Jayanthi Kumaresh SIFA SF Bay Area March 28, 2015

[mahavishnu]

Jayanthi Kumaresh - Veena
Anuradha Sridhar - Violin
Sriram Brahmanandam - Mridangam

Approx 2:50 minutes

1. vanajAkshirO - Kalyani - Adi - Poochi
2. gajavadanA - srIranjani - P.Sivan (A,S)
3. sujana jeevanA - khamAs - T (A,S)
4. pAlintuvO - kAntAmaNi - T (A,S)
5. RTP - gowrimanOhari - Adi (2 kalai) (A, Tanam, Neraval, Trikalam, S & Tani)
[ not sure if there was a pallavi line: but the arrangement went like this, eduppu @ samam: srgmp pr g m pd p n R S | sn dp mg r |
rAgamAlika swarams: ranjani, hamsadhwani, nAttai, vasantA, hindOlam, valachi, lalitA, sivaranjani
6. nArayaNa tE namO namO - behAg - annamAchAryA
7. kaNda nAL mudalAi - madhuvanti - N.S.Chidambaram
8. nI nAma rUpamulaku - sowrAshtram - mangaLAm - T

Jayanthi and her fellow artistes created beauty today. They transformed sound into semantics, tone into nAdham and in doing so, they created beauty out of thin air or so it would seem. There was an air of spontaneity to the performance, despite the rigor, discipline and restraint expressed in every aspect of the sangeetham.

Jayanthi's instrument has an amazing nAdham. Her technique, in addition to the S Balachander-style string pulling and the active use of plucking to simulate voice-like qualities in the articulation, now includes the creation of consonant intervals and the active use of the circle-of-fifths to create haunting musical effects. For example, in rAgams like kAntAmaNI (61st meLA) her use of combinations of the sequence of R3 M2 P or G3 D1 N1 using a large fingerspan, created a strong sense of consonance that highlighted the vivAdi-ness while painting a true picture of the rAga swaroopam. I have not seen a vocalist achieve a rAga portrait of that nature to date. Jayanthi's use of the bass strings was just perfect; the lower strings had the timbre of a stand-up bass but the compliance of a veenai string. And she used the range to bring out the beauty of rAgams like behag and even khamas.

Her khamAs had wonderful and unique flavors of the rAgam and the presentation of sujana jIvana was extraordinary. Her use of octave shifts as she scaled "tArakAdi pAnana dharma pAlaka" gave a perfect forefall "appoggiatura" effect. In gowrimanOhari, she created a very ripe expression of tension (and subsequent release) as she harped on D2 and the associated gamakams at just the right places. The pallavi was certainly interesting, but I somehow felt that the full scope of the rAgam was not exploited here.

Anuradha Sridhar provided solid support. She alternated phrases during Jayanthi's alapanas thus not intruding on the flow. Her returns on swarams and spontaneous recruitment of unexplored territories to complement Jayanthi's strokes on the canvas showed a great sense of seasoning and artistry.

Sriram Brahmanandam played mostly sarvalaghus in this very non-obtrusive manner, saving much of his showmanship for the tani. I felt like his thoppi could have used more amplification. I could not hear his gumkis or complementary left hand-usage adequately. That said, the sound quality and PA system was actually quite good.

The concert was well attended and I was very pleased to see the sea of support for an instrumental performance and that too a veena concert!

P.S: I spent most of the day in downtown SF at the annual conference of the Cognitive Neuroscience society, a scholarly scientific society that I belong to. As I went through the meeting's proceedings, I was quite in awe of how far we have come in understanding human cognition, emotion and their neural underpinnings. But we spent the better part of the day thinking about the how we might use the brain sciences and the sciences of the mind to understand things that have eluded science for a long time: things like art, aesthetics and human creative expression. I skipped the last round of talks today (well, we have three more days of deliberations) to rush to Jayanthi's concert in San Jose. And am I glad I did. The concert reminded me in so many ways that we are not even close to coming to an understanding of even a rudimentary description of how art and aesthetics move the brain (leave alone the process of how the brain creates them).

Perhaps it is better to leave beauty and aesthetics to the arts. We have diseases to cure and people to save with science. Back to more of that tomorrow!

[Rsachi]

Beautiful writing Mahavishnu. I think Jayanthi is a fabulous vainika. (I admit I have wished sometimes that she played at a slightly higher shruti.)

you're right about arts being a realm of its own... there is I think a field for neuro sciences to tackle. Violence against women.

[rshankar]

Beautiful review, Ramesh...thank you! Looks like the three cousins meshed perfectly to create beauty...
One small correction...it should be tArakAdhip(a)Anana - unsplit...meaning (one with a) face (Anana) like that of the master/husband (adhipa) of the stars (tAraka), i.e., the moon.

[arasi]

Wow!
Ramesh,
Great review, your intellect and your sense of beauty being equally at play, pleasing us readers no end...
Who said scholars cannot be 'bhAva jIvi's?

Ravi,
The three cousins, indeed. Anuradha's music I relish more as a soloist. Looks as if she is getting to be a better accompanist too.

[iamsundar]

Great review, Mahavishnu. Jayanthi's performance was outstanding & Anu's accompaniment was equally stellar. They were on a league of their own. I felt Sriram's accompaniment lacked a spark - whenever he tried to step out of sarva-lagu pattern, he was bowled over by Jayanthi's imaginative Korapus & Sangathis. Overall, a great concert by the cousin trio.

[rajeshnat]

mahavishnu
Lovely review. GowrimanOhari as an RTP is quite an exotic choice, -i Have Tasted once that as an rtp when salem shriram sang. the songlist has quite a share of lalgudi moments .In her ragamaliga choices of ragas there is perhaps a bit of logical grouping of ragas like say at the end I see lalitha followed by shivaranjani- perhaps if there is some thing more to explain in ragamaliga swaras you can take a bit of detour and put your brain on this art.

[mahavishnu]

Thanks all!

Rajesh: I was looking for a pattern in the rotation of ragas for the ragamalika section of the pallavi. I couldn't come up with anything. Some pentatonic, some with adjacent note shifts. But no pattern in particular. Perhaps we could run a machine learning algorithm on it. It is worth noting that the rAga changes were first initiated by the violinist.

Sundar: Welcome to the forum! Thanks for chiming in. Yes, Sriram did not take many opportunities to engage in koraippus with Jayanthi. I think she tried to rope him in, but the just stuck with the sarvalaghu, and certainly at the cost of some aesthetics.

Ravi: I stand corrected. I tend to parse word boundaries on the basis of phonetics and not with semantics; I should try to develop a better a sense of sandhi and conjunction-junctions.

Arasi: Good to hear from you! I think your hiatus has been long this time. Are you back to welcome the New England spring?

Sachi: No jest here. Yes, it is one of the biggest issues of our times. I think the simplest solution in those cases will be to have the brains of the perpetrators surgically removed. I can also think of some applications that use high-voltage alternating current (slightly more violent but well deserved).

I think Jayanthi is a fabulous vainika. (I admit I have wished sometimes that she played at a slightly higher shruti.)

Just curious, why do you think that Jayanthi's sruti needs to go up? I believe she performs with shadjam in the range of D#, but yesterday she played at an E (3 kattai). Many vainikas from varying schools including S Balachander, KS Narayanaswamy, Emani-garu/Chitti Babu and Mysore Doreswamy Iyengar played in this range of D#/E. Kalpakam mami was probably a tad lower. The only ones I know that play with a higher sruti are folks like Rajhesh Vaidya (G) or Punya Srinivas (F). The strings become much harder to pull at that point, that it would be hard to sustain the "yazh" style that is very much a part of Jayanthi's music.

As is now typical in Jayanthi's concerts, for a protracted period in the Gowrimanohari alapana (after she has developed a solid groove track on the fingers of her left hand) she was able to sustain about 2+ minutes of gamakas without any plucking of the string. She demonstrated this in a lec-dem organized by Lalitha Ram and Parivadini (check about 1hr03 mins into this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNwAmdO8XFY). I wonder if she might be able to do this at a higher sruti...The rest of that video is wonderful too, as she gives an impressionistic history/tour of different styles of veena playing. I would strongly encourage all music lovers to watch this lec-dem.

[vasanthakokilam]

Awesome review Mahavishnu. I learned a lot. Thanks.

[Rsachi]

Mahavishnu,
After listening to a lot of veena music over many years, I feel lowering of the sruti, adding the contact mike, and a certain way of plucking, adds to the continuity of sound but robs the notes of a certain tonal "splendour" or sparkle. I do think #3 is a very suitable sruti. I will try and append some clips to illustrate.

of course it's no jest when it comes to violence against women. I see it as a major issue in the 21st century when women continue to show they are in no way handicapped in accomplishing any goal, but still get stopped and hurt badly at home and outside by various acts of violence.

[Rsachi]

Mahavishnu,
I attach below a link to the audio file I made after recording (quick and dirty) four veena samples from raaga.com of famous maestros, in order to show what I mean about Sruti. That is the only purpose of this comparison. Kindly have a listen and give me your comments please. I have already stated my view.

Others also most welcome with your inputs please.
Thanks

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fm62yvyu4midy ... s.mp3?dl=0

[kssr]

Carnatic music definitely is a highly scientific art form. It is not easy to create an artistic science form.

[mahavishnu]

Mahavishnu,
I attach below a link to the audio file I made after recording (quick and dirty) four veena samples from raaga.com of famous maestros, in order to show what I mean about Sruti. That is the only purpose of this comparison. Kindly have a listen and give me your comments please. I have already stated my view.

Others also most welcome with your inputs please.
Thanks

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fm62yvyu4midy ... s.mp3?dl=0

Sachi: Thank you for those samples. Some beautiful music there; especially that HK in the middle.
Most of them are at an E (which is approximately Jayanthi's sruti); this is just based on one hearing, so I might be off. I do agree that going much lower than a D# can have the deleterious effect that you can think of, despite making the strings more compliant. I think your global point though is well taken.

I grew up in a household where I was woken up by the sound of my grandmother's veena and that was probably the last sound I heard before going to sleep. There was a nAdham floating in the air in the general unwelt of the house all day when she used to teach students. Every child that lived in the vicinity developed (some form of) swara gnanam by the time s/he was 3, even from passive exposure. And she used a 3 kattai sruti! I still hear those phantom sounds when I go back to my childhood home. There is a certain ineffable beauty to a perfectly tuned veena.

I also developed a very close relationship with her veena technician, a guy named Pazhani, who would let me play with the wax, strings and various tools that he carried. I digress. Getting carried away by a wave of nostalgia, and I have you to thank for it, Sachi avare. Perhaps we can start a thread elsewhere to discuss veena and sruti levels for optimal playing and listening?

[Rsachi]

Your memories are enchanting, Mahavishnu.
According to the app "Droid Tanpura" on my phone, the first sample (Chitti Babu Shankarabharana) is at almost F Sruti. The Doreswamy Iyengar Hamir Kalyani is exactly at E Sruti. The Balachander Sankarabharana and Jayanthi Kapi are at D# Sruti.
I prefer the E Sruti- perhaps the sample you also liked for its music!
All samples streamed from raaga.com and were recorded with a line-in recorder.

Thanks!

[Rsachi]

repeat post deleted

[Rsachi]

COMING BACK TO THE CONCERT AND THE ARTISTE VEENAI JAYANTHI

I wasn't present in this concert. But I can well relate to the feelings of happiness that Mahavishnu has shared. I think Jayanthi has many wonderful things going for her:
1. An excellent vainika with a great sense of aesthetic in EVERYTHING she does.
2. A great parampara = Lalgudi and Balachander.
3. A true innovator- her orchestral efforts are commendable.
4. She can dwell on a note to perfection.
5. Her technique of playing a whole lot of swaras and gamakas just by employing her left hand on the frets without plucking is beautiful.
6. She has a wide repertoire indeed.
7. She presents a picture perfect sight with her compact veena on the stage.

I shared her music on "Sunday Brunch" recently. Give it a listen:
http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 00#p272708

[varsha]

Great story teller too.As she proved on the day Ms Padmavathy was felicitated. If the story she used to explain the importance of sadhana has not been recounted here I can volunteer.Great poise in speaking to a large audience .
Heartening to see this artist keep the flag of tradition and conservatism flying high.

[ramakriya]

It was a very enjoyable concert indeed. I missed the first few items, and walked in when kAntamaNi Alapane was in progress.

On the ragamalika section of the Pallavi, there was no pattern among the ragas, but the way the transition between the ragas was done. Not sure if it has been alluded already.

The transition was carried by anchoring on to a set of 3 notes - from the raga before and the raga after, which sounded very beautiful. Eg: assuming the transition was from Hindola to Valaji, it went somewhat like (by my recollection) s g m s g m g m s g m s g m g m - s g p s g p g p - s g p s g p gp (which probably repeated couple of times before going into Valaji.

Hope this helps finding the pattern

[mahavishnu]

To add to Sachi and Varsha's list, I would also add that she has found her voice as a true instrumentalist and now has a stage presence that puts her in the big league; very difficult for an instrumentalist to achieve that kind of control over the acoustic space in vocally-oriented carnatic music!

She has a lot of theoretical depth, but in her performance all one can see is the beauty and elegance of the music itself. Like my old physics professor used to say, when you write a system of perfectly characterized equations, people should not see the symbols, but only the beauty and elegance of the phenomenon that is captured!

Yes, her skills as a raconteur, as Varsha already said, are worthy of special mention. A few years ago she gave an amazing performance on KGS: a narrative story with music called "Sri Ragam". I remember seeing people like Nadopasana Srinivasan visibly moved by the emotion in the music that day. She also had a stellar ensemble of folks like Abhishek, Anantha, M.D.Pallavi (kannada playback singer, what a divine voice!) and others for that occasion.

Ramakriya: You are right in your observation about the transitions! However, as you say, it does not provide any insight into how they chose the adjacent notes for the subsequent raga transition.

[Rsachi]

Apropos ragamalika and raga transitions, to me the design seems to be
Choose (predominantly) pentatonic scales with more flat notes. .. Create patterns, and break at one point (M to P in Hindola to Valaji) and reassemble to the new raga.. and so on. Neat trick. I sometimes feel we get visual stimuli of such pattern transitions (dance ensembles, graphics, TV etc.)

[vasanthakokilam]

it does not provide any insight into how they chose the adjacent notes for the subsequent raga transition.

I was not there for this concert, so this is not specific to this concert but when I asked Shriramkumar about how they choose ragas in such occasions ( they did something similar in the TMK concert ), his answer was 'it is based on the gamakas applied to the swaras'. I did not have time to discuss it further since it was after the concert and he was being accosted by multiple people. But from what he said I understood it to be 'the gamaka continuity is important and not just swara overlap'. But definitely this requires a follow up and a more elaborate explanation.

[Rsachi]

Some ragas are gamaka-specific like Todi, Kambhoji, Begada. .. the ragas mentioned here thrive on flat notes.
But basically I think transitions need patterns to overlap.. Be it gamakas or note clusters

[vasanthakokilam]

Sachi, I think that makes sense. The overlapping note clusters make sense and easy to understand. The gamaka aspects bring in a bit of musical aesthetics into picture. Just for reference, I looked up what Sriramkumar and TMK did in that concert.

kambhoji, kalyani (TMK)
kalyani, nattai (Shriramkumar)
nattai, begada (TMK)
begada, saranga(Shriramkumar)
Saranga, sindu bhairavi (TMK)
Sindu bhairavi, surutiti (Shriramkumar)
surutti, kambhoji (TMK)

The interesting thing is, one does not know what the other is going to pick so in quick time one has to decide on a musically and aesthetically meaningful transition based on relationship to the gammakas of each pair of ragas.. It is definitely worth asking Shriramkumar to elaborate more when we get a chance.

[mahavishnu]

I will also try to reach out to Jayanthi Kumaresh to see if there is a method to how they did this.

[Jigyaasa]

mahavishnu
GowrimanOhari as an RTP is quite an exotic choice, -i Have Tasted once that as an rtp

This one (starting at 39:23) is quite good

[gardabha_gana]

Thrilled to see that my home away from home (SF bay area) featured Jayanthi as a soloist. Of late, in Bangalore, she performs duets with violinists or Hindustani musicians - and it has been a while since I have attended a carnatic solo concert of hers. When she is in her elements - music she produces is incredible. And she is very very accommodative of requests - something I take advantage of

Just restricting the discussion to Veena Sound (not the quality of the music) - the sound of veena has undergone a radical change with the advent of technology. I love the sound of Doreswamy Iyengar's veena especially in the way it is played. These days, sometimes Veena + technology makes it guitarish...leaving behind the original sound.... I remember Srikanth Chary producing wonderful original sound w/o contact mike. I find Ashwin Anand's veena sound to be very original, though quality of acoustics play a huge role in such situations.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Jayanthi Kumaresh is undoubtedly among the best Vainikas of today.
Dharmavathi is another favourite raga of hers.

mahavishnu, another excellent appraisal from you. It is difficult to review a Veena concert including the technical aspects like plucking and the 'intensity of azhutham' with the range of notes it could traverse and the 'staanaas' it touches 'enroute'!

The concluding statement of the review "Perhaps it is better to leave beauty and aesthetics to the arts. We have diseases to cure and people to save with science. Back to more of that tomorrow!" is just outstanding!

[thanjavooran]

Shri mahavishnu
Only now leisurely ran through your detailed review. Many thanks.
with wishes,
Thanjavooran
09 04 2015

[mahavishnu]

Thank you, Sri Thanjavooran and Sivaramakrishnan avl. Just noticed your comments on this thread.
Your kind words are much appreciated!