karaharapriya and Bhajan. Great CD; very good music and expertly recorded in my opinion
2. Ras Behari Datta/Mustafa Raza, EUCD1392, Charukeshi. Average music and recording in my opinion

Kanti Dattani

Kanti Danti,
The Purbayan Chatterjee/Jayanthi Kumaresh CD sounds interesting. Do you know if the veena was recorded acoustically with a microphone or run through a pickup and an amp first? I prefer to hear the acoustic sound of the instruments side by side.

sowmithran · Post by **sowmithran** » 04 Jul 2008, 07:36

Hi all
There is a sitar/ veena jugalbandi played by Ustad Shahid Parvez khan and E Gayathri.

They have played raga dharmavathi, kaushik dhwani and one more ( Yaman, if i remember right)

Its a commercially recorded album

Kanti Dattani · Post by **Kanti Dattani** » 04 Jul 2008, 12:27

Hello 'Skal Man'
You wrote on the 7 May 2008
>>>>Kanti Danti,
The Purbayan Chatterjee/Jayanthi Kumaresh CD sounds interesting. Do you know if the veena was recorded acoustically with a microphone or run through a pickup and an amp first? I prefer to hear the acoustic sound of the instruments side by side.<<<<

I have written to Derek Roberts of Sense World Music about the interesting recording question you have asked. As soon as I hear from him I will let you know. I can scan the CD booklet and email to you if you let me know your email address. Mine is kantidattani@aol.com - I am in UK. If you have installed SKYPE (which is free) on your computer, you can call me (my id is kanti dattani) and listen to the music and it costs nothing!

Kanti Dattani

Kanti Dattani · Post by **Kanti Dattani** » 06 Jul 2008, 12:17

Hello 'Skal Man
You wrote on the 7 May 2008
>>>>Kanti Danti,
The Purbayan Chatterjee/Jayanthi Kumaresh CD sounds interesting. Do you know if the veena was recorded acoustically with a microphone or run through a pickup and an amp first? I prefer to hear the acoustic sound of the instruments side by side.<<<<

Further to my posting on 4.7.08 I have now heard from Derek Roberts who informs me that the concert was recorded acoustically with a microphone and the Veena sound is better than he has ever heard

Kanti Dattani

mgkumars · Post by **mgkumars** » 16 Jul 2008, 02:41

Last year, in Fall, I had a wonderful opportunity to play Veena in Jugalbandhi with Ustad Shahid Parvez. Here is a link to video clips from this concert:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFLcRLvCb5o
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VenV0J5Ckjg
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMwluFhXxKc

Regards,
Gopal