KARAIKKUDI MANI'S LAYA ABHINAYA "THOUGHTS" in NEW JERSEY 2nd

[r s maniam]

It was an unusual pleasant experience for the concert goers in the East coast to witness a carnatic music concert (KRM: should I call it carnatic fusion?) last Sunday at Nicholas Centre, Rutgers University, New Jersey.
With a brief introduction on his Sruthi Laya mission and calling it a performance of giving vent to the creativity of every artiste on the stage in an organised way (justifying THOUGHTS? ) Karaikkudi did keep the audience spell bound for almost two hours distinctly detouring from the convention in many ways. There was Ghatam Suresh ( RAVE had aptly named him the PELE of percussion!), Madhusudanan (aesthetically versatile), V B Balasai ( brilliant! what a range, tonal clarity and he has contributed most of the melody part ) all of whom I have seen in Chennai in many of Mani's shows and the new faces to the band B V Ragavendra (violin) and UP Raju (mandolin) both doing a fine job.
For a guy spending his holiday with siblings in USA , any Indian entertainment would give great energy, but What Mani did as an experiment on local Asian Population (there was a larger section of Americans who had come to meet and listen to the legend Mani on his first US visit) was received overwhelmingly.
There was a Laya Kavidai (poem) in tamil glorifying Guru, Layam and Mridangam written matching the sollukattu right from tha thi thom and nam (KRM mentioned the poet as SU.RAVI) which was a grand opener. Saraswathi raga cascaded throughout the piece.
Then came a groovy piece titled steps in time, followed by a composition of Mani for Sruthilaya a decade back in Behag, a very sweet presentation alternating between melody (solos) and laya.
There was a Muthiabagavathar Sahithyam Raja Raja Rajithe, reminding of the Madras Corporation Band of yesteryears!
After another fast piece in Misra Tilang, a composition by Balasai, The main piece of the evening titled Vasantha Pravaham (with Bahudari and Ranjani and complimenting ragas) was presented with all vigour followed by fantastic Tani.
KRM and Suresh complimented each other in laya language throughout and showed their indiviual mite in two seperate rounds. The entire auditorium reverberated with applause drowning the amplified instruments round after round. The tani ended in style as KRM would always do instigating the longest round of claps.

Special mention needs for Ragavendra for his sweet built in amp violin for its optimal tone, and a very rich solo rounds. RAJU appeard novice to the band yet did his job neatly.
Madhu's handsonic, Djambe and other percussion added lot of colour.

The crowd was impressive and highly impressed. After the concert I tried to have a closer glimpse of Mani, Suresh and other artistes in a foreign land to boast my familiarity but had to wait for long making way for the American rasikas and musicians to interact.


There was an equally impressive presentation by Rajeswari Sainath and Vaishnavi Sainath (amazing energy) for an hour in the second part of the concert. A unique varnam and "Anbe Sivam" a piece in different tempos of MISRAM drew tremendous appreciation.
The band it is said is going to perform one more in Boston and move to Canada later. I am sure they are going to win many more hearts with this new disciplined fusion trend.