Bombay Jayashri in Singapore - Madhuradhwani

[gajaa]

Singapore has been witnessesing an outpour of carnatic music over the last 3 days, thanks to Madhuradhwani 2012 organized by Music Circle Singapore.

Bombay Jayashri presented a first class concert on Sat evening Jan 28th here to an un-ending standing ovation from the audience.
Pl pardon me if I havent used the most appropriate syntax in the song list below. (am a newbie here )

Artistes:
Vocal: Bombay Jayashri Ramnath
Violin: Embar S. Kannan
Mridangam: Thanjavur Murugaboopathy
Kanjira: KV Gopalakrishnan


Song list:

1. Deva deva jagadeeswara - Purvikalyani - Swathi Thirunal Kriti
2. Sankari Neeve - Begada - Subbaraya Sastri kriti (R,S)
3. Ranjani Niranjani - Ranjani- GNB kriti (R,S)
4. Chittam Irangadenayya - Sahana - Papanasam Sivan (R, S) - Sub-main
5. Dharini telusukonti - Sudda saveri - tyagarajar kriti (super-fast rendition - filler)
6. Rama nee samanamevaru - Karakarapriya - Tyagarajar kriti - Main Piece (R, N, S at Paluku Paluku), Taniavartanam
7. Thamadam Thagadayya - Mohanakalyani - Lalgudi Gopala Iyer - (super-fast rendition - filler)
8. Ragam Tanam Pallavi - Desh - with ragamalika swaras in Saranga, Malayamarutam, Amritavarshini, Bupalam
9. Pozhuthu Miga Vachute -Revati - Ambujam Krishna
10. Gopalu Govindu Radha - Radha bhajan - not sure of the ragam
11. Tillana - Yamuna Kalyani - Lalgudi Jayaraman composition

Divinity, devotion and dedication are the words that come to my mind when I think of the concert. There was a complete surrender to sowkhyam (though it may sound cliched), notwithstanding vidwat and uninstrusive aspects of manodharama.

Purvikalyani was such a serene start followed by the kalai kattum typical begada composition Sankari Neeve. This was followed by a slew of popular kritis as you can see above. Sahana was soaked in melody. Dharini telusukonti and Thamadam thagadayya kept the audience clapping everytime she rendered the chittaswaram, getting back to the sangati-laden pallavi!

Karakarapriya was ultimate and one could feel 'Samanamevaru' coming up as she finished the ragam. Kannan was just superb in his returns for all the ragams (he actually went a step ahead, I should say!), esplly Karakarapriya and Desh. Desh RTP had to be hurried (am a fan of her dual raga RTPs ) but still was just out of the world, as are most of her Hindustani based renditions. The way she constantly shifted from one ragam to another while rendering swaras was just too good (though we all know she is adept at this, and does this all the time!)

The post-tani pieces were mostly, audience favorites (from her cassettes and CDs of yore) and very well-rendered.

It was truly a great experience, the ~650 capacity hall was brimming with rasikas (most of them were mei maranthufied listening to her)
No gimmicks, no exaggerated expressions but just good music straight from the heart!.. Would rank Jayashri among the few artistes who does NOT REFER TO ANY NOTES while singing. There was perfect alignment to shruti (which is what she used to be criticised for in the late 90s and early 2000s) . She did not stop even once to drink water / milk. There was an excellent viruviruppu in the concert!

Would provide an update on Sanjay's concert in my next post!

[csuresh]

gajaa,

The hall was brimming with rasikas,it is true and also music circle team should be complimented for the efforts they put in organising this festival mainly to Sri and Smt.Vidhwan.V.Shankarnarayanan and their friends.
Sri.Embar kannan gave a very good support for both sri. sanjay and smt. Bby Jayasri concerts..
Few corrections.

Rama nee samanamevaru - Karakarapriya - Tyagarajar kriti - Main Piece (R, N, S at Paluku Paluku), Taniavartanam

Taniavartanam was after RTP,not after Karaharapriya main.


Ragam Tanam Pallavi - Desh - with ragamalika swaras in Saranga, Malayamarutam, Amritavarshini, Bupalam

It is "Hamir Kalyani","Valaji","Amritavarshani" and 'Vaasanti" i feel.need to check again.


Gopala Govindu Radha - Radha bhajan - not sure of the ragam

It is meera bajan and in "sudha saarang".

But all songs are standard Bby Jayashri songs.No new numbers.
But a good concert.It is good to note hall was almost full .

[HarishankarK]

Gopala Govindu Radha - Radha bhajan -- is not the raga shyam kalyan ??

[csuresh]

HarishankarK,
Yes you are correct,Gopala Govinda is meera bajan in Raga 'Shyam Kalyan"
Gajaa,
FYI.

[gajaa]

Thanks for the corrections suresh ....

[shreedarshan]

Thanks for the review. Bombay Jayashri's concerts are always grt...As u have mentioned its music straight from the heart..
Any idea about Priya Sisters concert at MAdhuradhwani on Sunday...

[shyamkalyan74]

This is my first review in Rasikas.
My frank opinion about the series.
1."Maduradhwani" as name suggest and also announced during the concert was organised by Music Circle singapore to celebrate the centenary year of Smt.T.Brindha,Sri.Madurai Mani Iyer and also Sri.Palghat Mani Iyer.
2.The organisers did a great job by arranging the concerts of both upcoming artists like Sri.V.K.Manimaran,Sri.V.Shankaranarayanan and Carnatica Brothers and seniors(top ranking) like Sri.Sanjay Subramanian,Smt.Bombay Jayashri and Priya Sisters.
3.I attended first two days of concerts.The hall was full for both days.(capacity around 650)
4.But the top ranking artists both Sri.Sanjay and Smt.Jayashri disappointed rasikas like me.They churned the same old stuff.No surprises.
5.The pick of the concert are by Sri.V.Shankaranarayanan mainly his Kamboji (O Ranga Sai)and Shanmukapriya(Parvathi Nayakane)
and Shri.V.K Manimaran(Kshira sagara sayi)
6.I did not attend the concerts on sunday(Carnatica bros and Priya Sisters).
7.But all the concerts i attended ,the singers never tried any padams or javalis or sowkya kala keertanais Brinda amma was famous for or english note,kapali,eppa varuvaro like songs MMi made famous .So is this a true way to celebrate the centenaries of this legends?
8.Organisers could have arranged the concerts of Smt.Sowmya (to represent Brinda amma bani)or Sri.Suryaprakash or Sri.TVS(MMI bani).
9.Sri.Sanjay sang "Mannu pugaz" "n"th time in last few months.
Harimamu sir are u noting this?This "mannu pugaz kosalai" will also join your list of "monkey","cow boy" and "naughty boy " and "snake"songs soon.

[shivanuja]

Dear Gajaa and Suresh-
Correction: The RTP ragas were "Hamir Kalyani","Malayamarutham","Amritavarshani" and 'Vaasanti".

Jayashri gave a soulful rendition, and thanks to the organisors for a great set of concerts back to back

[bilahari]

I thought this was a fair concert.

Items 2 and 3 only had a very brief sketch.

For me, the concert really only got going with the sahAna ragam, which was aesthetic without being especially fulfilling. The swaras were too brief to be particularly noteworthy. BJ sang kritis nicely throughout the concert, but again, I never found myself being drawn into her music, but as it has been said many times on the forum, there are all sorts of variables at play here like the rasika's own frame of mind.

I really did not enjoy the kharaharapriya in this concert. Particularly, the neraval at paluku paluku meandered before being cut short, and the swaras were also rather brief.

BJ's dES ragam was the highlight of the concert to me: she brought out the beauty of the ragam without fixating on cliche phrases (NSRN,,,,,,,,DP DM,,,,,,,,,,,,GR type stuff). The tAnam was concise and also well done, I thought. The pallavi was rushed.

I left after the tani. I thought the percussionists were both quite good and played with some understanding. Embar Kannan played well throughout the concert and I liked his kharaharapriya ragam.

It was definitely a pleasant concert, and I do like BJ's voice, but it was not gripping for me at all.

The concert of the series (I didn't attend Sunday's concerts either) for me was V. Shankaranarayanan's, and I will review that some time this week. I will put up Sanjay's songlist if nobody else does - was distinctly underwhelmed by his concert.

Again, these are just my own views about these concerts...

[rshankar]

Bilahari - what was the pallavi, by the way?

[csuresh]

rshankar
The pallvi line in "dESh "is "varadhe sharadhe sakala shubha de! sarabindhu vadhane pahi"

Shyam kalyan74,
Sri .Sanjay indeed sing a beautiful padam "Anandavalli" in "nIlAmbari" of swAtitirunAL.

Bilahari,
The song list of Sri.Sanjay concert is as below

01_sAmi_ninnE_nammina_nApai_kAmavardani_ShaTkAla_narasayya
02_jaya_jaya_jaya_janaki_kantha_nATa_pDasa
03_evarIkai_avatAram_ettitivO_dEvamanOhari_tyAgarAja
04_unaiyallAl_gati_kalyANi_pApanAsam_sivan
05_Anandavalli_kuru_nIlAmbari_swAtitirunAL
06_rAgam_tAnam_pallavi_kamAs(tani followed)(pallavi line "jalame seidal azagaguma vadivelava")
07_mannu_pugaz_ragamalika_kulasekara_azhwar
08_Adum_cidambaramO_behAg_gOpalakrishna_bharati
09_nI_nAma_rUpamulaku_nitya_saurAshtram_tyAgarAja

[rshankar]

The pallvi line in "dESh "is "varadhe sharadhe sakala shubha de! sarabindhu vadhane pahi"

Thank you. I think it should be Saradindu (autumnal moon) vadanE pAhi....

[Sam Swaminathan]

To a large extent I agree with shyamkalyan74 where he says "But the top ranking artists both Sri.Sanjay and Smt.Jayashri disappointed rasikas like me.They churned the same old stuff.No surprises."

Going thru the list of songs of BJ, song numbers 1,2,3,4 and 11 are there in some of her popular CDs that have been released thus for. One tends to keep these cds in your car or at home and they get to be repeated listening quite often. In the circumstances when you go for their live concerts and happen to listen to the same songs......yep, you do get disappointed. Perhaps artists could avoid this particularly when they go overseas, as people like us depend solely on cds as the only source of "daily music fix"!

[csuresh]

I think it should be Saradindu (autumnal moon) vadanE pAhi....
rshankar,
s u r correct.thank you for the correction again.

[mohan]

In the circumstances when you go for their live concerts and happen to listen to the same songs......yep, you do get disappointed. Perhaps artists could avoid this particularly when they go overseas, as people like us depend solely on cds as the only source of "daily music fix"!

Sam, I agree with you but there is a large proportion of the audience that likes hearing pieces they have heard the artist sing before. The chits that various musicians get, are the proof. eg Maharajapuram Santhanam for Bho Shambo, Sudha Ragunathan for Bramha okate and Aruna Sairam for the snake song!

[gajaa]

Completely agree that the songs list lacks newness.
In fact, not only 1,2,3,4 and 11 but also 7,9, 10 are numbers from her audio releases. Which effectively leaves behind almost nothing apart from the Karakarapriya piece and the RTP...
And yes, for most of the songs, the kalpanaswaras were minimal without warranting evaluation
However, good concert but not great..

[shyamkalyan74]

Sam, I agree with you but there is a large proportion of the audience that likes hearing pieces they have heard the artist sing before. The chits that various musicians get, are the proof. eg Maharajapuram Santhanam for Bho Shambo, Sudha Ragunathan for Bramha okate and Aruna Sairam for the snake song!


Harimamu sir are u noting this?This "mannu pugaz kosalai" will also join your list of "monkey","cow boy" and "naughty boy " and "snake"songs soon

so this list will grow bigger and bigger !!!!!!!

[srikant1987]

Sanjay seems to have also built a fixation for Anandavalli of ST in nIlAmbari. That is my least favourite nIlAmbari!

[Sam Swaminathan]

But Mohan...surely they can sing some new ones atleast up to the RTP and there on they can always have the usual snake charmers, boys in the knicker songs....and knowing this is what is going to happen we can step out for a b/room break after RTP and don't return!

And then there was one artist who came to these shores for the second time, did not remember what had been sung the previous occassion and repeated atleast 3 songs much to the chagrin of the rasikas!

[bilahari]

Suresh, thanks for Sanjay's list. His pallavi was 'jAlamE seivadazhagAgumA vaDivElA en mEl [jAlamE]'.

Some brief impressions, and again, just my opinion so no need to get all hot and flustered.

Sanjay's pitch was not firm at all throughout the concert, though it became better as the concert progressed. There was an overdose of swaras in nATTai. I thought his kalyANi ragam was quite nice in the way he coupled classical, gamaka laden phrases with flat notes. Thankfully the alapanai did not venture into yaman territory, though as Suresh observed last season, there was some filmy-sounding ending to the alapanai. I did not enjoy the nIlAmbari kriti at all, even though it is a raga I am completely in love with. In general, I found Sanjay's singing somewhat stop-gap throughout the evening, and ragas like nIlAmbari require a certain continuity. The khamAs RTP was not memorable especially in the light of the elaborate and involved RTPs I have heard from Sanjay. There was a lackadaisical air about it, with a short tAnam and barely any pallavi neraval before the ragamaliga swaras. I did enjoy Sanjay's phrases around P and D in the khamAs alapanai and bits of it smacked of THAT khamas KVN sang in the Stanford concert on Sangeethapriya, but there were one too many staccato phrases for my comfort, and the syllables and vocalisation Sanjay employed (du-du, etc.) were peculiar and jarring. Sometimes it seemed like he was singing phrases that I have mostly only heard on the violin (stuff like G,,,[taken from way down near the P]RSNDPMGRS), and his voice just did not have the finesse to execute those glides. I did like the pallavi's setup.

So, it was a concert with a couple of nice memories, but I was severely disappointed [expectations are also always higher with Sanjay]. My mother attended the concert with me and summed it up as a soap opera - she thought Sanjay's singing was excessively melodramatic, which I found to be the case as well.

Embar Kannan was OK, and although he couldn't always reproduce all of Sanjay's sometimes downright outlandish phrases, he did try and was not intrusive. He started his jOg response with "pani vizhum malar vanam", and that earned a chuckle.

The percussionists both played nicely and were in tune with Sanjay, though there was no great chemistry to speak of.

[Murali]

I thought Sanjay's concert was fair. He was not his best that day. Kalyani alapana was very good. Embar kannan underperformed that day and overperformed the next day when he played for Bombay Jayashree.

Bombay Jayashree's concert was good, melodious, and in her usual style. Her RTP in desh was the pick.