Kunnakudi M Balamuralikrishna @ Music Academy, 17/12

[sankark]

Vittal Ramamurthy - Violin
Umayalpuram K Sivaraman - Mridangam
?? - Khanjira

Navaragamalika Varnam - Valaci vacci - Adi - Kothavasal Venkatarama Iyer (two speeds till Muktayi swaram)
(Cakravagam?) Vegavahini - Gajananayutham - Adi - MD (S)
Devamanohari - Evarikai - Adi - T
Latangi - Venkataramana - Adi - PS (ns@alarmelmalli manala)
Dhenuka - Teliyaleru - Adi (desadi?) - T
Mohanam - Nannupalimpa - Adi - T (RS@vanaja nayana, T)
Vasantha - Kanden Kanden - Adi - Arunachala Kavirayar
Surati - RTP (was there till thanam only)

A so-so concert except for the mridangam accompaniment which lifted the concert very much. So many pauses and the way UKS joined the song was very enjoyable. The tani was very enjoyable. Latangi - IMO this has an identity crisis, to me it sounded as if it were a blend of Kalyani & Pantuvarali. The concert that maintained a fantastic tempo till the 3rd song seems to have run into a meandering phase in the 4th and didn't recover much after.

In this concert also I could hear breath, although not to the extent of the other one in BGS.

[ganeshkant]

Sankark,

A correct review from my perspective.I too felt the same.

[grsastrigal]

KMB needs to introspect himself. He is lacking something. Genius is one thing and
bringing it out in the concert is another.

I heard a short post-tani tukkadas in BVB, Mylapore. He finds it difficult to control
his breath-level. It was the first time for me to listen to his.

I wish he should read his unbiased reviews. Music Academy slots are given with lot
of discussions (and of course poltics too). He has come to this slot bypassing
great vidwans Priya Sisters, Carnatica Brothers, Sattur Sisters and Maharaj.Srinivasan
and so many leading vidwans who could not get slots in MA.

To retain this he needs to discuss the lacunae with senior vidwans and his Guru too.

Today, he will be performing NGS 7 PM slot.

Very close assiciates told me about MA program-Umayalpuram Sivaramn played and
KMB sang (which should be other way !!)

Wish him all the best.

[sureshvv]

Latangi - IMO this has an identity crisis, to me it sounded as if it were a blend of Kalyani & Pantuvarali.

Just curious. Are you talking about the raga in general or this particular version of it?

[sureshvv]

He has come to this slot bypassing
great vidwans Priya Sisters, Carnatica Brothers, Sattur Sisters and Maharaj.Srinivasan
and so many leading vidwans ...

Hmmmm.....

[ganeshkant]

Tody morning listened to his season concert recording in FM.A very decent Sankarabharanam he sang.

[sankark]

suresh - haven't heard latangi elaborated much except and to me this instance sounded like Kalyani & Pantuvarali.

[sureshvv]

haven't heard latangi elaborated much except and to me this instance sounded like Kalyani & Pantuvarali.

Understandable. Also fixable

Looks like you did not make it to the milieu of Shek's concert the other day to experience Lathangi in all its glory.

[mahavishnu]

Suresh beat me to it about the other Latangi we heard the next day (Abhishek @NGS, pl see separate thread).

I was at this KBMK concert also. I thought his Latangi was not bad at all. But the mohanam was not his creative best. This probably let the concert drop down a notch or two.

I have to concur that UKS took the concert to another level that day. People like KBMK, Saketharaman, Bharat Sundar etc are fortunate to have such a senior artiste accompanying them so early in their careers.

I don't know what it is about UKS's nadham. Is it the perfect tuning of the instrument or just his hands? I had been to a lec-dem by UKS at Krishna Gana Sabha earlier this month (not sure if others on the forum had a chance to go to this event).

The scientist who analysed UKS's araichappu acoustics showed using spectral analyses (sliding window FFTs for those that care) that there are several higher order harmonics and overtones in his playing which seem to be absent in a control subject (unnamed professional mridangam vidwan's araichappu).

[fuddyduddy]

for bmk's own sanity i hope he doesnt read the review.. one says lathangi was good and one says lathangi was bad. if a musician bases his career on rasikas.org, i think he is only in for more trouble with the quality of music he produces!!! maybe before writing people should check their knowledge in lathangi, kalyani and pantuvarali since it seems like there is doubt in all the 3 raagas at this point!!

i'm sure his guru was there at the concert and would have given his true feedback. and Shri.UKS would have done the same as well.. i attended an arangetram of UKS's student for which BMK sang, over the summer, and all I could see in UKS's eyes was praise for BMK and he even acknowledged that in his speech. If at that point had he felt that BMK was not upto the mark with his raaga rendition, am sure UKS, a master in his field (who has sat with semmangudi, GNB and the likes., when the level of music was high by orders of magnitude compared to what is generally happening now) would not be playing at the Academy for BMK..

i understand rasikas.org is the place to voice opinions freely - we can trash an artist, we can praise an artist or do whatever we want, basically depending on how much music we know and how our mood is and also depending on whether we like the sari or jewellery worn by the artistes! this is not the first time that there's a post that BMK is singing at a good slot in the academy and i wonder if this is all really just about some grudge overall on 'that' fact, or really the music itself!! i trust the competence of the academy in giving such a slot and trust the music i have heard from BMK and hence this doubt arises in me!

one thing that i do think that BMK lacks is in marketing himself. maybe he should have his own website with fancy pics, talk about his music and his lineage and his anecdotes as a kid, his first concert, maybe flowers falling on him from the sky after he finished that first concert, etc. etc.. and not just rely on the purity and quality of his music. this is the era of social media, and this might help him more than his simplicity or humility would...

[srikant1987]

i'm sure his guru was there at the concert and would have given his true feedback. and Shri.UKS would have done the same as well..

Yeah, and they both would have given absolutely identical advice. ] :devil:

maybe he should have his own website with fancy pics, talk about his music and his lineage and his anecdotes as a kid, his first concert, maybe flowers falling on him from the sky after he finished that first concert, etc. etc.. and not just rely on the purity and quality of his music.

Yeah, just the way people like Vijay Siva, Sanjay Subramaniam, S Varadarajan, et al are doing.

Why do you have to go to extremes all the time? :@

[sureshvv]

Anyone (artiste or otherwise) who attaches more weight to these posts than they would off-the-cuff personal views of semi-baked music aficionados should have their judgment questioned. Anyone who thinks that there is some kind of systematic conspiracy for or against any artiste needs to have their heads examined

@fuddyduddy: I actually saw something constructive that BMK can take out of this thread. Stop breathing into the mike.

[fuddyduddy]

Yeah, just the way people like Vijay Siva, Sanjay Subramaniam, S Varadarajan, et al are doing.

well, i actually follow sanjay's blog and love the content there.. havent really looked at other artist sites.

[grsastrigal]

Today's review in "The Hindu" of his Brahma Gana Sabha echoed the same view as "sowkhyam missing"

As I always say, he has got lot of time to get it right.

[shyamala3091]

[quote="

i understand rasikas.org is the place to voice opinions freely - we can trash an artist, we can praise an artist or do whatever we want, basically depending on how much music we know and how our mood is and also depending on whether we like the sari or jewellery worn by the artistes!
..[/quote]

exactly, in this forum some artistes get great reviews for all of their concerts and few artists are targeted for worst criticism why is it so?

[vasanthakokilam]

>["sankark"]
>Latangi - IMO this has an identity crisis, to me it sounded as if it were a blend of
>Kalyani & Pantuvarali.

Just curious. Are you talking about the raga in general or this particular version of it?

I have the same problem with Lathangi, in general. May be because it is a scale oriented raga ( is it? ), many of its purvanga prayOgAs remind of me of kalyani and the uttaranga prayOgAs of simhendra madhyamam with occasional resemblances to pantuvarali etc. The gestalt picture has not emerged for me yet.

[sureshvv]

exactly, in this forum some artistes get great reviews for all of their concerts and few artists are targeted for worst criticism why is it so?

Because we are rasikas primarily and wear the reviewer hat only for the concerts we enjoy?

[sureshvv]

I have the same problem with Lathangi, in general. May be because it is a scale oriented raga ( is it? ), many of its purvanga prayOgAs remind of me of kalyani and the uttaranga prayOgAs of simhendra madhyamam with occasional resemblances to pantuvarali etc. The gestalt picture has not emerged for me yet.

That shows the level of neglect suffered by this raga. More artistes need to take this up for the main piece. I witnessed both Abhishek Raghuraman and Gayathri Girish showing off the immense potential of Lathangi during the season.

[srikant1987]

That shows the level of neglect suffered by this raga. More artistes need to take this up for the main piece

O ... M ... G!

May be because it is a scale oriented raga ( is it? )

Yes, I think so too. :tmi:

[barrakooka]

In a lec-dem, Sri Madurai GS Mani mentioned that Lathangi mainly shines in the higher octave singing and it can be sung in a heavy manner depending on the artist's capacity ('nanna ezhuthu ganamma aathala padalam'). I have heard quite a few popular artists sing lathangi alapana and my feeling used to be that the raga alapana does not seem to be free flowing and looked like stitching of abrupt phrases, but then the swarams seem to be nice.

However, when Unnikrishnan (with Embar Kannan) took up lathangi RTP in san jose, the alapana and thanam was quite pleasing to hear (considering that I usually dont find lathangi interesting). I have always found lathangi gives place to singing brisk swarams and those seem to be free flowing and much in place, used to wonder what made those swarams sound much better while the alapana did not sound that pleasing.

As for KBMK (Kunnakudi Balamuralikrishna), I have heard him perform at San Jose last year. While he seemed to have a sore throat that day (found it even hard to talk after the concert), he tried his best to sing well and the concert was quite good with a nice Bhajana Seya in Dharmavati.

[eppramod]

I have the same problem with Lathangi, in general. May be because it is a scale oriented raga ( is it? ), many of its purvanga prayOgAs remind of me of kalyani and the uttaranga prayOgAs of simhendra madhyamam with occasional resemblances to pantuvarali etc. The gestalt picture has not emerged for me yet.

For me, since I am more familiar with kalyani I will tend to go with that

But i heard that V.R Dileepkumar sang a detailed Lathangi in Bangalore recently.
It is available in Sangeethapriya and that one was really refreshing to hear.
The directory is http://www.sangeethamshare.org/kasturi/ ... anjilArul/


Pramod

[bilahari]

MMI's RTP, KVN's piravA varam, and recently Hyderabad Brothers' marivEre are illuminating latAngis. It DEFINITELY has scope and individual character! Forumites have given the same complaint about simmhEndramadhyamam in another thread. Is this a problem with prati mas in general?

[sureshvv]

The kalyani, kambodhi, kiravani mafia in cahoots with certain rasikas in this forum (you know who you are) makes sure that a delicate raga like lathangi gets only a snowflake's chance in the chennai kucheri circuit unless a really radical artiste attempts to surreptitiously slip in into the program when no one is looking.

People.. Connect the dots!

[arasi]

Nedunuri sang a latangi three decades ago in detail in a concert and it is still fresh in my memory. He took up aparAdhamulanniyu manninchi Adarimpavaiyya. Latangi appeals to me. I agree that for a beginner it can be difficult to sing it in a free-flowing manner, not so for professional performers.