Dindigul S.P.Natarajan

[satyabalu]

*Listened for the first time this artist in isaipettagam today in chennai.
*heard he was a disciple of sri. T.R.Mahalingam.
*worked in AIR Bangalore.
*TVG download is available in 01.c0270.

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Satyabalu: Dindigul S.P.Natarajan was a "compleat" disciple of Mali Sir (without the "antics").he died very young of a heart attack before he could establish himself.I have heard two concerts of his in the Fifties.Despite the fact that Mali Sir was not your conventional guru and seldom bothered to enlarge his own repertoire,SPN had acquired a good repertoire on his own just as Ramani Sir has done.
Mali Sir had a vast retinue of sishyas besides Ramani,SPN,Hyderabad Srinivasan and a host of others--all of them had Mali Sir's Kuzhal nadam. The irony was that given his extensive concerts and odd work habits Mali Sir hardly took time to teach any disciple at length-most of the lessons were learnt on the run and yet every disciple of his imbibed the essence of his playing style and enlarged their repertoire thro associations with Vocalists and other instrumentalists.(la Ramani with Lalgudi Sir).















As an aside,an anecdote about Mali Sir's sadhakam style. In the early fifties Mali Sir was living in Bazaar Road in Mylapore(Violinist TNK also lived there at that time a couple of houses away from Mali Sir). Once I had gone with my uncle to visit him to try to engage him for a concert in the Shanmukhananda Sabha in Bombay.. Mali Sir's house was an ordinary house with low entrance, a Thinnai in the front with a room behind it(where Mali Sir would practice) with the melodies wafting thro into the street thro the window amidst the din and noise in the street. As we approached the house we heard the familiar flute from a distance. We walk into the house and entered his practice room. Lo and behold!!! Mali Sir was lying down on his back with his head perched on a pillow abutting one wall of the room and the Sruthi Box(the bellows type) pressed against the other wall and Mali Sir was operating the bellows with his TWO FEET and playing without any pause!! My first reaction was to turn to my uncle and ask him if Books and musical instruments are Goddess Saraswathi"s gifts how come she tolerates this behavior!! Apparently Goddess Saraswathi showered her infinite grace despite this "serious" infraction!!!Sorry for the digression--Thank God none of his disciples chose this mode of practice!!

[kamavardhani]

SPN has been discussed in this forum before (a search for "dindigul natarajan" will help) and I remember Coolji even posting a few clips. There is also apparently a rare recording somewhere of an SPN vocal concert. I am given to understand that some of his impeccable pathantaram of Tyagaraja kritis lives on through Smt. Sowmya, whose father is SPN's disciple.

[ganeshkant]

I too listened to this concert yesterday.The poorvikalyAni was lovely & lively.KAraikudi Mani's playing especially the tani was mind blowing.

[thanjavooran]

Shri SPN had played number of concerts along with KS Narayanan another deciple of Mali in late fiftees. Those concerts were all memorable. S/S KSN and SPN were prime deciples of Mali I presume.

Thanjavooran 23 05 2011

[satyabalu]

*Thanks one &all for the information.Really his music has to be in "Isai pettagam".

[vishram1962]

Mr.Satyabalu: Thank you sir

It is indeed I am excited to read about the great Flautist Dindigul Late S.P.Natarajan ( known to be first disciple of great Mali )and I am so thankful to you sir, for remembering & mentioning him a very great versatile Artist, for his unique style, of rendering and worth mentioning about him here in one of the writeup i have read " SPN" as Spinner's choice. He was an " A " grade artist of AIR blore, and had participated in a number of important National programmes and to mention a few like Radio Sangeetha Sammelan,National programme of music and other important events like Mysore Dasara festival, T.V.Paluskar"s memorial, Delhi, chembai memorial, etc with top accompanying artists like MSGopalakrisnan,M.Chandrasekharan, TVGopalakrishnan,Karaikudi R Mani, Palghat Raghu. But it is very unfortunate to have him only for a very short span, passed away on 20th January 1986 ( age of 52 ) and it is so sad, an artist of this high calibre went unrecognised. Infact it is a great honour for me to be a disciple of this great artist.

I shall continue to share my views in my next writeup.

Hariharan( Disciple of Late SPN)

[satyabalu]

"There is also apparently a rare recording somewhere of an SPN vocal concert. I am given to understand that some of his impeccable pathantaram of Tyagaraja kritis lives on through Smt. Sowmya, whose father is SPN's disciple."---
I earnestly appeal to Smt Sowmya through this Forum to popularise the features of his music padantharam etc.,in the midst of her Lec-Dems& the like.

[vishram1962]

MR.Satyabalu: Thanks for responding in this forum about Venugana Sudha Dindigul" S.P.Natarajan
and I am also very much intersted to share your view & appreciate if
Smt.Somya, will consider our request to popularise the features of his impeccable
pathantaram of Tyagaraja music ( a rare recording ) as it is also a fact that
Dr.Srinivasan( Smt.Soumya's father )was a disciple of SPN sir- for vocal for nearly
a decade if i am correct.


Hariharan

from Mr.Satyabalu
There is also apparently a rare recording somewhere of an SPN vocal concert. I am given to understand that some of his impeccable pathantaram of Tyagaraja kritis lives on through Smt. Sowmya, whose father is SPN's disciple."---
I earnestly appeal to Smt Sowmya through this Forum to popularise the features of his music padantharam etc.,in the midst of her Lec-Dems& the like.