Gautam Tejas Ganeshan - Apr. 24, 2016 @ Red Poppy Art House (SF, CA) "Brooklyn Raga Massive" [VIDEO]

[GautamTejasGaneshan]

Live @ Red Poppy Art House [4.24.16] - SF, CA
"Brooklyn Raga Massive"

https://vimeo.com/channels/gautamtejasg ... /164099731



Gautam Tejas Ganeshan - song
Arun Ramamurthy - violin
Rohan Krishnamurthy - mridangam
Krishnan A. V. - ghatam
Vijay Narayan - tambura

- G

[arasi]

Gautham,
Your aTANa rAgA sketch--in your powerfully sweet voice was a treat. Then came the song.
Unfortunately, I cannot follow the words. That is frustrating I know, I know, you like to sing in english (no problem, we in our ancient times as children loved doing that to CM and film songs alike!). The problem is, I can't make out the words when you sing. So, I have an idea. Why not run the words on the screen simultaneously? That I think is going to make your music more enjoyable for the listeners. You pour yourself into your music, and for us not to follow the words you are emoting, is a pity.

Some neraval and svarAs too, perhaps? With neraval, the english words in that line at least are going to make sense to us because of repetition.

You choose such good pieces to sing too...

[GautamTejasGaneshan]

Your aTANa rAgA sketch--in your powerfully sweet voice was a treat.

Thanks!

The "power" in this case really boils down to that I was trying to get folks to listen up.

Why not run the words on the screen simultaneously?

Funny - my father just suggested this yesterday. The thing is, I like for technological elements to take a back seat. Putting captions, and next thing you know I'll have to have a powerpoint behind me or something...

I hear you though, so below are all the words to the three songs sung here.

Some neraval and svarAs too, perhaps? With neraval, the english words in that line at least are going to make sense to us because of repetition.

Correct.

Unf. this was just a 20 min. performance, which was not my choice and is absolutely not my preference. I learned a subtle new word recently - "durational" - and in general it applies to my aesthetics (although not here, unf.) For example, organizers who aren't that familiar with CM will often propose an intermission after 45 minutes. This is really not my thing. (If you need to go to the bathroom, just get up and go & I'll keep singing, how 'bout that?) Instead, I find it charming when artists just start up regardless of anything, and listeners have to scramble to find their seats.

In this connection, my father's immortal joke about a slow start to a dhrupad concert - "What is this, a tambura recital?"

Anyway, in 20 minutes total, not much time to get going with niravals and all.
Check out some of my other concert films, of course -
there's a decent niraval in sankarabharanam about midway here:
(and this was two weeks ago)

https://vimeo.com/164197569

(& the line taken up is:

All my time is for you,
and yet it all goes by.
Who knows why?

)

You choose such good pieces to sing too...

Thank you. Standing on the shoulders of giants, one can see far.

- G

[GautamTejasGaneshan]

3 Song Texts from "Brooklyn Raga Massive"
Apr. 24th, 2016 in SF, CA, USA

(the footage heads this thread)

--

"Barbarian"

Call me barbarian.

My lifeblood is fresh
from fallen bodies sacrificed,
died to provide my voice vigor
for singing your returning,
thus in suffering sanctified by emerging.

As I celebrate, as I grieve,
I believe that I'm alive to
in time realize who survives,
who all dying beings underlies.

As I realize, I believe.

May I, once my end begins, nobly,
as my spent body shudders into humus,
my human carnal term,
remember whose life eternal I'm serving
as a vital crucible for conserving.

Comes my last breath, I'll praise my end of days well.
Then comes what's next and my memory of me
unremarkably into you fades endlessly.

As I celebrate, as I grieve, as I realize,
I believe.

--

"Down From Orange"

Non-disaster strikes
with no finality,
just utter thanks
for nothing happening.

Precarious precious careless peace!
How much pleasure can
a calm night carry?

All its beauty occurs outside worry,
every second snatched from the abyss.

It's endlessly susceptible.

Maybe the threat level
really never does descend
down from orange.

Although misfortune crashes in too easily,
I witness you nine nights out of ten.

--

"Some Summum Bonum Numb"

Pity if luxury were on humanity to be lost,
or else understood as the only good.

Some summum bonum!

Numb imposter of what's leisurely,
a.k.a. prayer - the least instrumental activity.

God is dead in the sense that he, she, or it
must call it quits, reverse course,
submit, and be composted.

Which is not a surprise -
we've long known that though it may be good,
the word is nevertheless now much too ripe.

Prayer constitutes a vote of no confidence,
a recall to incontrovertible fundamentals,
the enaction of care.

Why second guess the only thing that makes me happy?
Opportunity to be free and ponder you!

--

- G

[arasi]

Here I am Gautam, a simple old woman trying to reach out to your music and--
Aren't you more of a surprise package than I could ever imagine!

Naively, I asked for the words--(they come with poetry, philosphy and more). No, while trying to read and to mull over them, I would stop listening to your music. So, though your father and I had a good suggestion, it won't work in this case. So, I agree with you when you don't, for your own reasons, do not want to project the words on the screen.

Also, your music springs out of the contemplation your verses reveal, and the music itself is enough for the listeners. The bhAvA in your singing is a result of your feelings and thoughts, it seems. Are the lines too complex for CM? Also, can't also they exist on their own, fruits of the other facets of talent in you?

Before someone asks: what? weren't all our great vAggEyakArAs steeped in bhakti and were philosophers, I'd say, do you think they did what Gautam does? Are Milton and T.S. Eliot the same?

Tejas is your middle name, and how bright can one get

Will listen to and read more of your stuff...

All the best...

[rshankar]

Gautam:
It's taken me a while to find some dedicated time to listen to the clips you've posted. Some observations from my POV:
1) I know you are self-deprecating when it comes to tune-smithing, but I think you have done a great job.
2) the presentation is very good - and your efforts and sincerity are very apparent.
3) some of the lyrics were easy to follow, and they hit the spot for me - having the lyrics did help, by the way.
4) however, some pieces remind me of listening to musically awesome opera - where I have no idea what the person is singing - for example, it was hardest for me to follow the lyrics for the piece structured like bhOgIndra SAyinam. It's possible that some rAgAs and the English language are hard to match up. If I had to predict, I'd say that rAgAs like SankarAbharaNam and kIravANi (especially if handled more from a scalish perspective) will be an easier match for lyrics in English - but then, what do I know - .

Have you tried your hand at compositional forms used for dance? Like a padavarNam, a Sabdam, a padam/javaLi, a tillAnA? Maybe even a kauttuvam?

[arasi]

Yes, Ravi. Opera like, it sounds at times.Yet, was it Ranganayaki or someone else who brought it up earlier?
Whatever the language, more vowels are needed while singing the words out--was the statement. I agree. Really, even if sung in german, we hear that in opera, let alone italian! We need more vowel sounds, especially in the end of a line in a song? Just thinking...

[GautamTejasGaneshan]

Are the lines too complex for CM?

Nah.

Also, can't also they exist on their own...?

Yes. The book of my first 40 songs presents them as poetry,
without much mention of music other than describing them as "songs".

But of course, they sing when sung.

Before someone asks: what? weren't all our great vAggEyakArAs steeped in bhakti and were philosophers, I'd say, do you think they did what Gautam does?

You're right - what I'm doing is sort of a tertiary iteration. As someone noted elsewhere on rasikas.org, Papanasam Sivan undertook something similar at times, and obviously even the trinity didn't spring from nowhere. But in neither case was a global context really at play, and even now CM, although worldwide, is normally coterminal with South Indian enclaves. How many Sangeetha Kalanidhis have sung in suburban American High School auditoriums??

But, I'm more unmoored from that context than your average CM artist. And yet my taste is for well-situated music, which is impossible to just make up from scratch - you have to respect tradition to mean anything, IMHO. Even allowing for all mystical rhishi trances and whatnot, just sitting in your bedroom is not enough to come up with a Narayanagowla Ata Tala Varnam out of nowhere - it takes a village, & communication, & history.

Some pieces remind me of listening to musically awesome opera - where I have no idea what the person is singing.

This is something like 98% of the world's reaction to CM.

It's possible that some rAgAs and the English language are hard to match up. If I had to predict, I'd say that rAgAs like SankarAbharaNam and kIravANi (especially if handled more from a scalish perspective) will be an easier match for lyrics in English - but then, what do I know - .

Well, I have 72 songs thus far, and they can't all be in garudadhwani and kathanakuthuhalam. (In fact none are. Bilahari & Andolika, however...)

Have you tried your hand at compositional forms used for dance? Like a padavarNam, a Sabdam, a padam/javaLi, a tillAnA? Maybe even a kauttuvam?

Good question!

Nattaikurinji varnam is a pada varnam. Tillanas typically don't attract me, although some of the Lalgudi ones are catchy. I've got an ahiri, although it's Tyagaraja again, not a padam. Oh Sakhi Prana is a javali! So there's that.

The thing is, the form itself needs to work itself into my bones. My wife's a dancer, so I do listen to a lot of B'nat stuff - Balasaraswati style, Brinda + Mukta, etc. Actually Balasaraswati was an awesome singer - have you heard her full concerts??

Pancharatna Krithis are some of the most fun & demanding to write for.

Really, even if sung in german...let alone italian!

On that note, see Sanjay's comment at the end of this interview for The Hindu:
(@ 48:28, as linked here:)

https://youtu.be/omMolRDT_uo?t=48m28s

"If you want to change, you go ahead and do it. Don't worry about the purists - they are not going to pay your salary. Music is free space for you to do whatever you want to do. You want to sing Bengali, you sing. You want to sing French, you sing. Try and hold your audience - that's all that is important."

- Sanjay

- Gautam

[GautamTejasGaneshan]

https://twitter.com/heyGTG/status/730417362650849281

- G