Bombay Jayashri @ Toronto – June 26, 2010

[Abhishek]

Bombay Jayashri – Vocal
HN Bhaskar – Violin
Manoj Siva – Mridangam
Anirudh Athreya – Kanjira

1) SlOkam (BahudAri) Followed by
2) BhajamAnasa VignEshwaram (BahudAri – Adi – Tulaseevanam ) [S]
3) MEru SamAna (MAyAmAlavagowlai – Adi – ThyAgarAjar)
4) Sukhi EvarO (KAnaDA – Adi – ThyAgarAjar) [RNS] Neraval at nityamaina susvarapu, Swaram at Pallavi
5) KaruNAnidhiyE tAyE (Bowli – Mishra ChApu – PapanAsam Sivan) [S]
6) O RangasAyee (KAmbOji – Adi – ThyAgarAjar) [RNST] Neraval at O yanucu, Swaram at bhUlOkha
7) NAdalOluDulai (KalyAna Vasantam – Khanda ChApu – TyAgarAjar)
8 ) RAgam TAnam Pallavi (DEsh – Khanda JAthi Triputa TAlam)
Pallavi: varadE shAradE sakala shubhadE
sharadindu vadanE pAhi
RAgamAlikA Swarams in: DwijAvati, Amritavarshini, Siva Ranjani, Ranjani
9) KandEn KandEn sItaiyaik kaNDEn (BhAgEshri – Adi – AruNAcala Kavi)
10) RAghi TandirO / TandirA (REvati - ?? – PurandaradAsa)
11) TillAnA (Sindhubhairavi – Adi – LalguDi JayarAman)
12) SarvE BhavantO – SlOkam (Sindhubhairavi)

Completely soul-stirring concert. I'll post my views tomorrow.

[mahakavi]

9) KaNDEn KaNDEn sItaiyaik kaNDEn (BhAgEshri – Adi? – ??)
Composer: aruNAcala kavi

10) RAghi TandirAi ------> rAgi tandIrO

[kewlmallu]

The kutchery was very nice - rarely do you get a "free" kutcheri of a such a prominent artist - so i almost feel guilty in saying this - but there was one exercise that was most cumbersome and borderline dangerous before the kutcheri started. The organizers requested that the audience leave the auditorium (it was packed easily -over 300 ppl, including children and elderly) so that a sound test could be done. the entire auditorium emptied into the waiting area outside..that was woefully short of space and spent over 15 mins..packed - when the doors were opened - there was a rush to enter - thankfully no stampede or injuries...definitely a bad idea.
But once settled it ..it was an enjoyable concert

[cmlover]

Abishek
Looking forward to your delightful review...
nAdalOluDai in KV is Thyagaraja...

[Lakshman]

Item 5 is karuNAnidhiyE tAyE by P.Shivan.

[arasi]

and PD's rAgi tandIrA.

[mahakavi]

I got this from a dAsa sAhitya website.

Purandara -- rAgi thandirO
naadanaamkriye, chaapu

rAgi thandirO bhikshake rAgi thandirO
yogyarAgi bhogyarAgi
bhagyavantharAgi nEvu ||rAgi||
annadAnava mAduvarAgi
anna chatrava nittavarAgi
anya varthegaLa bittavarAgi
anudina bhajaneya mAduvarAgi ||rAgi||
mAtha pitharu sEvithrAgi
pAthaka kAryava bittavarAgi
kyathiyali migilAdavarAgi
nEthi mArgadali kyAtharAgi ||rAgi||
shriramaNana sadA smarisuvarAgi
guruvige bAguvanthavarAgi

[arasi]

'tandirA' is how I know it and Lalita PrakASana edition (compiled by S. S. Karanth) also says 'tandirA?' I suppose both are in usage.

Lakshman,
Correct me if I'm wrong. By the way, is it the literary giant Sivaram Karanth himself who is the compiler?

Keerthi,
I'm sure can add more.

[Lakshman]

I think it could be K.S.Karanth. See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Shivaram_Karanth

[arasi]

Thanks Lakshman for refreshing my memory about the renaissance man and for making me admire him more for all the things he had achieved in his life time which I did not know of.
My book says the compiler is S.S Karanth. So, a namesake, perhaps.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

It should be rAgi tandIrA - it makes sense.
I have never heard of rAgi tandIrO.

[arasi]

sreeni,
Thanks for your post. You should know!

[Abhishek]

Thanks everyone for the corrections. Here's my personal review:

This was a marvelous concert. Definitely much better than I had expected. As I walked in, a HUGE crowd was waiting just for her concert. The hall was overflowing with rasikAs. With her own small tampura in her lap, Smt. Jayashri started the concert with a beautiful slOkham in bahudAri, followed by bhaja mAnasa in the same rAgam. The swarams towards the end were creative. As she started singing the swarams, the whole audience started looking to see if she was putting tALam anywhere, but she wasn’t. I think we should all appreciate the fact that Smt. Jayashri was in complete control over the tALam despite not counting beats in her hand. The submain of the evening, sukhi evaro in kAnaDA, was very well sung. The rAgam alApanai was good, but the neraval and swarams were much better. I’m not sure if many of the yesteryear Carnatic musicians used to do this, but Smt. Jayashri seems to be singing neraval at a different place and swaram at a different place nowadays. I personally don’t find anything wrong in doing this, but do let me know what you all think about this.

I was very excited when she started singing kAmboji because it is one of my favourite rAgams. Smt. Jayashri had some exceedingly beautiful phrases of kAmboji here and there. KambOji being one of the toughest rAgams to sing on stage, I feel Smt. Jayashri did very well in her alApanai. HN Bhaskar also played very well, especially in the higher notes. As expected, O Rangasayee was the main kriti of the evening. I have always heard people do neraval at bhUlOka, but Smt. Jayashri started singing neraval at O yanucu rAdA. It seemed like she knew what she was doing in the beginning, until she realized that she doesn’t have enough words to sing neraval with for one whole Avartanam. As a result, she quickly substituted the words, “tyAgarAja hrdaya bhUshaNa” after “O yanucu rAdA”. After that, the sAhityam just got mixed up everytime, and finally, she ended the neraval with just “tyAgarAja hrdaya bhUshaNa”. For the kalpana swaram, she went back to bhUlOka and came up with some very innovative swaram patterns. Again, hats off to her for being in complete control over the tALam.

After a quick nAdalOluDai, Smt. Jayashri started her elaborate alApanai in rAgam dEsh. I have never heard anyone sing a rAgam tAnam pallavi in this rAgam. I think her training in hindustAni comes in very handy when rendering rAgams like dEsh, madhuvanti, behAg, etc. The whole audience was just moved by the way she sang dEsh. HN Bhaskar also played remarkably well. The tAnam consisted of two other rAgams, dwijAvanti and amritavarshini. The pallavi that followed was in khanda triputa. I was very impressed with the pallavi. It brought out the soul-stirring beauty of dEsh, while also being very captivating at the same time. I’m not sure if this was intentional, but I could hear the word dEsh in the pallavi itself. “sukhDE SHaradindu” made it possible for the rAgam name to be included in the pallavi. The neraval and swarams were rather short compared to the unhurried rAgam and tAnam. I wish the neraval had lasted longer. Before I knew it, Smt. Jayashri was onto rAgamAlika swarams, singing all the rAgams listed above. Towards the end, she went through all the rAgams in reverse, which was very enjoyable to watch. I could tell that she was struggling a bit to get back to dEsh, but she managed it very well at the end. Although she didn’t end the swarams with a kOrvai, the ending was still quite impressive, thanks to Manoj Siva and Anirudh Athreya’s powerful style of playing. It was evident that the audience loved the rendering of the pallavi as it gave her a long applause.

The following tukkada pieces were mainly requests. After singing a few tukkadas, Smt. Jayashri ended the concert with a beautiful tillAna in Sindhubhairavi, followed by a slOkam in the same rAgam.

On the whole, I really enjoyed the concert. I heard Smt. Jayashri live for the first time in Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha in Chennai last December, but I loved this concert much more. The accompanists were all in great form, especially Sri HN Bhaskar. I've always been impressed by Sri Manoj Siva and I'm glad he didn't let me down. Overall, great concert!

[thenpaanan]

The kutchery was very nice - rarely do you get a "free" kutcheri of a such a prominent artist - so i almost feel guilty in saying this - but there was one exercise that was most cumbersome and borderline dangerous before the kutcheri started. The organizers requested that the audience leave the auditorium (it was packed easily -over 300 ppl, including children and elderly) so that a sound test could be done. the entire auditorium emptied into the waiting area outside..that was woefully short of space and spent over 15 mins..packed - when the doors were opened - there was a rush to enter - thankfully no stampede or injuries...definitely a bad idea.
But once settled it ..it was an enjoyable concert

Does anyone know why the auditorium has to be empty for a sound test? Is it just that the artists do not want the audience to hear untested sound from them? After all, since the presence of lots of people can change the sound characteristics of the place, it would seem that a better sound test could be done with people inside the auditorium rather than outside.

-Then Paanan

[cmlover]

Thanks abhishek for the insightful review. No doubt BJ was trying some impromptu innovations on stage. These can be quite slippery unless one is a master of the art. TMK tries the same too which often gets controversial. Not putting taaLam explicitly but keeping it mentally is an achievement. But then the accompanists can get misled though in this case they were seasoned veterans. Desh rtp must be quite an innovation since the raga in CM is not capable of much elaboration. Did she stray into KG any time?

[Sreeni Rajarao]

I wish I would get to hear the rEvati version of rAgi tandIrA - I have heard it only in tillang which I have liked very much.

Sreeni Rajarao

[Abhishek]

I wish I would get to hear the rEvati version of rAgi tandIrA - I have heard it only in tillang which I have liked very much.

Sreeni Rajarao

Sreeni,

Here is a recording of the same song sung by Smt. Jayashri in her JayaTV concert back in 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMQ4hY0dm0w

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Abhishek,
Thank you - that was melodious!

Sreeni

[Abhishek]

Thanks abhishek for the insightful review. No doubt BJ was trying some impromptu innovations on stage. These can be quite slippery unless one is a master of the art. TMK tries the same too which often gets controversial. Not putting taaLam explicitly but keeping it mentally is an achievement. But then the accompanists can get misled though in this case they were seasoned veterans. Desh rtp must be quite an innovation since the raga in CM is not capable of much elaboration. Did she stray into KG any time?

Thanks!
I didn't particularly find her straying into KG at any point. Others might have noticed something.

Abhishek.

[mohan]

Does anyone know why the auditorium has to be empty for a sound test? Is it just that the artists do not want the audience to hear untested sound from them? After all, since the presence of lots of people can change the sound characteristics of the place, it would seem that a better sound test could be done with people inside the auditorium rather than outside.

Yes the acoustics of the room will change when there are lots of people seated (less echo). However, imagine if there is a sound test with 100 people present. You are going to get 100 opinions about the various levels, sound quality etc.

Ideally, the sound test should commence 1 hour before concert start time and the door to the auditorium should open 30 minutes before the start time. That leaves 30 minutes for the sound check which is usually sufficient, if everything is in place before hand. During the sound check, the artistes should concentrate on the monitor volumes on stage (whether they can hear themselves) and leave the auditorium levels to the sound technicians and organisers.

[kssr]

Was the sound check evacuation a brain child of the organisers or artists?

[Babu]

Sound system settings before the concert is a great subject for a separate thread. I would like to hear from the experts to help the concert organizers. Thanks