Flight of Fantasy - Abhishek's Tanam at Pallavi Darbar 2014

[Rsachi]

I just heard Abhishek's tanam from the You Tube archive of Parivadini :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k66p_1N0apA

From the 39th minute to the 1:04th minute of the track.

I call this purely a flight of fantasy. A flight unfettered by any sense of limitation. A flight into the fantastic space called music in the Carnatic vocal sense. He has given me a huge energy dose.


A bit like in the video documentaries of SB Khanthan, we pass through delightful landscapes of consciousness-altering melodies... starting with Mohana, Todi, Bhushavali, Ganamurthi? etc. etc. The grammar becomes secondary. The dives and glides and ascents become "the moment".

Thank you Abhishek!

[rajeshnat]

From the 39th minute to the 1:04th minute of the track.

I call this purely a flight of fantasy. A flight unfettered by any sense of limitation. A flight into the fantastic space called music in the Carnatic vocal sense. He has given me a huge energy dose.


A bit like in the video documentaries of SB Khanthan, we pass through delightful landscapes of consciousness-altering melodies... starting with Mohana, Todi, Bhushavali, Ganamurthi? etc. etc. The grammar becomes secondary. The dives and glides and ascents become "the moment".

Thank you Abhishek!

The ragas were M o h a n a m ,t o d i
and a touch and go of bhushavali, subhapantuvarali,chandrajyothi, suddasaveri and sindhubhairavi.

My memory went back to his mohanam alapana having a hindustanized slant and also few light sangathis too - perhaps a touch of his grand paramaguru sangeetha bhoop athi maharajapuram vishwanatha iyer. But as sachi said from taanam and also the pallavi neraval it was high energy stuff. Also BUG was really excellent . His cousin Anantha was as always special in the art of accompaniment

Keep it up abhishek , not just you are formidable but you are more and more maturing .Brighas in a blistering pace was top notch and also voice clarity in middle and lower octaves was simply superb.

Mahavishnu/tanapp
In the concert that you reviewed a year or two back in Bayarea , i am assuming it was the same pallavi. Did he also sing the same 6 ragas.

[mahavishnu]

Rajesh, yes it was the same pallavi that he sang in the SF Bay Area last year. Good memory!

[arasi]

'Good memory!'...well, you can count on that with Rajesh! And his wordplay with bhUp was good too!

Mahavishnu,
Good to see you being active in different threads today Aren't you 'ete'-ing elsewhere?

[mohan]

I really enjoyed Abhishek's kalpana swarams to match his svarakshara pallavi - so full of porruttam. BU Ganesh Prasad was top notch and could match every permutation thrown at him!

[balakk]

That was high octane stuff. In the kalpana swaras did Ganesh prasad segue into Sama(deliberately) while playing Shuddha saveri or is it an accepted phrase?

[Rsachi]

I believe the Sama from BUGP was impromptu and AR openly appreciated it...

[balakk]

Hmm, nice! Ganesh prasad was wonderful, but I feel abhishek hasn't met his match yet in a violinist. If only we had somebody like MSG..

[Rsachi]

Akkarai
Srikanth
Ganesh Prasad
Vitthal

I have thoroughly enjoyed all their accompaniments.
It is NOT necessary in my opinion and in fact I feel it is inadvisable to create a battle between the vocalist and violinist. The violinist should harness the melody and shruti inherent in that instrument to COMPLEMENT the vocalist.
On the other hand, given that Abhishek is 90% laya oriented, his mridangam acc is crucial. I have enjoyed
Ananth
Patri
Sankaranarayanan
Arun K
Jayachandra...

Four of the five are lefties!

[VijayR]

Akkarai
Srikanth
Ganesh Prasad
Vitthal

I have thoroughly enjoyed all their accompaniments.
It is NOT necessary in my opinion and in fact I feel it is inadvisable to create a battle between the vocalist and violinist. The violinist should harness the melody and shruti inherent in that instrument to COMPLEMENT the vocalist.
On the other hand, given that Abhishek is 90% laya oriented, his mridangam acc is crucial. I have enjoyed
Ananth
Patri
Sankaranarayanan
Arun K
Jayachandra...

Four of the five are lefties!

My top favorite mridangists for Abhishek are Anantha, Trivandrum Balaji, Patri Satish Kumar, followed by Neyveli Narayanan and Arjun Kumar (another lefty, Sachi!). Anantha and Balaji are both torchbearers of Raghu sir's bani and have played for Abhishek since he was a child, so there is an extra X-factor when they accompany him. Patri's imagination and fingering skill are exceptional as well.

[mahavishnu]

Vijay: I agree entirely.

I'm guessing that RSachi meant Bangalore Arjun Kumar and not K. Arun Prakash. I have never heard the latter with Abhishek; and I am not certain I would like it if I did.

It is a pity that UKS and Karaikudi Mani have accompanied him on just one/two instances.

[Rsachi]

Yes I meant Arjun Kumar.
SwiftKey thinks I meant Arun ( Prakash) K.

Incidentally they played together at BGS y'day. I didn't go but heard Arjun requested the same Mohana RTP. Should have been a solid affair. I heard there was also a meditative Srivaralakshmi.
I missed Neyveli Narayanan. He is a wonderful mridangam artiste and I have heard him play brilliantly with Abhishek.
Haven't heard Trivandrum Balaji. My miss.

[kvchellappa]

Yes; he sang the same RTP. It was grand and the applause took time to subside. The attendance was poor though. probably because there was not enough publicity and the weather was wintry. Though I had heard the RTP in Parivadini only a couple of days back, there was still a gripping interest in the manner he sang. He sang Neranammithi varnam in Kanadam after a brief alapana; vande jagadvallabham in Hamsadhwani with swaras and a majestic Srivaralakshmi after alapana. Mrs. Charulatha Ramanujam's accompaniment was very good. It was a typical Abhishek fare. You said, Mr. Sachi, that his singing is 90% layam; I do not know about it, but 'layicchu paadaraar' as we say in Tamizh.

[arvenky]

Spellbound even though i heard it earlier it in Pallavi Darbar. Especially the tAnam was mesmerizing. Srivaralakshmi was divine. Charulatha was equally at her best. She is raising her standards concert after concert. Very sparse crowd as many doesnt know about this concert.

[varsha]

A flight into the fantastic space called music in the Carnatic vocal sense.

A counterpoint
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178948
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
......
.......
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

Caged Bird
By Maya Angelou

[mahavishnu]

Varsha, you are the only person that I know that will quote Maya Angelou in the context of Abhishek Raghuram's concert

[varsha]

Who knows the mind of the artist's ?
Flights it may be for the outsider.
Are we all not artists in our own way ..
in our own lives