Bombay Jayashri at Vanimahal 17th Dec

[gajaa]

Very Fresh fare from Jayashri (6.30pm to 9.10pm) weakened by Poor Acoustics

Bombay Jayashri Vocal
Mysore Srikanth violin
VV Ramamurthy Mridangam
Purushotaman Kanjira

1. Kanada ata tala varnam - Nera Nammidini
2. Kumara vadivela - Was this Gowlai? (R, S)
3. Ganapate Mahamate - Kalyani - Dikshitar (R, S)
4. Thanigai Valar Saravana Bhava - Todi (R,N, S)
5. RTP, tani - Bahudari Ragam Tanam - Ragamalika swaras in Amritavarshini & Vasanta (?), Adi 2 kalai pallavi composed by VV Ramamurthy
6. Varuga Varuga Murugane - Kamavardini - composed by Sri. Balamuralikrishna
7. Maale Manivanna - Kuntalavarali followed by Mangalam

First things first. The acoustics in the hall - was super jarring & honestly, I (& so many around me) wasn't able to enjoy the music to a significant extent because of this. Overall, it was so so loud. Usually, one can hardly listen to a loud Jayashri but even she was sounding really uncharacteristically loud, thanks to the audio system. The artistes on stage seemed to be aware that something was wrong & were constantly trying to tweak stuff, only with partial success.

Ok coming to the music, for someone, who has a wide reputation (partly true) of repeating the same list often in her concerts, this list looked fresh. 3 songs with R,S in succession was again new in her list. Her voice was not really in top form (cracking a bit quite often) , but there were quite a few brilliant streaks in the raga alapanas of kalyani & todi. She is singing only 4 concerts this season (down from 7 last season) & this is the first of the lot. Scarcity may not always mean high demand , so not sure why this drop.

The violin was pretty screechy, squeaky quite often which was a bit annoying, further accentuated by the poor acoustics arrangement. His todi & bahudari returns were impressive though.

Todi & the RTP that followed were easily the top picks for me. The tani was quite explosive at certain points so that was another highlight. Obviously, the hall was more than full with overflowing listeners on the stage.

Overall, a very good concert. I'm shamelessly a big fan of Jayashri (I know the puritans are going to have a big scowl now!) & I was happy that I at least got to listen to something new from her. I however think the combination works best with Embar Kannan on the violin & Patri on the mridangam. That magic happens only in Narada Gana sabha.

[rshankar]

What was the pallavi?

[shankarank]

I suppose the Mridangist should be Vankalaya V Ramanamurthy. He is a robust Mridangist touring with Shashank in early decade of 2000. He is the one who played in the tatva jivatvam recording of TMK and you can listen there. Jaishree's music has gotten a poise post the payyADa sojourns with Alarmel Valli ( my speculation) .

Her ETi janma posted in the "Best 5 minute music" thread is an example.

Prior to that, She, I suppose is indicative of the general lack success of the Lalgudi school vocalists ( including the Saketaramans and Ananya Ashok's of the world!).

Focussing on melody goes only that far - and people are still going to say you lack vidvat especially if you got that appeal!

[harimau]

Prior to that, She, I suppose is indicative of the general lack success of the Lalgudi school vocalists ( including the Saketaramans and Ananya Ashok's of the world!).

Focussing on melody goes only that far - and people are still going to say you lack vidvat especially if you got that appeal!

Where do you get the info that Ananya Ashok is from the Lalgudi school? She is learning from TNS.

LACK OF SUCCESS? Saketharaman? He has been singing in the senior slot at the Academy for some years now. Many musicians would love to have that kind of lack of success!

[rshankar]

Where do you get the info that Ananya Ashok is from the Lalgudi school? She is learning from TNS.

Wasn't she a student of Smt. Anuradha Sridhar (Sri Jayaraman's niece) for the longest period of time? So, Lalgudi school is not that far off the mark....

[shankarank]

LACK OF SUCCESS? Saketharaman? He has been singing in the senior slot at the Academy for some years now. Many musicians would love to have that kind of lack of success!

Well.. Success [:cough:] is not just about being recognized in a Senior slot , neither [:cough:] lot of crowd to the concert. That is indeed harimau's wisdom.


Just watch him do the tALam especially during the tani with Karaikudi mani. Watch his Tiruppur concert with UKS. As a morning slotter in PS Swamy Sabha 2002, I still remember his talli ninnu nEra with Nishanth Chandran, B. Sivaraman , Guruprasad - he had such a control. At that time TMK and his wife Sangeetha were in attendance too.

Just skim through the rasikas postings in this section - how many times has he been reviewed recently? Not that rasikas posters seem to notice things I do. But still!

kaiyya ivaLLavu tUkki tALam poDumpOtE oru sandEham. Hear his Pallavi Darbhar 2016 and watch him!

When I mentioned this, somebody retorted Abhishek is also Lalgudi's student. So they entirely miss the point! Lot of people still carry around the notion that perfection in melody leads to good music!

Lalgudi school, beyond just the vocalists requires a serious discussion by itself.