I was given a surprise at the entrance of Academy when the board read, Unni instead of TMK.
TMK's concert was cancelled and Unni was replacing him that evening as the former had a mishap in the family.
A minute's question came to my mind as to whether I should attend this, as I had for long taken a holiday from Unni's concerts, as I had developed a sort of fatigue with his type of singing ( the tightening of the jaws and so on).
But then i still entered and Unni proved my decision to have heard him that day, right. It was a real treat. ! ! He sang full throated, no ees and ooos.!
He sang with aplomb and a madhyama kalapramana, which was very invigorating, soothing to the ears, perfect in sruti.
Starting with the Adi tala TRodi varnam, he went on to sing Intha paraaka, (SSI speciality), followed by Karunaela (Varali), a dtailed alapan of Kalyana vasantam (nadaloludai), Extensive Kamboji (Tiruvadi Saranam).
What marked his singing that day was his deft handling of the alapan, swara prasthara and the neraval ( eduttha jananam kannakkezhudha- line). Somewhere he kept remonding us of the way SSI used to sing neraval and swaras. The prastharam went on like a train in even gait, adukku adukka poyindrundhatdhu.
Heard that he too has had training (infact, for more time under SSI).
I guess, he was completely unpretentious, no drama, fully involved with his job on stage, completely immersed in the nadalaya of the musical compositions. Also he has preserved his voice well as he does not perform with a tearing urgency day after day ! !
He made a befitting vocal offering to the Lord and won the hearts of the rasikas present there.
RK Shriramkumar on the violin brilliantly followed him, without those knockout interventions ( that we more often hear with violinists these days - a word for word duel they seem to offer !). He rather kept quiet at times, when Unni was singing phrases with karvais and murchanas. He gave his due when his turn came. I gues RKS should conduct a special workshop on the "art of violin accompaniment" for young emerging violinists.
Guruvayoor Dorai embellished the concerts with his beautiful mridangam playing, ghumkis at the right time and soft and hard strokes whenever necessary.Purushottaman on the Kanjira proved his mettle too.
I had to leave after Kamboji. Anybody present after that could add on !
Since he has a good voice, he could do well to reduce the la la and tana nana phrases in alapana and replace them with pure akarams.