A Tribute to ALL INDIA RADIO

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 30 May 2005, 13:00

I wish to express my debt to ALL India Radio, for it role as a source of Carnatic Music (for that matter ,other forms as well).
Since i grew in a small town-in Karnataka- far away from a Metro AIR Had been a very important source of music in my formative years (of listening).
I wonder how the general listening public feels about its contributions.
AIR as an Organisation is so Publicity shy , that it is very difficult to get more information on its role in preserving this music , especially during the period after independence , until recent times when other modes of sponsorship has come into picture.
Can we discuss more about the various stalwarts who have graced the corridors of AIR , say in chennai and other southern cities and their major contributions.
I have heard that AIR Vijaywada used to bag lots of awards for their musical programs, that the likes of Voleti and nookala Chinna Satyanarayan used to conduct very nice teaching sessions there.
Some of the well known programs that come to my mind are the MM iyer-lalgudi-Pazhani National program,
AIRs tribute to Dwaram,and to Chowdiah.
Can we discuss more on some of the well remembered programs?
For starter I have given links to 2 tracks.
one is of Chembai from Bangalore AIR( there is a period of monsoon related disturbances in the recording) and the second is of alathoor srinivas Iyer-Lalgudi-PMI.
A different mood from the one we expect in a concert hall , but they are such a joy!
http://rapidshare.de/files/2058889/Sath ... 1.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2059196/Sath ... 2.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2060893/BALA ... 1.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2061131/BALA ... 2.mp3.html

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 30 May 2005, 13:40

AIR's service is phenomenal, no doubt.

In the above Chembai recording, the others are
Vocal Support: Chembai Narayanan
Violin: A.V.Krishnamachar
Mridangam: M. S. Ramaiah
Kanjira: S. Sheshagiri Das

If only I had a faster internet connection, I could upload most of my nearly 10GB AIR MP3 collection.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 31 May 2005, 03:06

I agree that all of us owe an enormous debt of gratitide to the AIR. My first memories of carnatic music recitals comes from Bengal: being madrasis in interior Bengal, my parents struggled to expose us to the 'correct' cultural atmosphere, and AIR's national programmes' were treasured! When there was a carnatic music concert on, my mother would serve dinner early, and get done with all the cleaning, and we would then arrange ourselves around our old Phillips Radio set and with the lights off, listen to the torrents of music that would flow out. My sister and I would fall asleep failry early into the program, but even that limitted exposure in our early years really made an imprint on us. As we grew up and moved to Madras, we had more opportunities to listen to carnatic music live, and as we grew older and moved out, carnatic music remains our contact with 'home', and we believe, a panacea for all the maladies that the world can throw at one, from homesickness to even a broken heart! So, yes! VIVA LA AIR!
Ravi

pramodh · Post by **pramodh** » 31 May 2005, 21:06

10 GB or AIR collection!! chembaiji, what about a paid site where rasikas can contribute to maintain and share your collection, like X Drive?

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 31 May 2005, 21:17

I cant personally afford the cost of 10GB hosting. It could cost as much as $200. I will verify the exact cost. If someone is willing to foot the cost, like how you suggested, I can make it all available on a website.

pramodh · Post by **pramodh** » 31 May 2005, 21:40

could we not go for something like 2-2.5 GB and then upload in parts. Maybe this be cheaper.

If there are 5-10 people who are happy to share the burden, then maybe this will work out.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 15 Jun 2005, 17:17

Here is a nice Abhogi by MM Iyer.
I have a great weakness for this raga but to my dismay I rarely find it being featured in CM -past or present.
My learned CM friends tell me that this is due to the overbearing presence of its close ally -Sriranjini
http://rapidshare.de/files/2212963/MM_I ... i.mp3.html
I wonder if we can have a quick stocktaking of the various kritis and the artists who have expolited this raga in CM.
Mercifully in HM this is not so and there are ample renderings of Abhogi , of which one sample is here by Jagdishprasad..

http://rapidshare.de/files/2215088/Jagd ... e.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2215802/Jagd ... i.mp3.html

meena · Post by **meena** » 16 Jun 2005, 04:14

thanku kulkarnji for manasunilpa shakthi leka. Its sree Umayalpuram Kothandarama Iyer on the ghatam

kaapi · Post by **kaapi** » 17 Jun 2005, 15:58

On Abhogi:
1. manasu nilpa - MMI ( Alredy in - Hence for the records)
2. manasu nilpa - GNB
3. Sri Lakshmi Varaham - SSI
4.Sabapathikku - MSS and Various Artists

On Air
Yes.It was a source for excellent carnatic music concerts. The pattern of concerts used to be something like this.

a) National Programme ( Carnatic Music ) every Alternate Sturday 9.30 to 11 PM
b) Regular Concert for 1 hr 15 mts on Friday nights at 9.15 PM By A + grade artistes .
c) Regular concert for 1 hr every Thursday morning by A grade artistes.
d) Exclusive RTP concert for 45 min every fortnight.
e) 2 - 45 min concerts by B grade Artistes.
f) and a host of concerts by junior artists.

AIR had maintained an archive of all its concerts since the 1950s. But , I read somewhere that due to paicity of funds AIR had recently re- cycled ( meaning erased and recorded fresh) some 300 tapes.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 20 Jun 2005, 05:50

further on abhogi,
dkj used to sing nekkurugi , quite often

two other abhogi renderings here..

http://rapidshare.de/files/2472705/seer ... i.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2473937/somu ... i.mp3.html

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 25 Jun 2005, 11:05

http://rapidshare.de/files/2581298/BHAI ... E.MP3.html

here is the first of a series of mysore maharaja compositions , which were relayed on AIR bangalore , last dasara.
many kudos to karthik krishnaswamy ( harikesa) for the painstaking effort..

inconsequential · Post by **inconsequential** » 26 Jun 2005, 02:56

kulkarni sir,

thankyou very much for all these amazing clips that you share - especially, since most of them are shared in one context or another, it finds an immediate home in listeners' minds/hearts. i have a question. i have missed a lot of these rapidshare links. how long are they valid? any residence time?

about Abhogi - have heard an MDR-TNK-UKS- manasu nilpa sakti lekha podey- simply marvellous. quintessential abhogi - the gentle sway with which he comes down from the tAra shadja while singing those words simply makes me swoon.

and what can i say about the accompanists. the magic of this combo was simply immaculate. sri TNK could probably relate to sri MDR at an emotional level - fully understanding him, the man. i dont know. but the accompaniment is such a wonder. his accompaniment seems to be the 'proverbial accompaniment' - if the main artist is sprightly, so is he - if the former is meditative, so is he.

about the role of AIR - in our music appreciation - simply beyond words. what i loved the most about it (AIR-chennai) was the CM capsules - 14 min, 12 1/2 min, 1/2 hr and 1.5 hrs. depending on the time of the day - well distributed. so, they served as wonderful reminders all through the day. it was CM on the go. here, a rAnidi Adu, later a kshIra sAgara shayana and so on. and since it was on a daily basis, it was very effective

regards

regards

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 26 Jun 2005, 03:49

they get deleted only if no one downloads for 30 consecutive days.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 26 Jun 2005, 03:59

can we have an upload of mdrs abhogi.
that raga is so rare in CM !!

MDR-AIR .. i have a set which starts with mangalacharane and a serene thulasidala ..goes on to thanayu nee brova.somehow in air renderings the mood is such a contrast to the one at a concert. i will put it up next week.more reflective and less flamboyance.

another nice one that comes to mind is Balmuralis RTp in charukesi -devadideva pahimam..divya ...
it used to be very popular in the sunday rtp sessions.fortunately i have recorded that one also.

meena · Post by **meena** » 28 Jun 2005, 02:01

I'm continuing the series started by kulkarniji of HH Mysore Maharaja compositions-relayed on AIR Bangalore.

http://rapidshare.de/files/2627342/Bala ... i.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2627465/Bale ... a.mp3.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/2627529/Chin ... a.mp3.html

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 30 Jun 2005, 06:39

a serene thulasidala by MDR

Your Download-Link: http://rapidshare.de/files/2693289/THUL ... A.MP3.html

meena · Post by **meena** » 30 Jun 2005, 06:54

kulkarniji my sincere thanks to ur father/u

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 30 Jun 2005, 07:17

Thulasidala was amazing. Thanks Kulkarni Sa'ab: does anyone have an OLD tamizh film song that is very similar: 'nilavE nI poi shedi shollAyO?'?

divakar · Post by **divakar** » 30 Jun 2005, 07:24

kulkarniji
thanks for MDR-tuLasIdaLamulacE
never heard this from him..

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 25 Jul 2005, 14:35

here is a wonderful clip from manda sudha rani
was broadcast over air in may 2005.
http://rapidshare.de/files/3334781/pari ... i.mp3.html

while these artists struggle to get prime time slots in the concert schedules(in chennai) , let us keep thanking AIR for putting them up on their prime time shows.

any of you hesitating to download, go ahead.you will not be disappointed.my own feeling is that mlv's style has found a rich soil in andhra to perpetuate itself...

kannan · Post by **kannan** » 25 Jul 2005, 20:06

Kulkarniji,

She seems to be an excellent vocalist! That was flawless singing. She is certainly eons ahead of many (if not all) of the "popular" female vocalists out there today. It is very unfortunate that many women who sing today (unlike her) can't even hold their shruti. Men, of course, always have had the problem

. She also seems to have a very good sense of kAla-pramANa and from some brief snippets in her rAga it seems like she would be very good at tAnam singing.

It would be great if you (or anybody else) could put up more of her singing . I am sorry that I seem to be dealing in hyperboles most of the time here but the singers/instrumentalists that I am hearing here all seem to deserve it.

Thanks,
Kannan

nnramya · Post by **nnramya** » 26 Jul 2005, 00:14

It would be great if you (or anybody else) could put up more of her singing .

Well Kannan,
I do have a couple of songs rendered by her but they are not AIR ones. So I'm not quite sure if I can include them in this thread or maybe a separate thread!

Kulkarniji, help??!!

Also Kannan, I have, what might seem a strange request (I would have mailed you so as not to waste this forum space for the request but your email is not enabled

) - do you have a bigger size picture of Shri.Krishna thats appears by your name? Its one of the most beautiful ones I have seen. Would love a copy of it!

Thanks!

kannan · Post by **kannan** » 26 Jul 2005, 01:06

It would be great if you (or anybody else) could put up more of her singing .
Well Kannan,
I do have a couple of songs rendered by her but they are not AIR ones. So I'm not quite sure if I can include them in this thread or maybe a separate thread!

Kulkarniji, help??!!

Also Kannan, I have, what might seem a strange request (I would have mailed you so as not to waste this forum space for the request but your email is not enabled ) - do you have a bigger size picture of Shri.Krishna thats appears by your name? Its one of the most beautiful ones I have seen. Would love a copy of it!

Thanks!

Let us start a new thread on unknown (or not so famous) artists and add her clips there. It would be wonderful to listen to such undiscovered (by me , that is

) artists.

I have a few copies of the Krishna picture but they vary in quality. I have others that I keep looking at through the day too

I have zipped a folder with Krishna pictures that I have put up here:

http://s4.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3QX26 ... CRXURWCVJR
Please let me know in case you have problems in seeing the pictures.

When I look at these I get a small feel for why Sri Madhusudana Saraswati said "kRShNaat param kimapi tattvam aham na jaanE".

Thanks,
Kannan

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 26 Jul 2005, 06:05

there is no doubt that AIR has played great role in maintaining our music traditions and spreading them. I remember my younger days when my mom meticulously played the morning concerts on Madras and Bangalore AIR and sometimes, on Andhra or kEraLa stations in short wave.. She also always played kannaDa film songs at 7.45 AM on Bangalore AIR.

Madras vividha bharati film songs would get a chance from 8.15 for a quarter hour befor the concert began. Even today (me when Im in India)we hear morning concerts. It is a tradition we have kept alive
Of course all is not great with AIR today. They do not archive/take care of old recordings all that well. There are instances where they have erased and rerecorded them for want of spools/tapes. Also the time alloted for Classical music is becoming shorter. They say there is no demand. The bane of us rasikas is tha we dont speak out and take things lying down. Part of the decline may be due to the advent of TV-cable network etc.
But the AIR still airs some good programmes. The series on Mysore Maharaja HHJC Wodeyar`s kRtis about 2 yrs ago on Bangalore AIR is a notable one. This was completed ( coolkarni did you say this did not run fully in some thread? It did).
WE also had sangItasAmrAjya on Bangalore a few years ago where different rAgas were presented by various musicians. This series was aired in the mornings and was very good. I remeber particularly the episode on maNirangu presented by T.S.vasantamadhavi ( T.S.sathyavathi`s akka) wherein she presented a kannaDa varna by cikkarAmarAyaru. Coolkarni/anyone - do you have it? Please post it here.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 26 Jul 2005, 06:15

( coolkarni did you say this did not run fully in some thread? It did)

.
i must have said it did not run fully on this forum.there was no interest shown after meena posted the first three tracks.so i stopped further uploads.i have the full set -courtesy karth.krish who did a painstaking job.
it is indeed a wonderful set of recordings.
may be i will try another couple of tracks to prompt a discussion

divakar · Post by **divakar** » 26 Jul 2005, 07:14

kulkarniji: thanks for the clip of maNDA sudhArANi. very nice..

lyrics link:

http://www.geocities.com/promiserani2/c2724.html

there are some corrections. this is what she sings:

pallavi:
pariyAcakamA mATa padugurilO pogaDinadi

anupallavi:
vErapuna avamAnaMbuna vyasanaMbuna nE gOri sharaNAgata (jana) rakSaka ninu santatamunu sharaNaNTE

caraNam:
oka munikai draupadi dvArakA nilayA sharaNanagA oka mATaku vibhISaNuDu OrvalEka sharaNanagA
sakalEshvara prahlAduDu jAlicE sharaNanagA hitakaruDai brOcitivE
tyAgarAjuni mATa

for those interested:
there are few clips available at www.coolgoose.com. you have to create a login and then search in music for 'sudha rani' to find them.

to be specific: these are available
(i) kanakANgi-tODi varNam
(ii) RTP in bhairavi (2 parts)
(iii) smara janaka - behAg
(iv) sarasa sAmadAna - kApinArAyaNi

kannan · Post by **kannan** » 26 Jul 2005, 07:31

Thanks divakar! For those too busy to register in coolgoose , you can use www.bugmenot.com

nnramya · Post by **nnramya** » 26 Jul 2005, 08:17

Well the songs I have, rendered by Manda Sudha Rani, are the same ones posted on Cool Goose, that Divakar has already given the link to!

Kannan,
You are right about the pictures of Krishna. Thank you so much for sending them. Will download them tonight! Thanks once again!

chithra · Post by **chithra** » 26 Jul 2005, 10:44

Sri Kulkarni;

Please post the Mysore Maharaja's krithis here - I was always puzzled by the abrupt lack of discussion after Meena's uploads. The few compositions I have heard are excellent.

chithra

ragam-talam · Post by **ragam-talam** » 06 Apr 2009, 01:24

Is the National programme still on at AIR?
I remember listening to lots of great music on the National programme years ago...
(used to be 9:30-11pm I think)

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 06 Apr 2009, 06:25

vganesh · Post by **vganesh** » 06 Apr 2009, 10:28

CoolJi
I do not know what you meant by "can put it up ".... I have a recording of Maharajapuram Sanathanam's AIR broadcast just after his untimely demise, though I have to check the casette condition once.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 06 Apr 2009, 11:39

vnbharadwaj · Post by **vnbharadwaj** » 07 Apr 2009, 02:50

A.I.R. should rightly take credit ,along with the 78 rpm 'gramaphone" records of greats like S.V Subbiah Bagavathar, Nagarathnammal T.M Kadher Batcha ,who recorded some songs on Muruga, for popularising carnatic music amongst the masses in erstwhile Madras presidency

Purist · Post by **Purist** » 10 Apr 2009, 15:08

coolkarni wrote:It Means I can upload the mp3 Tracks and post links here for members to download.

Most welcome Coolji.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 10 Apr 2009, 15:29

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 13 Apr 2009, 17:18

About the Abhogi Raga,

I have a great fascination for this raga. Once When I was talking with Sri Neyveli sir, I asked him why the artists are not singing this raga frequently as compared to the Sriranjani raga. Neyveli sir replied that artists sing Sriranjani raga more frequently compared to Abhogi raga since Sriranjani have one more note extra comparing to the Abhogi raga and the extra note gives the artists to expand the raga Alapana and Swara singing more when compared to the Abhogi raga.

I used to request Mysore Bros to play Abhogi or Saraswathy or Begada or Bilahari raga krithi instead of Panthuvarali or Poorvikalyani as the first main raga.

I still wonder why Panthuvarali or Poorvikalyani raga is invariably taken up as the first main raga by many artists.

S.NAGESWARAN

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 13 Apr 2009, 17:51

AIR Relays,

In addition to the National Programmes, the Regional AIRs have their 1 hr, 45 Mins and 30 Mins programmes relayed over the whole week in differant time slots.

In additions to these, during the December music season, AIR relays are arranged right from the morning to night in differant time slots
Covering the music concerts in various sabhas. Importantly, the night 09.30 PM relays are continued till the end of the concert.

I have an AIR relay of December music concert of Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman with Brummanandam and Palghat Mani Iyer held at Tamizh Isai Sangam, RajaAnnamalai Hall nearly 40 years before where in the full concert was relayed.

Karaikuruchi Arunachalam concert was also relayed then (not recorded)

S.NAGESWARAN.

S.NAGESWARAN · Post by **S.NAGESWARAN** » 13 Apr 2009, 17:54

AIR Relays,

In addition to the National Programmes, the Regional AIRs have their 1 hr, 45 Mins and 30 Mins programmes relayed over the whole week in different time slots.

In additions to these, during the December music season, AIR relays are arranged right from the morning to night in different time slots
Covering the music concerts in various sabhas. Importantly, the night 09.30 PM relays are continued till the end of the concert.

I have an AIR relay of December music concert of Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman with Brummanandam and Palghat Mani Iyer held at Tamizh Isai Sangam, RajaAnnamalai Hall nearly 40 years ago where in the full concert was relayed.

Karaikuruchi Arunachalam concert was also relayed then (not recorded)

S.NAGESWARAN

geeyes · Post by **geeyes** » 14 Apr 2009, 18:53

I am happy, as a friend of his, to see Sri Nageswaran writing with flair in this forum.
Balamurali has sung this raga many times and I have heard a recording of his RTP in Abhogi. I have heard Somu in a concert long back singing this as the main raga. Of the present musicians I have heard Sanjay sing this.

I also wonder why Pantuvarali and Poorvikalyani are repeated again and again in concerts.

As for AIR, they are the biggest repository of music of all great masters and have done great service to the cause of music in India. However it is painful to hear that due to shortage of tapes and improper indexing, they are using these old tapes for recording some very insignificant programmes and a great treasure is being destroyed due to negligence and callousness.

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 14 Apr 2009, 22:06

geeyes wrote:However it is painful to hear that due to shortage of tapes and improper indexing, they are using these old tapes for recording some very insignificant programmes and a great treasure is being destroyed due to negligence and callousness.

Shocking to say the least.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Apr 2009, 02:30

Oh no!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 15 Apr 2009, 04:13

We will give them blank tapes in exchange for the recorded ones, without even listening to the tapes. Even if 1 in 10 turn out to be music related, that is still worth it.

Having said that, is AIR still using tapes for recording their programs?

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 15 Apr 2009, 07:05

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 15 Apr 2009, 08:38

Cool,
It is gruesome...

hyd27007177 · Post by **hyd27007177** » 05 May 2009, 21:52

coolkarni wrote:will do it iin the next couple of days.
just figuring out how to make the esnips links downloadable.

Sir

eagerly waiting for the upload'

You can try media fire for a change.

regards

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 06 May 2009, 07:44

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 06 May 2009, 09:32