Suman Laha Aishwarya Venkataraman@Los Angeles On July 25th ,2015
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Los Angeles as a city has been shaped with less of music when compared to films and theatres .THe few long term residents that I talked with here always mention Pandit Ravishankar and there are many who mention about L Subramaniam and they in nostalgic fashion recollect these two artists as much as Tendulkar in Bombay.
I am not sure how many centers and sabhas are there in LA -one is simala which is south indian music academy which I attended few months back to hear an abhishek raghuram concert . In the same sabha simala ,post attending Abhishek concert , i saw in web that Sowmya and bharath sundar were singing . With me not having a car and with no one picking and driving me up and down , those two concerts were out of my reach.
Pandit Ravishankar in 1970's started "LA music circle" and they hold concerts on a monthly basis and they plan it well in advance . They have a healthy mix of concerts, jugalbandhis, lecdems -I am told they are advertised well and they host it in pasasdena - pasadena is a suburb in Northern LA . In LA music circles ,the concerts are ticketed with lot of LA residents they look forward to these concerts. All this is hearsay
As with any organizations there is activity and there is always a period of no activity . I am not sure what activity was there in the last 4 months with music circle.Right now it appears a period of lull and after rounds of hibernation ,there is again effort by core volunteers to again kickstart their music circle activities. Vinod Venkataraman is one of the 15 office bearers of LA music circle and he has taken a more prominent organizing role . Vinod is well recognized for his organizing skills and with he being here for close to 30 plus years , he is focussed on promoting music . Vinod is surely a treasure for music community in southern california. Incidentally yesterday was the anniversay of Vinod 's late mother Smt Vijayam Ramaswamy, who was a violinist from bombay .
The office bearers take turns to call the fellow organizing volunteers and about 60 turned up . Vinod, his wife srividya and aishu's sister aparna were the gracious hosts. The buffet food was kept with many dishes and as minutes rolled by I was thinking O govinda there is not going to be anything more than one small hindustani bandish and a carnatic thillana . The count of 60 dwindled to about 30 to 40 - any where in the world food takes a priority.
I was initially thinking Suman Laha the hindustani artist and Aishu venkataraman the carnatic artist are going to have a short jugalbandhi. Better sense prevailed and each of them presented the concert one after another.The concert went from 8:15 pm to 11:45 pm with a refreshment break in between and one small talent promotion tucked in between .
Suman Laha and Aishwarya Venkataraman@Los Angeles On July 25th ,2015
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rajeshnat
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Suman Laha and Aishwarya Venkataraman@Los Angeles On July 25th ,2015
Last edited by rajeshnat on 27 Jul 2015, 10:59, edited 1 time in total.
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rajeshnat
- Posts: 10123
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Re: Suman Laha and Aishwarya Venkataraman@Los Angeles On July 25th ,2015
Suman Laha@Los Angeles On July 25th ,2015
-----------------------------------------
The first concert was for roughly 70 minutes
Suman Laha - Classical Veena
Hemanth Ekbote - Tabla
Suman plays Classical Veena , some call it slide guitar or vichitra veena. I am not sure what is the name that he exactly likes it to be called . Check his website http://www.sumanlaha.com/About_Suman.html. Also check tabla artist Hemanth writeup in the below url http://hemant-ekbote.weebly.com/
Hindustani Instrumental Music is quite a challenge for me to concentrate and also to listen intently. I in general prefer vocal concerts and with me usually liking carnatic for its extraordinary wholesomeness ,hearing classical veena with hindustani music has a two dimensional inertia - but I kept reminding myself that i am in LA and this is the only choice and in any case I was also looking forward to hear Aishu who follows next.
I liked Suman's introduction or practically no introduction.There are no fantasy stories that he is going to be playing a evening raga in sunset .No visual interpretation to aural feelings like -While the sun sets ,the male sunflower looks romantically at the female lotus and at the same time the lotus smiles with longing heart. Suman just spoke a phrase that he is going to play this raga -------
I was dreading if Yaman is going to be played (that would have been a two dimensional inertia to a third dimensional samAdhi for me ). Imagine Yaman with heavy dinner - with me usually having late night calls to India which is a case for most of the days , I didnot come on a saturday free evening/night to hear Yaman and that too i was just feeling sleepy . Thank god Suman atleast started with a lovely raga and he said I am going to play * Malkauns * .
Malkauns in hindustani = = hindolam in carnatic is what the internet says . The very first encounter for me with this ragam malkauns was when i heard a mohammed rafi song when one of my relative who grew up in north india sang a song in rAg malkauns , i cannot recollect the song now but i faintly recollect the movie Baiju barwaa or something , and it was a rafi solo, forgot the song but just remembered the haunting contours of malkauns . then later coolkarni gave gave me a audio collection of Malkauns with Ustad Amir Khan, i thought Amir khan sang an extraordinary malkauns then.
Rafi in malkauns or S kalyanarman in chandrakowns or maharajapuram santhanam in shivaranjani or madurai somu in darbari kanadA- there is this undescribable aura of pathos and emote in these cluster of ragas. This touch of pathos with Malkauns is more when say compared to carnatic Hindolam , nevertheless malkauns makes you go into a mood where each of us feel like saying "please leave me alone with the raga as this takes into a zone of trance at regular intervals"
The vilambit malkauns alapana was very orderly , suman developed sangathis in a very leisurely fashion the tonal quality was aesthetically pleasing . WHile the pluck in vilambit was minimal , the glide in his other hand was lovely , he exposed lots and lots of aural emote points that kept all of us in trance with Malkauns . His instrument was very familiar to gottuvadyam - may be only ravikiran and suman know the differences. IN the second round of alapana where he went with second speed I think his style was very dhrupad , the dhrupad in HM has lot of overlaps with the taanam in CM and it was long almost went for 15 minutes with so many fresh patterns. THe plucks got more frequent and at times i thought he was playing a bass guitar .
I felt very satisfied with these two rounds where he played malkauns . He did not name the next bandish , the tabla artist ekbote joined with his touch of very expressive gumkhis in the bandish . I lost bit of concentration when bandish was on as in my mind I could not connect to bandish .I found a certain dullness for a significant half that had overlapping contours with already completed alapana.We surely need a krithi -just playing a bandish gives a disruption in concentration a little too soon hibernation sets in surely for me . The touch of malkauns was at few points drifting towards Darbari kAnadA when he started discreetly pressing at diiferent points with his gliding hands. The second speed bandish was lovely and he cut loose with a lot of energy from ekbote .ekbote was not merely timekeeping with tala .He started and ended with malkauns.
-----------------------------------------
The first concert was for roughly 70 minutes
Suman Laha - Classical Veena
Hemanth Ekbote - Tabla
Suman plays Classical Veena , some call it slide guitar or vichitra veena. I am not sure what is the name that he exactly likes it to be called . Check his website http://www.sumanlaha.com/About_Suman.html. Also check tabla artist Hemanth writeup in the below url http://hemant-ekbote.weebly.com/
Hindustani Instrumental Music is quite a challenge for me to concentrate and also to listen intently. I in general prefer vocal concerts and with me usually liking carnatic for its extraordinary wholesomeness ,hearing classical veena with hindustani music has a two dimensional inertia - but I kept reminding myself that i am in LA and this is the only choice and in any case I was also looking forward to hear Aishu who follows next.
I liked Suman's introduction or practically no introduction.There are no fantasy stories that he is going to be playing a evening raga in sunset .No visual interpretation to aural feelings like -While the sun sets ,the male sunflower looks romantically at the female lotus and at the same time the lotus smiles with longing heart. Suman just spoke a phrase that he is going to play this raga -------
I was dreading if Yaman is going to be played (that would have been a two dimensional inertia to a third dimensional samAdhi for me ). Imagine Yaman with heavy dinner - with me usually having late night calls to India which is a case for most of the days , I didnot come on a saturday free evening/night to hear Yaman and that too i was just feeling sleepy . Thank god Suman atleast started with a lovely raga and he said I am going to play * Malkauns * .
Malkauns in hindustani = = hindolam in carnatic is what the internet says . The very first encounter for me with this ragam malkauns was when i heard a mohammed rafi song when one of my relative who grew up in north india sang a song in rAg malkauns , i cannot recollect the song now but i faintly recollect the movie Baiju barwaa or something , and it was a rafi solo, forgot the song but just remembered the haunting contours of malkauns . then later coolkarni gave gave me a audio collection of Malkauns with Ustad Amir Khan, i thought Amir khan sang an extraordinary malkauns then.
Rafi in malkauns or S kalyanarman in chandrakowns or maharajapuram santhanam in shivaranjani or madurai somu in darbari kanadA- there is this undescribable aura of pathos and emote in these cluster of ragas. This touch of pathos with Malkauns is more when say compared to carnatic Hindolam , nevertheless malkauns makes you go into a mood where each of us feel like saying "please leave me alone with the raga as this takes into a zone of trance at regular intervals"
The vilambit malkauns alapana was very orderly , suman developed sangathis in a very leisurely fashion the tonal quality was aesthetically pleasing . WHile the pluck in vilambit was minimal , the glide in his other hand was lovely , he exposed lots and lots of aural emote points that kept all of us in trance with Malkauns . His instrument was very familiar to gottuvadyam - may be only ravikiran and suman know the differences. IN the second round of alapana where he went with second speed I think his style was very dhrupad , the dhrupad in HM has lot of overlaps with the taanam in CM and it was long almost went for 15 minutes with so many fresh patterns. THe plucks got more frequent and at times i thought he was playing a bass guitar .
I felt very satisfied with these two rounds where he played malkauns . He did not name the next bandish , the tabla artist ekbote joined with his touch of very expressive gumkhis in the bandish . I lost bit of concentration when bandish was on as in my mind I could not connect to bandish .I found a certain dullness for a significant half that had overlapping contours with already completed alapana.We surely need a krithi -just playing a bandish gives a disruption in concentration a little too soon hibernation sets in surely for me . The touch of malkauns was at few points drifting towards Darbari kAnadA when he started discreetly pressing at diiferent points with his gliding hands. The second speed bandish was lovely and he cut loose with a lot of energy from ekbote .ekbote was not merely timekeeping with tala .He started and ended with malkauns.
-
rajeshnat
- Posts: 10123
- Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 08:04
Re: Suman Laha and Aishwarya Venkataraman@Los Angeles On July 25th ,2015
Aishwarya Venkataraman@Los Angeles On July 25th ,2015
-----------------------------------------
Aishwarya Venkataraman - Violin
Vinod Venkataraman - Mrudangam
Srinivasan Govindarajan- Morsing
Concert for 90 minutes
While we all know Aishu and Vinod, there was another srinivasan who is a local LA artist who groomed in nagapattinam and nagore prior to coming to LA 15 years back and settling here. He plays usually ghatam but of late he also has taken up Morsing .Srinivasan has played for few concerts in chennai season about 10 to 15 years back . Srinivasan's young son Srivatsan who must be around 7 or 8 years old played adhi talam prior to Aishu concert, this is part of talent promotion program. The kid appeared confident and at times the sheer joy of watching the kid's left to get more force where he spreads his nimble hands almost 45 degrees was quite a joy to watch.
Vinod told at the beginning that if there is any time he will give a small lecdem to demonstrate three great mrudangam artist styles his guru palakkad raghu, Karaikudi Mani and Vellore Ramabadran. I think the break turned out longer and that must have dashed any hope of Lecdem. Just prior to Aishu concet ,I told Vinod I donot want you to play a karaikudi mani tani but just play vellore ramabadran tani.
At last Aishu started at 10:20 PM. Aishu is studying in medical school with her examinations just getting over she has returned to her home town, but certainly there was not any noticeable corroded rustiness in her play. She never needed any dexorange tonic to get out of her inertia in music as she was in medical school. I asked her if possibly she can play a RTP or atleast taanam.
1. keeravani varam(R) by patnam subramania iyer
alapana for 4 mins
2A. needu mooorthini (R,T) - nattaikurinji - Pallavi gopala iyer
3 mins alapana
2B. tani for 4 mins
3. Raagam Taanam krithi neraval and swaras
Raaagam in kharaharapriya , todi and lathangi for 11 mins
taanam in reverse ragas lathangi, todi and kharaharapriya for 12 mins
3B. sAmanamevaru (R T N S ) - kharaharapriya - T
4. shankarabharanam note - hmb
Aishu started with extreme confidence . Keeravani raga is a speciality of her guru Prof TN krishnan . WIth Aishu learning a rare varnam in keeravani from her other guru Dr SRJ it was lovely start. The initial raga alapana was very meditative , her bowing strength was lovely. She crisply played in 4 or may be there was also a 5th speed. Sowkhyam with lovely fidelity gave a great start in keeravani.
With the next alapana in gliding nattaikurinji she did well ,the krithi was played very well by Aishu, i just noticed few times a little tick tick sound and at one place a bit of abrasive tone.
Then she followed with a raga alapana post a short tani. She started with kharaharapriya which i did not spot early on- i became bit anemic then the followup with todi was immaculate ,lovely bowing gave an intense gamaka suddham in todi. she could have dwelled bit more . As she moved on to lathangi , i forgot the raga - i just zeroed that as kalyani and then after a long time I did catch upon the lathangi - perhaps another sign of being anemic as i lost touch of carnatic music .
Her taanam was well done , it was not mechanical cut bowing , like her guru the raga bhavam with her forceful bowing was lovely. Lathangi in taanam by violin artist is perhaps my first experience . My mind was racing with she completing these three ragas is she going to coin a new pallavi like "kharaharapriyanai azhaitoDi vAdi Lathangi"- who cares she can play that exact line as it is only violin without sahithyam . She told in microphone "while i played these 3 ragas at this moment - pallavi needs more practice and I will play the krithi instead of pallavi" . She took sAmanemaevaru - she typecasted semmangudi srinivasa iyers rama nee samAnamevaru almost every sangathi was near faithful reproduction of semmangudi . She started very well till neraval in paluku paluku but it just fizzled with a bit of short circuit feeling in me , she moved to swaras , there also she could not give a zing effect . Overall in the second half of neraval and swaras - Aishu just could not play with more patterns , to that extent there was a bit of disappointment .
The western note was atlast played in a western land . Vinod support was very measured and he kept the limelight on violin. Srinivsan morsing was short and crisp and the shruthi matched with violin almost all the time. Their tani did not have any complex calculation, they continued with the gentle breeze of nattaikurinji.
Personally heard Aishu after many years the last time I heard her in prema rangarajan - rasikas concert and then nageswaran house in chennai , certainly the ragabhavam, melody and sowkhyam is there . Little more fireworks in swaras like Lalgudi would take her music to a noticeable north. At regular intervals she connects with audience and also with fellow accompanist- certainly that will always bring in more rasikas
Special shout out for Vinod:
---------------------------
Vinod is very passionate in bringing music to southern california . His audience is not predominantly south indians. Yesterday apart from another thamizh family who picked me up , there was one or two families from Andhra /karnataka. More north indians were there in the crowd when compared to south indians . The sound system was setup by a gujarati , i was seated next to a punjabi sardarji.Atleast 50 to 60% crowd is resident americans . He is putting up a real good show and appears sincere in promoting indian music which is very dear to him. This city and its surrounding counties is widespread and is about 100 miles X 80 miles - there is traffic snarls everywhere in LA people hesitate to travel during weekend as they have to drive considerably longer distance to come to any concerts. LA is not appearing that strong as bay area for indian music especially carnatic music- I wish he groups many in LA in the next few years and hope music circle gets much bigger.
Overall a very good concert by both artists- wish they had time - food and social meetup indeed took equal time as music.
-----------------------------------------
Aishwarya Venkataraman - Violin
Vinod Venkataraman - Mrudangam
Srinivasan Govindarajan- Morsing
Concert for 90 minutes
While we all know Aishu and Vinod, there was another srinivasan who is a local LA artist who groomed in nagapattinam and nagore prior to coming to LA 15 years back and settling here. He plays usually ghatam but of late he also has taken up Morsing .Srinivasan has played for few concerts in chennai season about 10 to 15 years back . Srinivasan's young son Srivatsan who must be around 7 or 8 years old played adhi talam prior to Aishu concert, this is part of talent promotion program. The kid appeared confident and at times the sheer joy of watching the kid's left to get more force where he spreads his nimble hands almost 45 degrees was quite a joy to watch.
Vinod told at the beginning that if there is any time he will give a small lecdem to demonstrate three great mrudangam artist styles his guru palakkad raghu, Karaikudi Mani and Vellore Ramabadran. I think the break turned out longer and that must have dashed any hope of Lecdem. Just prior to Aishu concet ,I told Vinod I donot want you to play a karaikudi mani tani but just play vellore ramabadran tani.
At last Aishu started at 10:20 PM. Aishu is studying in medical school with her examinations just getting over she has returned to her home town, but certainly there was not any noticeable corroded rustiness in her play. She never needed any dexorange tonic to get out of her inertia in music as she was in medical school. I asked her if possibly she can play a RTP or atleast taanam.
1. keeravani varam(R) by patnam subramania iyer
alapana for 4 mins
2A. needu mooorthini (R,T) - nattaikurinji - Pallavi gopala iyer
3 mins alapana
2B. tani for 4 mins
3. Raagam Taanam krithi neraval and swaras
Raaagam in kharaharapriya , todi and lathangi for 11 mins
taanam in reverse ragas lathangi, todi and kharaharapriya for 12 mins
3B. sAmanamevaru (R T N S ) - kharaharapriya - T
4. shankarabharanam note - hmb
Aishu started with extreme confidence . Keeravani raga is a speciality of her guru Prof TN krishnan . WIth Aishu learning a rare varnam in keeravani from her other guru Dr SRJ it was lovely start. The initial raga alapana was very meditative , her bowing strength was lovely. She crisply played in 4 or may be there was also a 5th speed. Sowkhyam with lovely fidelity gave a great start in keeravani.
With the next alapana in gliding nattaikurinji she did well ,the krithi was played very well by Aishu, i just noticed few times a little tick tick sound and at one place a bit of abrasive tone.
Then she followed with a raga alapana post a short tani. She started with kharaharapriya which i did not spot early on- i became bit anemic then the followup with todi was immaculate ,lovely bowing gave an intense gamaka suddham in todi. she could have dwelled bit more . As she moved on to lathangi , i forgot the raga - i just zeroed that as kalyani and then after a long time I did catch upon the lathangi - perhaps another sign of being anemic as i lost touch of carnatic music .
Her taanam was well done , it was not mechanical cut bowing , like her guru the raga bhavam with her forceful bowing was lovely. Lathangi in taanam by violin artist is perhaps my first experience . My mind was racing with she completing these three ragas is she going to coin a new pallavi like "kharaharapriyanai azhaitoDi vAdi Lathangi"- who cares she can play that exact line as it is only violin without sahithyam . She told in microphone "while i played these 3 ragas at this moment - pallavi needs more practice and I will play the krithi instead of pallavi" . She took sAmanemaevaru - she typecasted semmangudi srinivasa iyers rama nee samAnamevaru almost every sangathi was near faithful reproduction of semmangudi . She started very well till neraval in paluku paluku but it just fizzled with a bit of short circuit feeling in me , she moved to swaras , there also she could not give a zing effect . Overall in the second half of neraval and swaras - Aishu just could not play with more patterns , to that extent there was a bit of disappointment .
The western note was atlast played in a western land . Vinod support was very measured and he kept the limelight on violin. Srinivsan morsing was short and crisp and the shruthi matched with violin almost all the time. Their tani did not have any complex calculation, they continued with the gentle breeze of nattaikurinji.
Personally heard Aishu after many years the last time I heard her in prema rangarajan - rasikas concert and then nageswaran house in chennai , certainly the ragabhavam, melody and sowkhyam is there . Little more fireworks in swaras like Lalgudi would take her music to a noticeable north. At regular intervals she connects with audience and also with fellow accompanist- certainly that will always bring in more rasikas
Special shout out for Vinod:
---------------------------
Vinod is very passionate in bringing music to southern california . His audience is not predominantly south indians. Yesterday apart from another thamizh family who picked me up , there was one or two families from Andhra /karnataka. More north indians were there in the crowd when compared to south indians . The sound system was setup by a gujarati , i was seated next to a punjabi sardarji.Atleast 50 to 60% crowd is resident americans . He is putting up a real good show and appears sincere in promoting indian music which is very dear to him. This city and its surrounding counties is widespread and is about 100 miles X 80 miles - there is traffic snarls everywhere in LA people hesitate to travel during weekend as they have to drive considerably longer distance to come to any concerts. LA is not appearing that strong as bay area for indian music especially carnatic music- I wish he groups many in LA in the next few years and hope music circle gets much bigger.
Overall a very good concert by both artists- wish they had time - food and social meetup indeed took equal time as music.