Vijay Siva @IFAA Dallas Sep 24th

[shankarank]

1. calamEla - darbAr varNam
2. innum parAmukam yEnO - bEgaDA - rUpakam N, S @vaNNattOgai
3. anuRagamulE - sarasvati - rUpakam - R
4. nannu brOvu lalitA - lalitA - ati vilOma cApu N, S @ ninnuvinA
5. sarasa sAmadAna - kApi nArAyaNi , Adi N, S @hitavu mATa
6. raksha beTTarE - bhairavi - Adi , S @ raksha
7. kshitIja ramaNam - dEvagAndhAri - Adi
8. nATTa kurinji RTP & Tani - Adi
(3/4th) satyAnanda sAnanda | (7) nityAnanda gOvinda
rAgamAlika swarams in cintAmani , nAyaki, katana kutUhalam
9. aru marundoru tani marundu - kAmbOji - rUpakam - muttu taNdavar


10. viruttam

vanila.. vaikunda .. vasudEvan madurai maindan - kAmbOji ( Sorry words muffled in the hall's echo with speakers perched at the top of a high vanavaLavia ceiling) - a permanent grudge in this hall!!
govindan kuzhal kUvina pOdhu.. vAnilam padiya vandu manamurugi malar kaNkal panippa ( behag)

tEnilam sevi kUntal .. ( JOnpuri)

launching into
11. Asai mugam marandu pOccE - Jonpuri , Adi

12. thirvazha thiruvazhi ( Unjal pAttu - composer?)
kuriniji, maNirangu, nAdanAmakriya, then sounded like mAya mAlava gowla for another line where range exceeded.

13. dAsara purandara dAsarayya - yadukula kAmbOji, kanDa cApu

14. teli nEnE sakhi , paras , Adi

15. kandar Anubhuti - Adi ( he sang many verses - not sure if it is full text - amazing he can remember the words for this long!!)
cala nAtta?, hindOLam, kAnaDa, mAnD, madyamAvati ( for uruvai arulvAi)

16. vikasita ( sounded like jana gana mana tune) - rabindra sangeeth?

17. mangalam

A great concert. Early part was like a (what we have heard about) ARI/PMI boat mail catcher train (1-5). 6 the school flagship is anyway well paced as well and suits the (much cited) stressy style of singing. I guessed it correctly as he ended the Alapana with phrase same as the starting phrase of the kriti.

RKSK's replies for Alapana were rushed as well to match it.

And he had two students singing behind and that added to the effect. They had mikes with two tanpuras picked up well in theirs. His voice was in good shape (with only the usual limitations that we know of) - except he utilized breaks provided by his students pitching in swarams and neraval rounds to handle career fatigue, travel fatigue etc.. The Brighas in this hall are muffled anyways given the lack of clarity in sound system - but in some places, I noticed that his brighas were clearer on the descent as he got closer to the mike.

RTP - was good in the Alapana, tAnam portions and rAgamAlika portions, but the Pallavi setup was not to my satisfaction. The words had a double consonant (samyuktAkshara) satyA, nitya etc.. reducing kArvais at critical positions. The Arudhi gap - seven's effect got neutralized and because of that an Akshara of the sAhitya fell on the beat. But that is typical of his style of singing in general may be!

As noted in other reviews - JV's Mridangam tone stood out for it's uniqueness - the kappi tone that is rare!. His Tani had a majestic cross beat and off beat descent into tiSra nadai before the setup kOrvai was executed.

The concert was carried on the weight of the kriti choices, pace and BhAvam that is the main stay of Vijay's music.

Post RTP was very enjoyable for its own. I have some more notes on few interesting stuff will post separately.

[sankark]

12 - piLLaipperumAL ayygangAr. there is a haunting version by MS in YT.

14 - the paras jAvali would be celinEnEtlu sahintune?

[shankarank]

sankark - thanks - and you are probably right that it is celinEnEtlu - I am not familiar with this jAvali - wrote as best I heard the words.

Few more notes during RTP swarams:

nAyaki swarams were done in two speeds and when it ended a portion of the audience clapped ( about 20%) - so that tells the proportion of really knowledgeable rasikas. That is the famed TRS exam question ( that he mentions in every Lec Dem) - so I leave the reason as to why they ( only about 20% with others wondering what's so great here) clapped to the Nayaki swarams for both Vocal and the return by RKSK - for the reader to figure out.

Vijay and RKSK alternated nicely on the take off of katana kutUhalam - as Vijay ended the swarams for an applause - he continued to provide a second ending with a long descending brigha phrase - and as RKSK began his return with the same phrase sending the listeners into laughter and another round of applause - Vijay landing a friendly slap on his buddy's lap - some theatrics there.

[mahavishnu]

sankark - thanks - and you are probably right that it is celinEnEtlu - I am not familiar with this jAvali - wrote as best I heard the words.

It is a DKP/DKJ classic!

[sankark]

sankark - thanks - and you are probably right that it is celinEnEtlu - I am not familiar with this jAvali - wrote as best I heard the words.

It is a DKP/DKJ classic!

There is a version with tamil lyrics - maRavEnE ennALilumE - in the same varna mettu that I have heard from Nisha Rajagoplaan.

[rshankar]

maravEnE is a movie song from Meera, IIRC, sung by Smt. MSS.

[arasi]

Yes, and it's not a translation of celi nEneTlu, but resembles it in tune.

[mahavishnu]

There is another bootleg version of this, in the same paras tune "kanavellAm ninaivAgumo, sakhi kaNNanai kAnbadeppO?"

[arasi]

Ramesh,
Do you know whose 'version' it is?

[mahavishnu]

Sadly no I learned it as a child...