Jayanthi Kumaresh@nadopasana on Apr 02nd,2016

[rajeshnat]

Jayanthi Kumaresh@nadopasana on Apr 02nd,2016
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Veena: Jayanthi Kumaresh
Mrudangam : R Sankaranarayanan
Ghatam : Trichy Krishnaswami

Concert Type : Nirvana - No concert to follow
Day/Duration : Saturday/ 2 hours and 15 minutes concert
Concert Type : Free concert
Sabha/Hall : Nadopasana/ Ragasudha hall ,mylapore

1. ninnE bhajana (S) - nAttai - T
3 mins swaras
2. saraswathi nAmOstutE(S) - saraswathi- GNB
4 mins swaras

3.teliayEleru rAmA(R S) - dhenuka- T
2 mins alapana and 4 mins swaras
4. shree subramanyAyA namastE (R) - kAmbOdhi - MD
9 mins alapana

5. palintuvO - kAnthamani - T

6A.raaga alapana for 10 mins then with 8 mins taanamAliga in Kapi , shankarabharanam , saveri ,???(missed this) and kapi
6B. meevalla gunadosha(R S T) - kapi- T
swaras for 10 mins
6C. tani for 15 mins

7. sreenivasa tiruvenkata - hamsAnandi - psivan
8. palukE bangAra mAyenA- anandabhairavi - BR
9. Thillana(raga sketch) - kamas - LGJ
10. kamAkshi lOKa sAkshi - madhyamavati - SS

[rajeshnat]

It was a day of sweltering heat, I prefer heat. Opening the hindu newspaper one is left with two choices , OS ARun in hamsadhwani adayar or Jayanthi kumaresh in mylapore.As i entered nattai just began , with a yellow notice paper in ragasudha hall.3 sabhas the default naadainbam , nadopasana and sarvani sangeetha sabha is using the same ragasudha hall and lined up concerts for the month of APril.

It is sad few years back nadopasana was using PS high school and sarvani using the mA- mini , any case some one will use the ragasudha hall .Potentially atleast 100 to 200 concerts are lost every year and musicians have no way to showcase the art. In march-april artists have to find a way to ragasudha , or go for a spring concert at bangalore or really take a real spring takeoff to cleveland during march-april.vidushi jayanthi spoke with atmathripthi . She said nadopasana sreenivasan treated me like his own daughter and gave chance from 1993 - just as she told we were all feeling nadopasana sreenivasan mama was around all of us which is the same feeling she conveyed in words.

The divine veena strings were heard with conviction with nattai and only my conviction was bit shaky in guessing the krithi of nattai as ninnE bhajana. Swaras were bit measured , felt she could have gone more . Saraswathi veena with saraswathi raga came out next , one has to give a lot of credit for jayanthi of maintaining a racy style like the immortal gnb- i enjoyed the swaras of saraswati more than the krithi

Dhenuka and its fairly omnipresent teliayEleru came next. This raga is one of a kind with me only getting used to Semmangudi , it took me few records from varsha to get a fresh coat of dhenuka life especially hearing TRS and hyd brothers . I have never heard dhenuka alapana in instrument - jayanthi gave an extra share of pathos in dhenuka -keeping me wondering now does dhenuka have a pathos mindset bordering subhapantuvarali. Quite frankly i like to hear with joy and smile ragas with a shade of pathos in ragas. While alapana was bit soaked in pathos the krithi was a marked contrast- enjoyed every bit of her play

THe next was biggie kambOdhi . WHile nick was shaking his head uniformly irrespective of raga , i did notice sivaramakrishnan shaking with more approval as it is big 5. KamBodhi was not stormBodhi , she played more in madhyamakAla sangathi , i missed a share of more brigas and bit more higher octave touches in kAmbOdhi. But the azhuttam and sangathi ornamentation and the press and pluck ensured that gayaki style was as intact as her illustrious mama in violin. A very Well done kAmbOdhi namastE and so far the concert was great

THe palintuvO was just ok- nothing to rave about she went thru the song and i felt a shade of swaras for fast song should happen.She like 98% of the musicians did not play Fast and long swaras for the fast filler . The main was kApi - it was very strongly brewed as she started but became bit light in alapana- the aroma of coffee perhaps lost with chennai heat in alapana. She taking up mee valla than the usual intha sowkya was quite a different choice . More than the krithi I personally liked her swara kalpana magic

The hamsAnandi was well done and I guess not only she ,many in the crowd connected more with the departed sreenivasan mama than Lord sreenvisA. The kamas was well done - every lalgudi thillana oozes with a unique raga bhavam and khamas never had commas . When ,,,,got over, For me it was a satisfied .

The intermediate palukE bangaru did not gel with me but it was a janaranjaka number - I felt this number should do its rounds only in navarathri sundal and not make much rounds in concerts. The third trinity was striked with a brief madhyamavathi mangalam of shyama sastri

R sankaranarayanan has extreme layam intellect- or can I say srimushnam raja rao Jr has nearly the same intellect as his guru.Rolls were controlled with copious play- usually in the name of instrument concert most mrudangam artist go with the "tapping baby's bottom style mridangam" (borrowing this phrase from gautam tejas ganeshan). Sankaranarayanan had style and substance . Trichy krishnaswami is a ghatam artist and I see he is only playing with this vidushi and ganesh kumaresh family. He is very good in songs but in tani I found him not as fast as sankar.

I have no clue about the play of her guru Smt. Padmavathy Ananthagopalan and minimal orientation with maestro S balachandar .Certainly there is an exquisite style and intense classicism in her play. Also with both percussion joining most of the time , jayanthi continues to have aural reach -Jayanthi has a real azhuttam in her play.

Overall excellent concert for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

The concert was pitch perfect at 4 kattai and the rendering was excellent.

The composite swara prastaara ('a single stretch' long duration kalpana swara passage which has caught the imagination of many of late) for Naatai - Ninne bhajana -was built up in stages and well executed with the required appearance of shadsruti dhaivata.

Saraswati was so apt for Veena and the rendering was superb. The swaraprastara was nice.

I felt that Kaapi could have been taken as the Sub main and Kambodhi the main. But in the process Jayanthi demonstrated how a major kriti like Sree Subramnyaya namasthe could be 'abridged' without much compromise on the sangatis! (However what one missed was a tani in Tisra ekam)

If the electronic Sruti is sweet and sound, may be there is no need to have an ornamental Tambura . I can appreciate the noble intention of having the Tambura with a strummer on stage but shouldn't the audience be given the pleasure of listening to its strains?

As I had to get back to far away Chromepet, I left after the tani, doubly sure that rajeshnat would certainly come up with an instant but detailed review. It was nice to meet and talk to Nick H before the concert. It is always a delight to have the company of 'rasikas forumites' at concerts.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Jayanti paid rich tributes to the memory of Late Srinivasan - founder of Nadopasana : how he encouraged artists etc. She had her first concert for Nadopasana in 1993 and has been featured every year.

[thanjavooran]

S/S Rajeshnat and Sivaramakrishnan,
Thanks a lot for the excellent review. Really like the appreciation of the Mirudangam playing.
With wishes,
Thanjavooran
03 04 2016

[rajeshnat]

The concert was pitch perfect at 4 kattai and the rendering was excellent.
....
If the electronic Sruti is sweet and sound, may be there is no need to have an ornamental Tambura . I can appreciate the noble intention of having the Tambura with a strummer on stage but shouldn't the audience be given the pleasure of listening to its strains?

The junior lady was strumming the tambura to her left but I am not sure if the microphone was kept for her. There was a big mixer or was that feedback box ,she was always turning to her right . I have noticed in this and in previous concert ,she is bit bordering on being finicky on sound adjustment , some time in kApi at the beginning of swaras, she could have moved on with the muse of kApi but she made some adjustments in sound and took a break - there was a sudden extra dosham in meevalla guna dosham , I lost certainly the kApi muse continuity.

The two occasions that I have heard she has played taanam for a main krithi, but i wish one of the days, I hear from her a detailed RTP. There was always continuity and her pitch never sagged, her personality when she speaks is truly reflecting in her music too- a musically brilliant vidushi

[sureshvv]

The ??? was Shudh Saarang, I believe.

Awesome concert without a moment of sag from start to finish. Very few instrumentalists can do this. The vigorous swaras with the explosive korvai for the opening nattai was too much too early for the audience and went by without the applause it deserved.

There was a lengthy mike checking ("nakhra"?) break during the main kapi swaras (may be a few dozen k.chapu avartanas) and she resumed with perfect timing but left me gasping for breath unable to follow the rest

[Rsachi]

Rajesh
No wonder Dhenuka reminded you of Shubhapantuvarali. They have a close resemblance as only Ma differs!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhenuka_(raga)

[gardabha_gana]

That's surprising RSachi. 'M' totally changes the raga - Kalyani/Sankarabharanam; Keeravani/Simmendramadhyamam; Kharahapriya/Hemavathi etc differ in M, but very different.
Very nice and heartwarming to see a nice review of Jayanthi performing solo. Instrumental concerts are rare these days, and those that stay true to carnatic music bereft of high pitch cacophony rarer. Her Kapi is exquisite, which she plays often. Folks from bengaluru are lucky indeed to have Vainikas Jayanthi, Balakrishna and Ashwin reside here, but alas very few veena concerts

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Bengaluru seems to be a better centre for Veena compared to Chennai. The latter draws audience may be only during the season.

[rajeshnat]

Jayanthi's sister son sang a brief dhenuka alapana which had a lot of folkish tune as like sindhubhairavi in an overseas tour that I atttended. Infact the great trs mama in one of the dhenuka recording has sung with the same folkish tone with different sangathis . But vidushi jayanthi played differently with a tinge away from a folkish tone more in line with a tinge of Subhapantuvarali. Looks in this generation there is not even consensus even within the family on dhenuka alapana(young vidwan and his chitti vidushi) - i guess the paucity of krithis is the main reason and there appears a free wheeling interpretation of dhenuka in alapana .Apart from teliyaleru , I see dr bmk has composed a dhenuka krithi - Dr BMK will never sort out ambiguity based on my experience of hearing his music.

- dhenuka alapana has not yet sinked in my head .

[Nick H]

As I had to get back to far away Chromepet, I left after the tani, doubly sure that rajeshnat would certainly come up with an instant but detailed review. It was nice to meet and talk to Nick H before the concert. It is always a delight to have the company of 'rasikas forumites' at concerts.

I thought I would see you at the end. But Chromepet called!

All I can say... I wish we had more concerts from Jayanthi!

[CRama]

Yesterday night in Madras AIR, there was a very good concert of Jayanthi Kumaresh. Here also the main song was Meevalla guna dosha.
Whenever I hear Meevalla guna dosha, I remember TRS. He used to sing in his inimitable manner, swaras at gunadoshamemi.
Rajesh, Have you not heard?

[CRama]

-

[gardabha_gana]

I stand corrected @rajeshnat @Rsachi. Listening to the (abridged) program on sangeethapriya. If someone hadn't told me, I would have guessed the alapana to be closest to Shubapanthuvarali and not dhenuka... Miles to go....