The recent news that Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman passed away, simply leaves a big vacuum in Carnatic music that can never be replaced. One of the strong musical threads that gave the continuity from the mid twentieth to the early twenty first century is permanently separated from all music lovers and we have to live with that, mourning with reverence:
Thryambakam yajaamahe sugandhim pushti vardhanam
Urvarukamiva bandhanath mrityor muksheeyamaamrutaat
At a very young age Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman rose like a meteor amidst other seasoned accompanying artists virtually challenging the greatest of the veteran musicians like Alathur Brothers, GNB, Madurai Mani Iyer, Chemmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer and in later years with creative musicians like Madurai Somu and many others.
The music connoisseurs would be stunned by total reproduction of all the salient musical phrases of the vocalists followed by a substantial addition to what the musician missed as creative ghamakas in the alapana and unique sangathis that are specific to the kriti performed and the raga elaborated.
His mastery on ragas like Arabhi, Saramati, Mohanam, Bilahari, Khamas, Madhyamavati, Kharaharapriya, Todi, Shanmukhapriya and others are permanenly available for posterity through his LP records and some vintage concert tapes. His creative Tillanas in ragas like Mohana Kalyani, Kanada, Behag and Desh are meticulously sung by almost all concert musicians and are also extensively used in dance performances.
His duets with flautist maestro N.Ramani, his trio with Ramani and Veena (Trivandum) Venkatraman and his other duets and trio with his sister Srimathi and his son, G.J.R. Krishnan and daughter, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi are too well known to all music lovers.
He did inherit an encyclopedic musical treasure of the Tyagaraja parampara through his father Lalgudi Gopala Iyer, from the lineage of Lalgudi Rama Iyer, a direct disciple of Saint Tyagaraja.
Many organizations like CTU owe their inspiration to the first visit of Lalgudi with Ramani on an extensive US tour in 1971. CTU owes a special sense of gratitude to this great musician for his personal letter of blessing to our Annual Utsavam when when we celebrated its silver Jubilee year in 2001.
In grief,
T.E.S. Raghavan.