Nadhaswaram concert by M/s Kasim and Babu @Fremont Hindu Tem

thanjavooran · Post by **thanjavooran** » 22 Jun 2009, 23:34

The concert was by Kasim and Babu accompanied by Palinivel and Manikantan on Saturday, 20th Jun. The concert was scheduled to start at 3pm with a 4 hour duration. Here's a time-line I drew up for the concert and a few other observations:
1. Preparations were going on for setting and testing the mikes, carpets etc. on the dais until 3:40pm.
2 When the artists were about to enter the podium, they were sent back to come after 30 min to make way for an unscheduled Annamacharya kriti rendition by a lady artist.
3 This lady arrived a little late .
4 After vedic chanting for about 15 min by the Pundit Sundha mama, the lady sang two pieces accompanied by tabla.
5. At 4:10 pm, the Nadhaswaram Artists were finally permitted to commence their program.
6. Artists on entering the dais requested Sundha mama to allow them to perform facing the audience as it was arranged diagonally .
7. Artistes also requested to push the mikes little far away [ in fact down the dais ] for acoustic reasons as the hall was small .
8. The pundit gave them a signal to commence the concert.
9. The concert started at 4:20 pm.
10. All the artistes were left handers.
11. No thalam [cymbal player]
12 Only sruthi petti.
13. Pundit wanted them to finish the concert well before 7:00 pm as there was going to be another unscheduled programme.
14 Pundit wanted them to finish immediately after thani [7:40 pm]
15. Babu requested the pundit to allow him to play until 8 pm so that he can render few thukkadas.
16. Even before he could conclude pundit was ready with Mangala Arathi telling the next program should be started for which party has
arrived already.
I am not familiar with this Pundit Sundha Mama, but I felt that on this occassion he was especially ignorant, arrogant and disrespectful to the artists and to the rasikas by extension. In spite of all these constraints, Kasim and Babu gave an wonderful mind blowing kutchery to everybody's satisfaction. The audience were spell bound and did not even stir during the "thani". IMHO the rasikas were robbed of an RTP due to the bungling of the organizers and Pundit Sundha Mama.

song list
Natta kurinchi varnam
Sri ragam pancha rathnam
Kathanakuthoohalam Raguvamsa sudha
Abheri Nagumomu R,P,N and S
Atana Bala kanagamaya
Ramapriya Jaya Mathangi MD R,N and S
Chaya Tharangini Mayae
Sudhdha seemanthani Janakiramana
Sankarabaranam Saroja dhala R, N, S and thani
Kapi Jagadhotharana
Kurai Onrum illai
There was one more piece before mangalm that I could not concentrate because of the urgent Mangala Arathi by the Pundit. In the last piece while ending he brought in the naunces of shenoy which reminded us of the great mastero Ustad Bade gulam
Babu thanked the organisers and Pundit Sundhamama for their benevolence in arranging their concert at this temple. The same artistes performed for the Kumbabishegam of this temple .
Thanjavooran

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 23 Jun 2009, 08:12

What a lovely concert! Delays we are familiar with, but why all the last minute additions to the evening, if that is what they were?

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 23 Jun 2009, 09:26

Being a temple and that too kumbavishegam having been done, may be there are timings for Mangala Aarthi etc needing to be done at a particular time ............could that be the reason for Sundhamama's unseemly haste?

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 23 Jun 2009, 10:26

Sam,
I edited my post after reading yours. May be there were valid reasons, but it was poor planning . How many good concerts get shortened because of such mishaps!

rbharath · Post by **rbharath** » 23 Jun 2009, 14:31

wow
nice list

and very nice to see Sri Kasim and Sri Babu perform a tour.

nAdasvaram getting some recognition is very nice to see.

T.T.SRINIVASAN · Post by **T.T.SRINIVASAN** » 23 Jun 2009, 14:58

In songs list, Mayae is Tarangini raga composed by MD, Kripa jutaku of Saint Thygaraja is in Chaya Tarangini If I am right.

johnlovescm · Post by **johnlovescm** » 23 Jun 2009, 18:02

thanjavooran wrote:In the last piece while ending he brought in the naunces of shenoy which reminded us of the great mastero Ustad Bade gulam

Thanjavooran

I suppose you are ref to Bhismillah Khan

kadambam · Post by **kadambam** » 24 Jun 2009, 00:44

They are awesome, recently listened to a concert in which they played a out-of-the-world Kedaragowla and Shankarabharanam. It is unfortunate that organizers fail to respect genuine art for all obvious reasons.

But, definitely their music cannot be ignored.

suma · Post by **suma** » 24 Jun 2009, 01:54

rbharath wrote:wow
nice list

and very nice to see Sri Kasim and Sri Babu perform a tour.

nAdasvaram getting some recognition is very nice to see.

They have been coming for the last 3-4 years during May-Sept. Their tour is clubbed with annual celebrations in temples where they need a nadaswaram. Since they are anyways here, they also get booked for weddings, poonal's and some concerts.

manikand28 · Post by **manikand28** » 24 Jun 2009, 01:57

The fremont temple has become very lovely of late with addition of several new deities, but the priest is the problem. As thanjavooran says the priest is always arrogant and many people avoid temple for this reason. We frequent the temple in spite of that. he screams at devotees on several occasions. examples, if you bring milk for abhishekam, he will tell, "Ange vechuttu pongO", just keep it there and go. If kids are playing around he will shout. He comes very late for pujas or abhishekams. For avani avittam, when I called him what time to come etc, first thing he says is "$25 kondu vaango and tell many of your friends also". For reference SSVT charge $11. It is not that I am against paying, but his attitude is what turns off many people.

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 24 Jun 2009, 06:25

Some one needs to have a good one-on-one with the Pandit and bring home the realties of life !!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 24 Jun 2009, 07:16

How good is the priest otherwise in terms of his knowledge and scholarship regarding religious ceremonies and poojas?

If the peope can afford to be without his services, then there are two avenues. If it is a for-profit type setup, then one can write to the owner. If it is non-profit ( which is usually the case in U.S., but Canada seems to have many for-profit private temples ), then there should be religious affairs committee which should listen to the devotees. Normally it is part of their charter in getting the not-for-profit status. They need not get rid of the Pandit but as Sam says, someone from the committee should have an one-on-one chat with the Pandit.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 24 Jun 2009, 07:40

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 28 Jun 2009, 01:06

arasi wrote:What a lovely concert! Delays we are familiar with, but why all the last minute additions to the evening, if that is what they were?

Hanging around with the organizers, I understood that a Mata ki Jagran (whatever that is!) was to be performed by a local group at 7 pm. They arrived early and were chomping at the bit to get started. One organizer attempted to hold them at bay for a while and so signals went to the Pandit to try to get the Nagaswaram program finished sooner rather than at 7 pm.

The artists performed the next day at the Livermore Temple and then later in the evening at a function organized by Batman. (Bay Area Tamil Manram

)

Sam Swaminathan · Post by **Sam Swaminathan** » 29 Jun 2009, 02:13

Harimau.....I would love to hear your review on the Mata ki Jagran......

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 29 Jun 2009, 02:35

mata ki jagran - Jaagran, meaning 'awakening', refers to the night of prayer in which Goddess Durga or Mata is worshipped. Normally the prayer starts after dinner.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 29 Jun 2009, 02:43

Sam,
Don't expect a review from Harimau unless it is sung by MDR and a few others who are not with us, if I guess right

sramaswamy · Post by **sramaswamy** » 30 Jun 2009, 00:55

Do not even remind me of Mata Ki Jagran. That gives me shudders. In Delhi, in the name of god the bhajan goes on all night till early morning. The loud speakers are set at full blast and directed in all 360 degrees in the middle of population. They have no regard for general public or for anyone who might be sick or tired and trying to catch a sleep.

The tunes are taken from popular movies. A sampler of this utterly crass

When "Choli ke peeche kya hai?" was popular, the Jagran people used to make a song that goes in the same tune as "Mandir peeche kya hai?"
and so on.

harimau · Post by **harimau** » 02 Jul 2009, 23:49

Sam Swaminathan wrote:Harimau.....I would love to hear your review on the Mata ki Jagran......

At the end of the Nagaswaram concert, I moved to the annex which houses the idols of Sri Venkateswara and Thayar, not knowing there was a Mata ki Jaagran planned for the evening. After that the irresistible smell of samosas and tea kept me outside the main hall. Thus I missed the Mata ki Jaagran. I only heard about it as I was drinking tea and munching samosas.

I generally avoid any musical activity by amateurs so my attendance at a Mata ki Jaagran would be unlikely.

Come to think of it, I may need to modify that last statement regarding amateurs. After all, I do attend various concerts in sabhas!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 03 Jul 2009, 05:17

Being a music-oriented man, how can you avoid it? After all, your heroes are not inhabiting our world any more