Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam fondly remembers with great respect the contributions of legendary artists to the world of classical music and dance.

February 2024

Sri Daroor Seshachari

I am shocked to hear that Vidwan Daroor Seshachari (b. 1956), the younger of the twosome Hyderabad Brothers, passed away on 24th February 2024. He is survived by his wife Sharada, son Srinivas Chari, daughter Archana and elder brother and musical partner D. Raghavachari.

I want to share with all music lovers about this superb, classical Carnatic musician of Andhra and Telangana.

Hyderabad Brothers’ first visit to Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam was in 1993. They were accompanied on violin by Delhi Sunder Rajan and on Mridangam by Srimushnam Raja Rao. I vividly remember the team staying with us at Villa Park. The video 40 Years of CTU shows their performance with the kriti Nada Sudha Rasam Pilanu (Arabhi). The concert started with the composition of Saint Tyagaraja’s Ninne Bhajana Seya (Chala Nattai), which would tickle anyone with a feel for Bhakti Sangeetam. I had never heard this Kriti till then and was keen on learning it from Sri Seshachari. Srimushnam Raja Rao commented that I deserved to learn from him. This Kriti has a Chittaswaram which requires some expertise to execute, and I sang it at the next year’s ChicagoTyagaraja Utsavam. Manjula Rao, who accompanied me on the violin, could quickly discover that I could only have sung at that level with someone formally coaching me.

Even though Sri. Seshachari was the younger of the brothers, it would sound like he was dominating his brother, Raghavachari. However, the elder never minded such juxtaposition, because that alone would create the characteristic music of the pair. We often find that one partner of a duo performs at a relatively subdued level. You can see this between the duo singers such as Ranjani and Gayatri, the Trichur brothers, and violinists Ganesh and Kumaresh.

They stayed with us for nearly a week, and we used to have all kinds of musical chats. In those days, the electric Sruti box had to be manually tuned first. Sri Seshachari explained to me the voice should join from below and never from above the tuned level for one’s Sruti. If we did that, we would hear our voice not synchronizing with the actual Sruti. I would play video clips of Pakistani singer Abida Parveen in soul-searching Malkauns. I would lament that such rich voices were sparse in Carnatic music. During their second visit in probably 2004, I remember taking them to Nadhan’s house to listen to Arthi Nadhan’s Veena. Mr. Nag Rao did all the video recordings for that concert.

A sad situation with twosome artists is when one passes away, leaving the other isolated, how would the survivor pursue concerts without the missing partner? I think of recent pairs Rajan and Sajan Misra, Gundecha Brothers, etc. The great Pakistani singer Bade Fate Ali Khan, who used to sing with his brother Amarnath Ali, went into oblivion for a few years when his brother passed away. Somehow, he came out of his depression, keeping his son as his brother’s substitute.

Unlike many top-level classical musicians who created distinct personal styles, Hyderabad Brothers maintained traditional classicism reminiscent of D.K. Pattammal and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.

TES Raghavan

May 2023

Sri Karaikkudi Mani – A Stalwart Mridangist

It is a pity that Carnatic music is losing many giant musicians and needless to say Karaikkudi Mani is one of those stalwart Mridangists who passed away just recently on May 4, 2023.  

Even though he has not performed for CTU, my first exposure to his unique mridangam was in the year 1982-83 period. It was a concert by T.N. Seshagopalan with Lalgudi Jayaraman on violin and Karaikkudi Mani on Mridangam. It was a concert hall close to Habibulla Road in T. Nagar.  It was the first time that I could notice how a rising star can be a true challenge to great veterans even with a popular composition like the popular kriti, Samaja Varagamana in Hindolam.  

Karaikkudi Mani started his career as a young boy accompanying Pithukkuli Murugadas with his melody choked Bhajan sessions.  Karaikkudi Mani has accompanied many of the legendary musicians of bygone days.  He continued to accompany many leading vocalists of the current Carnatic scene.  

He has lots of credits for experimental fusion attempts with many popular musicians across the globe.

In grief,

TES Raghavan

Feb 2023

Sangita Kalanidhi Lalitha Chandran

This year is creating several losses to Carnatic music at large. 

When I was in India earlier this year, I was shocked to hear in the local news that Sangita Kalanidhi Lalitha Chanadran (2010), younger sister of Sangita Kalanidhi Saroja (2010) (Bombay sisters) passed away on Tuesday, February 1, 2023.  

Their contribution to an authentic rendition of classical compositions of great composers as well as their contribution to the Bhakti movement through a large collection of CD’s and cassettes covering a gamut of musical compositions is truly remarkable. To name a few, they cover:

1. Kannada devotional songs 
2. Shyama Sastri’s Swarajathis 
3. Papanasam Sivan compositions 
4. Varnams 
5. Natya Sudha 
6. Mahishasura Mardhini stotram 
7. Lalitha Sahasranamam
8. Popular compositions of Ooththukkadu Venkata Subbier.

The earlier cassette releases are countless.  I am not sure whether they were reproduced into CDs with the ever-changing audio technology.

As the most celebrated disciples of Sangeeta Kalanidhi T.K. Govinda Rao ( 1999), I have heard their unique synchronized rendition with perfect layam when I attended  their concert  for the first time in New Delhi  (1975). 

Their first performance under CTU was in the year 1989. Previously we had the policy that only Tyagaraja Kriti was allowed to be sung at CTU.  However, the general audience were impatient to listen to popular compositions in all other languages and CTU had no choice but to cave in. For the first time in the tail end of their concert, they electrified the audience with the famous Tamil composition- Kaliyuga Varadan of Periyasami Thooran in raga Brindavana Saranga.  

If one wants to have the authentic version of Musiri’s renditions their Guru, Sangita Kalanidhi Sri. T.K. Govindarao (1999) (a prime disciple of Musiri) has passed on those versions to them and their CD’s are the right locations for the authoritative Musiri version.

In grief,

TES Raghavan

Sep 2022

Sri T.V. Sankaranarayanan – A Master of Swara Patterns

The sudden demise of Sangeeta Kalanidhi, Padma Bhushan Sri T.V. Sankaranarayanan is an irreplaceable loss to Indian classical music. As the nephew of Madurai Mani Iyer, he inherited  Madurai Mani Iyer’s musical treasures and especially his style of swaraprastarams. I still treasure his early concert tapes that are sample demonstrations of the musical genius of his uncle. 

East West society was perhaps the earliest organization that initiated concert tours of great Carnatic musicians in the United States in the early 70’s. The concert tour of Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman with Flute Ramani and Sri Ramnad Raghavan was one of the earliest ones by them and it was quickly followed by a concert tour of Sri T.V. Sankaranarayanan. 

There were many organizers in that society who were pining for the music of Madurai Mani Iyer. The nearest substitute for the music of Madurai Mani Iyer was from his nephew Sri T.V. Sankaranarayanan. He was young, energetic and was a master of the swara patterns of his uncle. In the initial days, his concerts would exhibit, now and then, the ingenious swara patterns of Madurai Mani Iyer and every one loved the renditions and were constantly longing for the same. I was no exception. 

Over the years, if I had listened to a tape of his again and again, it would have been his RTP in Brindavana Saranga. His father Vembu Iyer was always anxious that TVS covered the major ragas like Todi, Karaharapriya, Kambodhi, Bhairavi, Sankarabharanam etc in all of his concerts. Of course many Madurai Mani Iyer fans like me will be longing for the tukkadas of Madurai Mani Iyer from Sri TVS. 

TVS had an unusual way to start a Telugu or Kannada kriti with a viruththam in Tamil as preamble!! He was one of the pioneers in initiating RTP’s in multiple ragas. I would have listened to his Tamadam Tagadayya sung at Coimbatore Raga Sudha Concert at least 30 times. 

His first concert under CTU was organized at Triton college auditorium on 28th August 1994 [see photo insert]. TKV Ramanujacharlu (Violin) and Harikumar (Mridangam) were his accompaniments for this program. Except for Samaja Vara Gamana by Tyagaraja Swamy and Varadarajam Upasmahe by Deekshitar, the rest were from many composers of the 20th century (Papanasam Sivan, Ambujam Krishna, Periasami Thooran, Tulasivanamand and so on). 

We were blessed as a family to host the TVS troup for nearly a week. His simplicity would touch any one who moved with him. 

He visited Chicago and gave a memorable CTU concert in Nov 2002. 

His RTP in Lathangi at this concert is still ringing in my ears. 

I used to ask him about the advantages and disadvantages of krithis in various languages. 

He was the first one to clarify the point that Telugu krithis often contain many words ending in vowels. This helps musicians to open up their throat to prolong a sangathi with free breath control. Tamil and Sanskrit compositions by and large have the following serious problems. 

1. Too many words to be rendered within each tala cycle with minimal space for managing one’s own manodharmam in between. 
2. They often end in consonants that obstruct easy musical flow. 
3. While I was always tickled by Venkata Kavi’s compositions, except for one or two, rest remained dormant and never were a part of concerts of veteran musicians like GNB, Chemmangudi, Alathoor Brothers, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer and a few more. It was only through Madurai Mani Iyer that even things like Taye Yasoda were popularized. 

In grief,

TES Raghavan

Apr 2022

Nagai Sriram – A Violinist with an electrifying ghamakam!

When people sent in WhatsApp message that the famous violinist Sri Nagai Sriram passed away, I could not make out who the person was till Nadhan called me yesterday and informed me that it is about Sri Nagai Sriram! 

I always felt that Sri Nagai Sriram was one of the thinnest Carnatic musicians and was always suspicious of his health.  He would never have any variations in his facial expressions, even surprising everyone around with his own electrifying ghamakam (that did not come from the main artist), while playing or accompanying the main artist. The unbelievable flow of ghamakam-choked musical ideas would flow through his performance and convince one and all that his mastery is inborn and not by pure training.  I could only remember two of his performances at CTU, one in 2016 accompanying Sangeeta Kalanidhi Sankara Narayanan and another in CTU 2017 as a duet violinist with his uncle, the renowned violinist-Kalaimamani Nagai Muralidharan. 

Even now I am able to recall their duet presentation-Ninne Bhajana in Chala Nattai of Saint Tyagaraja and Nandagopala of Deekshitar in Yamuna Kalyani. I have heard Ninne Bhajana only from two other artists-namely violin genius Sangeeta Kalanidhi MS Gopalakrishnan and from Hyderabad Brothers ( CTU 1993). As for Nandagopala, the format was out and out that of Sangeeta Kalanidhi Maharajapuram Santhanam and also of the same by his father Sangeeta Kalanidhi Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer. It is somewhat different musically from the usual Krishna Nee begane, that we are often used to, for identifying raga Yamuna Kalyani. 

I never realized that he was just 41 when he passed away on April 8^th, 2022.  Even though we have had his accompaniment to several leading musicians at several CTU programs, I could not easily locate the details of those programs. Our core music loving volunteer Seshadri Ramasharma reminded me that he accompanied Sikkil Guucharan in 2009, Hyderabad Brothers in another CTU concert the same year, was also as CTU music competition judge with Kalaimamani Srimushnam Raja Rao in 2016, besides his duet performance in CTU 2017 with his uncle Kalaimamani Nagai Muralidharan. The enclosed list of their duet violin performance will be enough to show their total adherence to classicism and respect for our immortal composers spread across different languages. 

Here they are 

1. Ninne Bhajana seyuvadanu – Chala Nattai-Adi 2 kalai-Tyagaraja
2. Tsalakallaladu – Arabhi-Adi-Tyagaraja
3. Nannuvidachi-Reethigaula-Misra chapu-Tyagaraja
4. Nandagopala-Yamunakalyani-2 Kalai-Deekshitar
5. Ranganayakam Bhavayeham-Nayaki-Adi-2 kalai-Deekshitar
6. Raghunathanannu-sura-Ranjani-adi-Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar
7. Upacharamulanu-Bhairavi-Adi 2 kalai-Tyagaraja
8. Palukutenelatalli-Abheri-Khanda chapu-annamacharya
9. Bharo krishnayya: Ragamalika-Maand-Bilahari-Mishra Piloo, Jonpuri-Adi-Kanakadasa
10. Saagara sayana vibho-Bhageshree-Adi 2 kalai-MD Ramanathan
11. Vishveshwar dharshan kar-Sindu Bhairavi-Roopakam-Swati Tirunal
12. Tillana-Senjurutti-Adi-Mysore Chowdaiah
13. Tunbam nergayil-Desh-Adi-Bharatidasan
14. Bhagyata Lakshmi Bharamma-Madhyamavati-Adi-Purandaradasa
15. Mangalam-Pavamana-Sowrashtram-Tyagaraja 

Like Mandolin Srinivas who died quite young, Carnatic music is going through the trauma of losing many remarkable instrumentalists at such a young age. My father used to say this about Madurai Pushpavanam, (uncle of Sangeeta Kalanidhi Madurai Mani Iyer) who died quite young while rising like a meteor in the musical world with an unusually melodious voice. 

We are able to retain for posterity the contributions of Sri Nagai Sriram only through such musical collections of CTU. 

In grief,

TES Raghavan

Nov 2020

Sri T.N.Krishnan – A legendary violinist

Carnatic music lovers continue to lose some of the greatest vocalists and legendary instrumentalists. They are emotionally struggling to come to grips with the sudden passing away of Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri T.N.Krishnan.

To ardent devotees of CTU, the loss of Sri T.N.Krishnan will be even more difficult to swallow. He had quite an intimate relationship with Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam even from the very beginning of the organization.

In the early days, we were running the annual Utsavam for just one day. In 1985, for the first time, we were fortunate to find that Sri T.N.Krishnan was passing through Chicago during the Memorial Day weekend. The core volunteers were keen on organizing his concert at a nice hall instead of school gyms and acoustically poor halls. In my school days and college days, I have attended many concerts of Madurai Mani Iyer, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar, GNB and all accompanied by Sri T.N.Krishnan on the violin at Singarachari Hall, Hindu High School Triplicane etc. In those days, Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha used to rent this hall to run their programs. I was really excited to organize the first ever professional program that too of such a legendary violinist. CN Krishnaswamy, an ardent volunteer of CTU had great connections with Wheaton College and was able to get their special concert auditorium to CTU for free!!. None of us could dream of such a superb hall even now! He spent many hours editing the concert tapes in three cassettes and we wanted Krishnan’s music to reach Carnatic music lovers across the Midwestern United States. We were selling in three cassettes his unique concert for just $5 that would not cover even the cost of the tapes.

That was the time when we also noticed during the Utsavam, the melodious violin performance by a musically gifted boy Srikanth Venkatraman. His parents were keen on getting professional training for his son from Sri T.N.Krishnan. Krishnan had come with his wife and daughter and they found in Sharada and Venkatraman, excellent hosts. They offered their house to Krishnan’s family so that it could as well be a Gurukulam for Srikanth. Initially, Srikanth learnt from two local teachers Ranjani Narayanswamy and Manjula Rao and he was lucky to get training right at home from Sri T.N.Krishnan. When I requested Sri T.N.Krishnan to teach him major kritis and not simple ones like Nada Tanumanisam, he chose to train him the kriti Nada Tanumanisam with all the subtleties. Krishnan suggested that Srikanth could come to India and continue to learn from him. In fact Srikanth spent a summer in India and continued his music lessons staying in New Delhi where Professor T.N.Krishnan was attached to Delhi University music department.

Krishnan performed in the annual CTU festival again in May 1994 and another time in Chicago in September 2007, as part of a program organized by Professor Balachandran on behalf of Shankara Netralaya as part of a fundraising program.

Sri Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu Garu preferred to be a soloist and occasionally in AIR programs he used to have his disciples like Sri Marella Kesava Rao for a duet accompaniment. However Sri. T.N. Krishnan, Sri. Lalgudi Jayaraman and Sri. MS Gopalakrishnan, the leading violin accompaniment artists of those days would virtually elevate and enhance the vocal performances of all veteran musicians by their distinct styles. I used to wonder how T.N.Krishnan could simply reproduce many portions of the vocalists’ ghamakas sung just a few minutes back. Professor C.S.Seshadri, a world renowned mathematician and founder of the Chennai Mathematics Institute used to mention that the real strength of T.N.Krishnan was his solid bowing technique that he never lost even at age 90. One could feel his bowing quite masculine with certain heaviness. His accompaniment to a concert of M.D.Ramanathan singing at athi vilambit speed would challenge any instrumentalist and only people like T.N.Krishnan could handle such singers soaked in conservative music.

I met him for the last time when there was a special condolence program for Sri M.S.Gopalakrishnan.

He will live in the hearts of ardent Carnatic music lovers through his recorded music and also through one’s own personal collections of concerts of veteran musicians that he enhanced by his unique style.

In grief,

Dr. T.E.S. Raghavan

Oct 2020

Sri P. S. Narayanaswamy – A dedicated teacher par excellence

It is a great shock to all Carnatic music lovers that on Friday, October 16, 2020, Kalaimamamani, Padmabhushan Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy passed away in Chennai leaving many of his close friends, devout shishyas (disciples) and his family members in deep anguish with an irreplaceable loss to Carnatic music. One can virtually assume for granted that almost all leading concert musicians (currently) in Carnatic music would have undergone additional advanced training under Guru Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy.
Hailing from the village Konerirajapuram in Thanjavur district, his father, a local doctor, unlike many other doctor parents did not mind his son taking up music as his career. Of the many teachers under whom he had training, his advanced training under Sangeeta Kalanidhi Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, made him virtually a walking music library, a true treasure house for hundreds of kritis that are rare musical gems of Tyagaraja, Deekshithar, Shyama Sastri, and also of their disciples.

Many years back, I met him for the first time in a special annual Raghavendra Swamy pooja that Mridangist Sri Srimushnam Raja Rao was conducting in his flat.

Ranga Ramanuja Iyengar, the well known musicologist and the author of Kriti Mani Malai used to talk about a whole galaxy of musicians who hailed from Konerirajapuram. Apparently in his younger days great musicians like Konerirajapuram Vaidhyanatha Iyer dominated the Carnatic concert field. My college mate Sri K.S. Raman was living in Konerirajapuram and each time I went for temple visits, I would go to Konerirajapuram and stay with Raman and would show my curiosity to see the houses of Vaidhyanatha Iyer and Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy. Unfortunately, he had very little knowledge about musicians from his own village, but certainly would be all praise for his distant relatives like Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy or K. Gayatri.

A few years back, I came to know of a special Guru Vandanam program organized by almost all leading disciples of Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy. The program was conducted at Raga Sudha Hall in Mylapore. I saw among the audience, the leading artists like Ranjani Gayatri, Akkarai Subbalakshmi, Bharat Sundar, Abhishek Raghuram and quite a few others that I did not know but came to know of them as disciples of Sri PS Narayanswamy.

They played one of his old concert tapes that gave a clear idea of his rich voice and gamakam laden Kalyani alapanai. The musical contours reminded me of old GNB’s performance with his metallic voice. Unlike the voices of many veteran musicians of the bygone days, his voice was completely free of any nasal touch.

For any art form, society needs a genuine commitment by lead artists to pass on that knowledge to the next generation. Invariably, many concert musicians neglect this aspect and try, at best, to pass on their knowledge to their own children. Very often, many of them are unable to assimilate what is given to them free. Even great Carnatic music composers have failed in this respect to pass on their treasure to future generations. Many original and creative compositions of Uthththukkadu Venkata Kavi are simply lost. They have not made special efforts to look for superb sishyas who can quickly assimilate what is given to them by their Gurus. In Tyagaraja Swamy’s days he was both a composer and a teacher par excellence imparting his creative compositions to different sishyas. He chose to teach compositions according to the student’s absorbing abilities. I am yet to find one like Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy who has been musically generous to his sishyas with varying musical abilities. His musical genealogy tree has many branches (sishyas) carrying the teacher’s knowledge through their concert performances.
Even in the Vedic days great teachers were praying God to shower them with good students:

Amayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Vimayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Pramayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Damayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Shamayantu brahmacharinah svaha
Yathapah pravata yanti
Yatha masa aharjaram
Evammam brahmacharinah
Dhatar ayantu sarvatah svaha

Roughly it says:

May the pupils inquire after me,
May the pupils come to me!
May my pupils venture forth on the way of research, inquiry!
May my pupils practice self restraint!
May my pupils find peace and tranquility of mind!
As waters rush down the valleys, as the months run into years, O Creator!, hurry towards me the students from all sides!

Sri P.S. Narayanaswamy was amply rewarded with excellent sishyas as demanded by the teachers of Vedic days.

In our CTU’s 40th year celebration, I was keen on approaching several musicians for a word of support for what we have been doing for Carnatic music. He was one of the earliest ones to send his letter of appreciation for CTU’s efforts in propagating Carnatic music in the United States of America.

In grief,

T.E.S. Raghavan

Aug 2020

Pundit Jasraj – A melodious vocalist

It is perhaps the biggest shock to Indian classical music lovers that Padma Vibhushan Pundit Jasraj passed away on August 17, 2020 in NJ, USA after a sudden heart attack. It was he who successfully set up several music centers across the globe to lime light the unique features of the Mewati Gharana.

Born in Hissar ( Punjab) in 1930 in a musical family, he was trained into both percussion and vocal music by his two elder brothers, Pundit Maniram and Pundit Pratap. Initially he used to accompany them on the Tabla at different music festivals. Every now and then, Jasraj was encouraged by his brothers to join them as the third vocalist in the trio of vocalists. Needless to say, Jasraj’s melody choked voice had a clear edge over his brothers. Once Jasraj chose to settle down permanently in Mumbai, he was able to quickly spread among classical music lovers and several music students, the unique aspects of the Mewati gharana. If Chennai is the center for the connoisseurs of Carnatic vocal music, Mumbai is the center for the connoisseurs of Hindustani vocal music. Traditionally, the Maharashtrians of Poona and the Kannadigas of Dharwar have always dominated vocal Hindustani music.

My first true exposure to Hindustani classical music was during the period 1962-66. I was then a graduate student at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta. During the December music season, there were many music festivals in South Calcutta. Vocal musicians like Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan, Pakistani brothers Salamad Ali and Nazakat Ali, and Drupad singers Dagar brothers were the lead performers at almost all Calcutta music festivals. Those festivals did include some lead Bengali vocalists like Chinmoy Lahiri and Tarapada Chakraborti. Pundit Bhimsen Joshi and Hirabai Barodekar used to perform in a few Calcutta music festivals, here and there, but I never heard of Pundit Jasraj in those days. The festivals had a substantial chunk devoted to instrumental music by many Bengali instrumentalists. It was Allaudin Khan and his disciples like Pundit Ravi Shankar, who gave instrumental music greater prominence all over Bengal. Even in England during the period 1966-69, I never heard of Pundit Jasraj. My first exposure to his music was through a reel to reel tape in Chicago in the early seventies.

My friend Mr Subramanyam ( Mrs. Savitri) (1969-71 period ) gave me a reel to reel tape of concerts of Hindustani vocalists. The first piece was the lilting bandish “Pavana Dhoota Hanuman” in the raga Hamsadhwani. Not knowing the singer but captivated by the singer’s melody choked voice, I rewound the tape many times and could not resist rewinding it again to listen to the melodious voice of the singer even after four rounds. A few days later, I came to know that it was a marginal recording of a private concert by one Pundit Jasraj. I was eager to collect anything of Jasraj’s music and through my brother-in-law Mr. Padmanabhan, I got a cassette of his Bhajan singing. I could not stop humming his bhajan “Gokul me Bharat Kaham Bhadavo” (?) in raga Kedar ( Carnatic Hameer Kalyani).

In the early seventies, professional musicians from India and especially vocalists from either system had to depend on private concerts for a select audience. Thanks to my advisee, Ravindra Bapat ( 1975-76 period), I was able to attend a private (home basement) concert of Pundit Jasraj at Oak Park, IL with Ustad Zakir Hussain on the tabla. To me it was a unique musical experience of a very spiritual kind.

His concert format was quite distinct from what I was exposed to in my Calcutta days. Second half of those vocal concerts used to be dominated by Tumris, Tappas and other such formats with romance as their main theme. One can compare this with Carnatic concerts of bygone days where veteran musicians chose to concentrate on the music of Javalis and Padams with romance as their main theme in their second half. Pundit Jasraj’s concert deviated in a significant and novel way by introducing the Bhakti sangeet and the Haveli sangeet. Such a change has happened also in Carnatic music with Viruththams, Devarnamas and folk songs in all languages across the southern states of India.
 
During mid eighties there was a meteoric rise of a new music society in Chicago area called the Ameer Khusro Society of America (AKSA), founded by one Mr. Habeeb. It was a kind of a business venture aiming to target both Hindustani and Carnatic music lovers. Outstanding musicians from either system performed in Chicago during that short period. Great musicians like Pundit Jasraj, K.V. Narayanaswamy, Amjad Ali Khan, Mandolin Srinivas, Pundit V.G. Jog, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, Flautist Ramani, Pundits Rajan and Sajan Misra, Neyyattankarai Vasudevan, and many stalwarts from either system performed under the AKSA banner. To me, the most memorable among them all was the concert of Pundit Jasraj. I still treasure this AKSA concert for its unique mixture of Khyals, Bhakti sangeet and Haveli sangeet.
 
By a strange coincidence, the first ever Hindustani concert organized by CTU was a concert of Pundit Jasraj! (1991). The organizers of his tour approached Dr. Venkatraman and Mrs. Sharada Venkatraman ( Balaji temple Cultural committee ) for a possible concert in the temple. Though Venkatramans were very keen, support for a Hindustani concert was not fully forthcoming. I came to know of this and suggested that we could do it as a co-sponsored program under CTU jointly with the temple. After the concert, Venkatramans invited me to join the artist for a lunch at their house. I was truly stunned by the Pundit’s unassuming modesty and simplicity. When I mentioned about the Carnatic raga Revati that he was using in his concert, he mentioned that it is the well known Hindustani raga called Bairagi Bhairav.
 
Over the years he had several distinguished disciples from both the North and the South. Most notable among them are Sanjeev Abhyankar, Kala Ramnath ( niece of the renowned violinist TN. Krishnan), Shweta Javeri, Shashank Subramanyam and his own daughter Durga Jasraj. Indeed, we were fortunate to organize a duet concert of his two disciples Sanjeev Abhyankar (vocal) and Shashank Subramanyam on bamboo flute culminating in the Bhakti sangeeth, ” Ohm Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya “.
 
In his concerts, Jasraj created a novel form of jugalbandi called Jasrangi that is styled on the ancient system of moorchhana, between a male and a female vocalist. He was keen on encouraging his promising students to join him in exploring unexplored territories of various taans. Many talented female singers like Shweta Javeri or Kavita Krishnamurthy got unique opportunities to perform jointly with him.
 
There are quite some similarities between Carnatic musician Smt M.S. Subbulakshmi (MS) and Pundit Jasraj. His concerts would always start with the formal prayer “Mangalam Bhagavan Vishnu”. It used to remind me of MS’s concerts starting with the formal prayer “Ohm Namah Pranavaartaaya”.

Like MS, Pundit Jasraj tried to convey through his concerts that music is the most powerful vehicle to inspire listeners to Bhakti margam.

In grief,

Dr T.E.S. Raghavan

May 2020

Smt. T.Rukmini – the famous violinist

Smt. T. Rukmini the famous violinist passed away on May 31st at the ripe age of 84. 

It was 1976-77 when many music lovers  in Chicago and Wisconsin area were keen on not only trying to initiate celebrating Tyagaraja Utsavam , but also looking for organizing concerts by professional musicians passing through Midwest.  It was Dr. S.T Rao who informed me that the music team consisting of Sri S. Kalyanaraman (famous disciple of GNB and one of Rao’s close friends), Smt. T. Rukmini on violin and Srimushnam Sri Raja Rao on Mridangam had started performing in the East coast.  Unfortunately Sri Kalyanaraman  fell sick and the two accompanists were not sure what to do under such a circumstance. Many of us living in apartments were looking for some suitable hall and it was Smt. Sridevi and Dr. Rangaraj who said they can have the program in their new house. Even though I have personally listened to the legendary flutist Mali with T. Rukmini as his violin accompaniment and also with Dr. M. Balamurali Krishna, this was a unique concert with T. Rukmini playing solo with Srimushnam Raja Rao on Mridangam.  Some of her students, I came to know were already there in the Midwest and in Boston area.  Smt. Amrita Murali is of course, her most notable disciple in today’s Carnatic platform. Her melodious vocal rendition in some one’s apartment of  “Mathe Malayadhwaja Pandya Sanjathe” in Khamas , a famous composition of Harikesanallur  Muthiah Bhagavatar is still fresh in me.  

Some very talented and creative violinists like T. Rukmini have remained  quite dormant due to their own reserved attitude.  

In grief,

TES Raghavan

Nov 2019

Sri Ramakanth Gundecha — A true Master and a great Teacher 

I heard the shocking news that Sri Ramakanth Gundecha, one of the famous Gundecha Brothers, died of a sudden heart attack en route to a concert. He was the younger brother of Sri Umakanth Gundecha, the celebrated duet Dhrupad singer and elder brother of Sri Akhilesh Gundecha, the Pakhawaj maestro. It is a shocking news for all classical music lovers in general and to Hindustani classical music lovers in particular. With his brother, he enthralled many music lovers of CTU in our annual Utsavam in 2008. Their music emphasized on the meditative aspects of our classical music. 

During 1962-66, period I was first exposed to stalwarts in Dhrupad like the Dagar brothers. I used to feel Dhrupad music was somewhat closer to our Carnatic music. Dagar brothers used to often perform at Mahajati Sadan in Calcutta during the annual Sadarang Sangeet Sammelan. There were many more khayal singers and instrumentalists than various other types. 

In a visit to the Netherlands in the early eighties, I was given a recording of the music of Gundecha brothers by Kalpana, daughter of my friend Raghuraman. She said, “Uncle I am sure you will enjoy listening to their melody choked voice.” I asked her to play the cassette for a few minutes and I immediately felt that their music was anchored in perfect sruti which in itself created a serene atmosphere instantaneously. Their two voices would start like two planes trying to take off from the runway simultaneously in close union and would smoothly climb higher and higher into the musical atmosphere, a feat that one would feel humanly impossible to emulate. 

I once came across an essay ( சங்கீத விஷயம்) — “Sangeetha Vishayam” by the famous Tamil poet Subramanya Bharatiyar. Apparently after listening to many Hindustani vocalists in Varanasi, he felt that the majority of Carnatic musicians, of his days, were lacking in voice culture. I could understand his complaint after listening to Gundecha brothers. 

Thanks to two music lovers ( Madhusudhan Vedurmudi and Ravi Pariti), ardent supporters of CTU , I was excited to arrange their program during our annual Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam. With two Tamburas on stage to be perfectly tuned, it took quite some time till they were satisfied. In a concert at National Girls High School Hall in Triplicane (1957) (1958), I have witnessed Madurai Mani Iyer (with Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman and Sri Palani Subramania Pillai) working hard for nearly 20 minutes tuning the Tambura to his satisfaction. 

In 2008, before starting their regular concert at our annual Tyagaraja Utsavam, Gundecha Brothers paid their homage to Tyagaraja Swamy by singing a choornika from Tyagaraja Swamy’s opera, Prahlada Bhakti vijayam in Dhrupad style. Their Dhrupad composition on Lord Siva in the Hindustani raga Adana is still ringing in my ears. My daughter, Tara used to say, that whenever she was depressed, she found listening to their CD’s had a soothing effect in calming her depressed mood. 

Even though some of the greatest musicians like Swamy Haridas and Tansen were Dhrupad singers, the music nurtured in royal courts moved the main trend of Hindustani music away from Bhakti oriented Dhrupad to a more secular or romantic musical types like Khayal and Thumri. Many musicians from Persia, who dominated Moghul courts, perhaps tried to influence the music towards more secular themes.

Needless to say, Dhrupad style of singing had an indelible stamp on the great composer Sri Muthuswamy Deekshitar. His stay in Varanasi and his exposure to some of the major Hindustani ragas probably triggered his creative urge to compose Carnatic kritis in many Hindustani ragas adapting the slow gait of Dhrupad compositions.

Deekshitar’s compositions like Parimala Ranganatham (Hameer Kalyani), Rangapura vihara (Brindavana Saranga), Jamboopathe (Yamuna Kalyani), Akhilandeswari ( Dwijavanti), Nandagopala (Yamuna Kalyani), Neerajakshi Kamakshi ( Hindolam) are all arresting our attention to appreciate the beauty of Dhrupad style in Carnatic system. Even though he would have listened to many Khayal singers in and around Varanasi, his choice to compose only in Dhrupad style shows his respect and appreciation for this meditative style that captures not only the essence of Hindustani ragas but conspicuously avoids Kampita Gamakas. Gundecha brothers have given several CD’s with short compositions in several ragas called the Dhrupad Mala series. 

Apparently, Gundecha brothers have been running a successful Dhrupad Gurukul in Bhopal, Madhyapradesh with many foreign students deeply drawn into such a system. They have also established a Dhrupad school in Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. It is very sad that India has to lose one of its greatest musicians and a true master and a great teacher of one of the oldest systems of Indian classical music. 

In grief,

T.E.S Raghavan

 

 

Oct 2019

Sri Kadri Gopalnath – The Saxophone King

When many core volunteers called me last night, they all shocked me with the tragic news that the Saxophone King, Kalaimamani, Padmasri Kadri Gopalnath passed away at Mangalore.

One of the most creative Carnatic instrumentalist from Karnataka has left us permanently. 

 

Being kriti based, the survival of instrumental soloists in Carnatic music has been a major issue.  Nadaswaram was one true exception to this rule. Prior to the advent of microphones, it reached wider audience with no real need for additional audio enhancement. A galaxy of Nadaswara vidwans with Tavil vidhwans across the South Indian states had a successful career, till mid-twentieth century. They were given guaranteed support at all major temple festivals across the length and breadth of South Indian states. After the advent of concert platforms with mike-enhanced music and after the emergence of Movie talkies across small towns giving new entertainment to the common man, Nadaswaram music languished for public support. Its survival in marriages is more for religious sanctity than for musical quality. 

Western violin has been the very first instrument that found acceptance as the accompanying instrument.  Even the legendary violin maestros like Lalgudi Jayaraman and M.S. Gopalakrishnan became total soloists only after long and arduous battle as accompanying artists for many creative — as well as for — not so creative vocalists. Many vocalists were no match for their musical depths. 

The center of Carnatic music is in the development of major kritis, with a preamble in raga alapana.  Except for violin, none of the other instruments — Indian or Western — seem to have the capability of giving support to vocalists.   Any one choosing any melodic instrument ( not a percussion instrument ) has to struggle to survive as soloists, till they can be established.  Until you are an instrumental genius with a feel for kritis, you have very little chance to survive as instrumental soloists. 

Mali was the first such genius flutist who survived as a soloist with pomp and glory. It was not the same with Vainikas who needed mike support. They relied on tanam and other instrumental techniques to carry them through. Their concerts survived on the latter half of concert with lighter vein. 

After violin, we were exposed to Clarinet, the next novel western instrument. It could neither replace Nadaswaram  nor had the ability to survive on concert platforms. 

At the tender age of seven the Mandolin prodigy Srinivas from Andhra simply swept the whole Carnatic music platform by his creativity and dexterity in handling the little doll like instrument — Mandolin. Even the greatest of music critics saw the value for this instrument thanks to the melodic outpourings of Srinivas. 

Hailing from a well established Nadaswaram family of Karnataka, Kadri Gopalnath was drawn to the Western instrument, Saxophone, for its soothing base output. He decided to take the major risk in adopting Saxophone for the Carnatic Music platform.  With no local support from Karnataka, Kadri’s challenges were tremendous, but he will not cave in. 

His first performance in CTU in 1987 with the kriti, Abeeshta varada in Hamsadhwani, took every music lover by surprise. The instrument was novel, the music was soothing, kritis played were very melodic, the dexterity of his handling the instrument was unquestionable. After the initial period he was able to successfully team up with Ms Kanyakumari on violin and their cooperative musical output reached great heights and was noticed by many music lovers across the world and it gave  a major thrust for instrumental solo performances. Like Madurai Mani Iyer, he was quite generous to share the concert platforms with lot of thani avartanam opportunities for percussionists like Harikumar, Nakode and others. 

Kadri shot to tremendous popularity when music director A.R. Rahman introduced Kadri’s saxophone music to common audience through the very popular movie- Duet. The support of common man is essential for one’s musical professional rise through increased audience. Almost all great professional musicians have succeeded by a small entry to light music.  That is true with Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi (Katrinile varum Geetam), Smt. M.L. Vasanthakumari ( Ellaam Inbamayam), Sri Balamurali Krishna ( Oru Nal poduma), Smt. Nithyashree ( Kannodu Kanbadellaam) , Bombay Jayashri ( Narumugaiye). This list is endless. 

Kadri’s important contribution to music lovers in USA is his willingness to train some of the talented USA based students by a proper gurukulam training.  CTU owes a lot to Sri Kadri Gopalnath for his musical generosity for imparting his knowledge to deserving students. Often musicians hesitate to give away their knowledge to anyone outside their immediate family. 

During the annual CTU Cart procession of Saint Tyagaraja on the second day of the Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam during the Memorial Day weekend, it is his students who pour their heart and soul to the procession by playing on Saxophone, the kritis they have learnt from him.  Where we have no Nadaswaram music, we have Saxophone music. It has become the standard practice even in marriage pandals and temple festivals. It is tacitly accepted as a mangala vadhyam.

It is all only due to Sri Kadri Gopalnath and this phenomenal contribution will be eternally appreciated by all Carnatic music lovers. 

In grief,

Dr. T.E.S.  Raghavan

Aug 2018

Geetha Bennett — A senior vainika

 

I am deeply shocked by the passing away of Mrs. Geetha Bennett.

In the initial stages of Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam, especially in the early eighties, we were hard pressed to find any touring professional musician from India whose touring time would also overlap with our festival time. With some new immigrants, we were able to successfully incorporate “Homage to Tyagaraja” sessions with the help of the local music teachers, and their few budding students. We wanted a finale program for our one-day annual festival (Utsavam). In those days it was a much tougher proposition to find a decent mridangist even if we could locate a decent vocalist or instrumentalist. We had to also comb the country to find a suitable mridangam at a matching shruti. On the advice of Dr C.N. Krishnaswamy, I contacted Mrs Geetha Bennett. Fortunately, we were also blessed with Dr. Frank Bennett, her husband, as her mridangist.

We (CTU) could not afford beyond their flight charges from California and a token honorarium. I don’t remember the token honorarium we gave . She had one request. Depending on the whims and fancies of the airline, they were charged $56 to check in her Veena as a hand luggage. Her concert went on very well and she thanked us for this unique opportunity. After reaching California, she sent a separate thanking letter and enclosed a check for $56, saying that she was lucky and the airline did not charge additionally. That single letter is enough for any one of us as to know about her high values and her standing among professional musicians.

In my school days, I used to pester my father to find a music teacher for me. Being a Sanskrit Pundit with pittance salary (perhaps the lowest salary among all teachers in the school where he was teaching), he came to know that Geetha Bennett’s father, Dr. S. Ramanathan had just moved from deep south to GT Madras area with a large family. He was himself struggling to make a living by giving veena and vocal music lessons to aspiring students. He was willing to give me free lessons if only I could possess a Shruti box on my own. It was out of reach for us and I could not avail of this free offer. I mentioned this in an interview by the editors of the Tamil magazine Tendral (published from California). Geetha Bennett called me as soon as she read this. I told her that I have read many of the short stories she had written for Ananda Vigadan, Kumudam etc. She used to contribute regularly to many of these popular magazines often centered on Tamil immigrants and their many cultural conflicts in USA.

At our request, she came to perform again at our annual festival on 26 May, 1991.

On behalf of CTU, I express my sincere condolences to her husband Dr Frank Bennett and other family members.

TES Raghavan

Chairman

 

Nov 2016

From a fanatic fan of Dr. M. Balamurali Krishna

Knowing that I am a fanatic fan, there were several early morning calls and WhatsApp messages about the sudden demise of Padma Vibooshan, Sangeeta Kalanidhi, Dr Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna.

It is one of the saddest moments in the history of Indian classical music.

Dr. Balamurali Krishna, who rose as a meteor in the musical firmament came from an unknown corner of Andhra. He was simply an exception to the leading musicians then dominating the Carnatic music platform in early sixties. While many veteran musicians used their grammar skills and solid percussion support as their strategy to corner the concert market, Dr. Balamurali Krishna, with his gifted voice and musical breath control quickly drew the attention of all veteran musicians, emerging musical talents and music-loving ordinary citizens. While his voice and bhava-laden music attracted aspiring young talents, his creative swara kalpanas and brigas and bold alapanas on rare kritis arrested the attention of all musicians, scattered all over India.

At the tender age of 14, when he composed kritis in all the 72 Melakarta ragas, many professional musicians dominating the Carnatic stage were simply jealous of this genius.  Even in the early stages of his career he made many bold and risky musical experiments with his concerts, introducing many of his own compositions and quite a few rare compositions of great composers. Often they were in many rare and unpopular ragas like Palamanjari, Naganandini, Gamanasrama, Chandrajyoti, Sindukannada, Aheer Bhairav and so on.

His creative chittaswarams and unique swara kalpanas for the well known kriti Vathapi Ganapathim, his emotionally choked rendition of the kriti Brihadeeswara in Kanada, his expansive alapana and swara kalpana for kritis like Kanugontini in Bilahari, Nagumomu in Abheri, Samaja varagamana in Hindolam, Kamalaptakula in Brindavana Saranga, all found new dimensions when he handled them. Through kritis like Entha Muddho in Bindumalini, Nanubrovamani Cheppave in Kalyani, and through folk songs like Yemi Sethura Linga, he catered to distinct tastes among audience – some looking for rare melodies, some looking for Bhakti in folk music, and some looking for sarcasm and social criticism by great the composers.

While many veteran musicians till then were least concerned about dissecting the sahityam at odd places to suit the easy flow of beats, for the first time in Carnatic concerts he made the beats subservient to sahityam.  A large number of kriti lovers outside of Tamil Nadu (especially from the states of Andhra and Karnataka) would rush to his concerts just to quench their thirst in his sahitya bhavam, his intonations and emphasis on select words and would communicate with the audience, the meaning and bhava of the kriti afresh. In his rendition of ragas Abheri, Arabhi, Bilahari, Brindavani, Chandrajyoti, Gamanasrama, Kalyani, and Mohanam, he tickled with melody-choked voice, one’s musical ecstasy with unanticipated gamakas and sangathis of even very familiar kritis.

Till 1962, I was never exposed to the live performances of any musician outside Tamil Nadu. Balamurali and his music was simply unknown to me then.

In 1962, when I moved to Calcutta for graduate studies at the Indian Statistical Institute, I had the first exposure to Hindustani music via All India Radio, Calcutta. Their expansive raga alapana and the domination of pure melody to a lulling and pleasant, but somewhat repetitive Tabla was a great musical surprise to me. The instrumental music, especially of sitar and sarod were simply captivating. The vocalists that I listened to (both males and females ) had superb voice culture. Listening to live performances by veterans like Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Salamad and Nazakat Ali, Dagar Brothers, Chinmoy Lahiri, Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar, Sandhya Mukherji and so on made me pine and pray for at least one or two musicians to emerge in Carnatic system with comparable voice culture. Almost every Carnatic musician that I had listened to prior to Calcutta days suddenly seemed to be quite second rate in voice culture. Only GNB ( 1950-51 period – Parthasarathy temple and Parthasarathy Swamy sabha concerts), and MS (1947-52 period- I could never afford to listen to her live concerts in India) and two young musicians via AIR in the same period ( Maharajapuram Santhanam and R.K. Srikantan) came to my mind as just comparable or the next best level of voices. The Bhajan singer Pithukkuli Murugadoss, with his melody choked voice (though not considered classical musician) and my true childhood inspiration M.K. Tyagaraja Bhagavatar ( via Siva Kavi, Tiruneelakantar movies ) were the only singers from the South who seemed to possess voices comparable to the great Hindustani musicians. I would truly pine and pray for the avatar of some South Indian classical musician with a captivating voice who will uphold Carnatic music and its unique gamaka sangeetam transcending regional and national barriers.

Dr. Balamurali Krishna was just emerging as a concert musician and my friends and fellow graduate students suggested that we should listen to recent music recordings from the south to spot the emerging talents. For the first time, some of us – South Indian graduate students-  bought one 45 RPM and one 78 RPM record of Balamurali. We used to listen to them again and again over weekends. The 78 RPM record Yaamihe-Nata Bhairavi (Ashtapadhi), Dinnanata Dirana (Hindola Tillana to Lalgudi’s accompaniment) was like a musical down pour for a chataka bird waiting for a drop of musical rain from the South. While graduate students from Andhra were certainly aware of Balamurali as a musician, they were more after film music.

When I left for England in 1966, I carried with me the 45 RPM records of Balamurali containing Nagumomu (Abheri), Devadi Deva (Sunadha Vinodhini) and Neerajadalalochani ( Todi). I would listen to them again and again week after week and I never got tired of the same music. A good friend of mine, one Dr Balwant Reddy of the Economics department at the University of Essex, one day brought home, the first ever 33 RPM LP of Balamurali. The Brindavani tillana was so unique that I expressed my desire to listen to the LP again. In fact I heard this LP three rounds nonstop! Noticing my craze for Balamurali’s music, Dr. Reddy picked me up from my apartment the very next weekend and dropped me at his house and was gone to comb for me any other Carnatic music records from London. I was repeatedly listening to the first two kritis ( His own Varnam Saragunagavumu in Todi (Panchama Varja) and the kriti Mahadeva Sutham in Arabhi. I would lift the moving needle and go back to the beginning of the Arabhi kriti just after the line “Yedi korinaa yevani jeppinchina … adigina naadu” and was simply intoxicated by its sudden twists and turns. I wanted to listen to the same line again and again. I was insatiable. I tried to memorize the scintillating chittaswaram by first writing down the swarams and then join the singer till the end of the kriti and would start all over again. Having memorized the chittaswaram and the kriti, my musical fantasy was to simply surprise the potential girl I may marry and her parents with a fast rendition of the chittaswaram to every one’s surprise.

Right after my marriage in 1967, I was itching to meet Balamurali and get some clarifications on my musical doubts. Through a common friend, I managed to go to his house near Madras Music Academy. The first thing that struck me was the house name “Mahati”.  My first question to him was about Sitar and how come we are not adopting Sitar and Sarode into Carnatic system? He said, “Sitar is not suitable as a pakka vadhyam for our kriti based music. Even Hindustani vocalists would not use it as pakka vadhyam for their concerts “. I queried him about our problem with instrumental soloists in Carnatic system. I queried him again – “In Hindustani music they have a large number of Sitar and Sarod soloists from Bengal, and how come we do not have any sizeable number of instrumental soloists in Violin, Veena and Flute? The few Vainikas I have listened to seem to have no dexterity with the instrument. Sitar and Sarod players seem to have mastered their instruments. If we could adopt western violin for our Carnatic concert platform, why can’t we adopt Sitar for our music?” He said, “Our folks are yet to master Veena, in spite of the frets being set to permanent positions. How do you expect our instrumentalists to handle Sitar whose fret positions are on the move all the time ?” Next I asked him about his house name Mahati.  He said that he named it after a raga that he created with just 4 notes Sa, Ga, Pa, Ni in ascent and descent. Perhaps after listening to his kriti -Mahaneeya Madhuramoorthe in Mahati, many film music composers were anxious to introduce it in their movies. The film song Adisaya Ragam sung by Jesudoss is one such.  I told him, “I love your Varnam Saraguna Gavumu in Todi. However, it sounds somewhat alien to the Todi varnams and kritis that I have listened to”. He mentioned that it is composed by skipping panchama (varjam) which is even otherwise only rarely used in popular Todi varnams.  I wanted to know whether he has published any book in Tamil script, exclusively of his compositions. He lovingly picked up from his book rack the little yellow book “Murali Ravali” and donated it to me with an autograph. To this day I treasure this book as one of my rarest music collections. It contains, with notation, some of his original varnams, kritis and tillanas.

In 1971, my friend Narayanan brought from London a reel to reel tape of an AIR concert of Balamurali. The concert starting with his kriti Mangala Dayaka was simply mesmerizing me. As usual I would rewind the tape again and again to listen to the same kriti. So was another tape with a famous Tevaram “Van Taranga Punarkamala” that he set to music in raga Haimavati.

In 1975, for the first time, many celebrated musicians like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Bhimsen Joshi, Kumudini Lahya of the Hindustani system and Balamurali Krishna, Balasaraswathi and T.K. Murthy from Carnatic system were honored by the Sangeet Natak Academy. Open air free concerts and dance programs of these artists were arranged by the Sangeet Natak academy. I felt thrilled when (Bharata Ratna), Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was in the front row listening to the full concert of Balamurali Krishna.

To me and to my family, the years 1976-86 are still the most memorable days- socially and musically. With a small group of ardent music lovers we were often commuting our weekends between Madison, Chicago, West Bend and Purdue exchanging tapes and cassettes from each other. That is when we started planning for an annual Tyagaraja Utsavam in the Midwest. Any new music of Balamurali would be the top priority agenda of our musical conversation meets.

In the worst of the winter, one Friday, my friend Tyagaraja Rao called me and informed me that he had just received by post an AIR concert of Balamurali (starts with his kriti Ganasudharasa pana niratam). Next morning the temperature was 4 degrees Fahrenheit. All TV stations were warning continuously to avoid driving. By 8 AM, I was already on the freeway listening to the news. Dan Ryan was virtually empty and I drove all alone to S.T. Rao’s apartment in Purdue. He could not believe that I would risk driving all alone in such a weather to a new concert of Balamurali.

Balamurali made the first US tour in 1979. I decided to skip all academic activity and wanted to spend as much time as I can with him. In Chicago, sizeable chunk of light music lovers waited patiently till the end for his “Oru naal pOdumaa” and just that single song satisfied their long wait. Many music lovers who speak Telugu would wait patiently for his rendition of Nagumomu without any alapana or swara prastaram but just the kriti sung with intonation and bhavam. They felt their long wait was worth in gold. A rare composition like Palukutatse in Palamanjari or Dakshayani in the raga Naganandini kept the local musicologists spell bound. I contacted the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign music department and we had another concert there. He happily obliged my personal request with his kriti Mangala Dayaka in Arabhi. When he announced that the rhythm lovers would enjoy the Ragam Thanam Pallavi set to Kanta Jati Triputai in Sankeerna Gati, many American students trained in the grammar of Carnatic system were happily keeping to the beats.

In Urbana, when I expressed my desire to formally learn kritis from him, he lovingly took me to the Pooja room in Dr. Ranga Rao’s house (our host) and after my prostrations, he chanted some slokas and mantras in my ears. Even though I was longing for his musical association, with my conservative food habits, I was finding it somewhat embarrassing to be in a company of folks who were all the time keen on fussing over him with a generous supply of hard drinks. In Milwaukee, when he wanted me to get drinks from his bag that he got as gift from another host from another city, I politely refused.

“Raghavan, how can you become my sishya if you are unwilling to do even such a simple favor like this for a Guru?” He narrated a story to me about a movie called Hamsa Geete in Kannada language where an orthodox Brahmin sishya at the request of his music teacher would carry a live chicken to satisfy his teachers special culinary demand. I politely said, “I am sorry. I may have to remain just an admirer of your creative music”

The Milwaukee concert simply electrified the audience with his Tamil Kriti Pirai aniyum Peruman. Wherever I went and met classical music lovers, my first request was always for any new concert of Balamurali that they can share with me. In one of my academic visits to the Netherlands, my friend Raghuraman of Lieden surprised me with a unique VHS video gift- a Doordarshan jugal bandhi by Balamurali and Bhimsen Joshi in raga Yaman (Kalyani) followed by Balamurali’s Tillana in Hindolam. This seminal Doordarshan program is yet to be matched by any of the Jugal bandis that many other vocalists and instrumentalists including himself have attempted later with any number of artists of the two musical systems. I used to carry this video whenever I went abroad for academic visits and would play this video to many music loving North Indian and European friends.

While Pandit Ravi Shankar took Hindustani music to the Western audience, Balamurali took Carnatic music to the North Indian classical platforms. No other Carnatic musician has given joint programs with outstanding vocalists and instrumentalists of Hindustani system like Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Hariprasad Chourasia, Pandit Ajay Chakraborti, Kishori Amonkar and so on.

His special AIR program on Utsava Sampradaya Kritis is the true inspiration behind Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam’s (CTU) efforts in sprouting Carnatic music among our music loving kids in Chicago.

He successfully penetrated light music film songs via in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. The songs “Orunaal pOdumaa”, “Thanga radam vandathu”, “Chinnakkannan Azhaikkiraan, “Salalitha Raga Sudharasa Saaram” etc. are master pieces in film music. In recent years, many raising stars in Carnatic music, Bharata Natyam and Kuchipudi choose one or two rare varnams or tillanas of his creations as part of their performance. His Hindola raga tillana and Taya ragamalika Tillana are often sung by renowned Hindustani musicians like Ajay Chakraborti and Kausiki Chakraborti. We were very lucky that CTU was able to arrange his solo concert in 2006 as well as a Jugalbandhi with Ajay Chakraborti in 2007. Excerpts of his CTU program were also broadcast on Doordarshan.

Last year, when I was in India, I was very keen on getting a formal letter of appreciation from him for our 40th year (2016) brochure -Tyagaraja Vijayam. When I first met him, he was in a very depressed mood and asked me “Why are you here? Who wants me or cares for my music?”. With tears in my eyes I simply prostrated four times and did abhivandanam and recalled my 1967 visits to his house, the Chicago, Urbana, and Milwaukee concerts and all.  I expressed my desire to get a blessing letter from him for our 40th year. He said, ” I cannot write by hand, but if you can bring a typed letter I will sign it”.  When I suggested we would always love to have his concert again, his daughter interrupted and said, “Please don’t throw any such invitation to him as his health would not permit him any long travel.  We are here to take care of him”. The very next day when it was close to 9 PM, with tears rolling down my eyes I went again to his house, with the typed letter. His son read the letter and our renowned musician happily signed the letter for CTU.

I wish that Government of India had recognized this renowned musician who truly integrated the two systems of our classical music with a Bharata Ratna award when he was alive.

TES Raghavan

Chairman

Oct 2015

Dr. N. Ramani – Carnatic Music purist par excellence

Carnatic music is losing, one by one, great purists and instrumental soloists.  The sudden demise of Sangeeta Kalanidhi Dr. N. Ramani, the renowned flutist, is a major loss to Indian classical music and especially instrumental music.

In 1971, I was contacted by the East-West society of New York trying, for the first time, to arrange a concert tour of the renowned Violin Maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman with Flute Ramani and Ramnad Raghavan on the Mridangam.  Mr. V.K. Viswanathan, who was one of those early pioneers in this venture, wanted us to arrange private concerts as well as public concerts. Being that Flute Ramani was a classmate of Dr. S.T. Rao, the excitement was all the more for many of us in Chicago to look forward to their visit.  Getting a suitable hall for the concert was quite a thorny issue in those days and it required a lot of help from various people. Luckily through Dr. K.S. Rajan , we could fix the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago Auditorium essentially for free through the Indian Students Association of IIT.  Having picked up the artists in the afternoon from the airport, the Violin Maestro was very particular to do mike testing before taking his lunch.  To me, Lalgudi’s mike testing in and of itself was a concert.  The Mokashamu Galada, Na Jeevadara, and Nannu Palimpa were heavenly. I was doubly rewarded with celestial music from Lalgudi and the concert with Ramani. The Chicago concert was unquestionably the most memorable and I still treasure many of the reel-to-reel concert recordings of Ramani-Lalgudi across the USA from that tour.

While Ramani was happy to perform in Chicago, he was all the more excited to meet his schoolmate S.T. Rao and the rest of us.

In fact, even more than their music,  association with the musicians and the pride that they imparted by staying with us was more important to many of us.  We looked forward to the music related chats with Lalgudi and Ramani. A host of graduate students from Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan assembled in our  one bed room apartment and people wanted to talk to Ramani the whole night after the concert.  That night we talked to Ramani about many musicians and about Tyagaraja Swamy’s specialties and what not.  S.T. Rao entertained us the whole night with his great sense of humor while the ladies were busy constantly feeding us with snacks.

The next morning we had to go and pick up graduate students staying with friends across the greater Chicago area for the private concert at Dr. K.S. Rajan ‘s apartment at IIT campus.  The masterly beginnings of a Ragamalika Alpana in Begada, Arabhi, Anandabhairavi, Reetigoula etc. are yet to be matched for their depth and originality.  When Ramani suddenly joined the solo part of Lalgudi with his solo BagayaNayya, in a raga totally unknown to many of us (Chandrajyoti), it was simply scintillating.

What a level of musical purity it was and just musical honey flowed through his flute!

Some of the ladies wanted a complete repeat of Lalgudi-Ramani-Venkatraman trio’s LP recording of Mohana Rama.  Ramani’s Nagumomu, followed by his Punnagavarali (snake song) was suddenly interfered by a unique bow of Lalgudi.  Their performance simply elevated us to a whole new musical plane.  The private concert ended with a Thiruppugazh Ragamalika and everyone quickly moved to my apartment just a block away for the lunch. They had to catch a flight within two hours.  In those days, it was quite normal for me to demand Usha to sacrifice listening to music for the sake of others.  Usha was quite busy taking care of many small kids and feeding them before we assembled for lunch.  Immensely pleased with the program, I called my friend Narayanan in London and requested him to invite Ramani when they toured UK right after their last concert in New York.

I along with S.T. Rao and Swaminathan of Madison, Wisconsin drove all the way to Detroit to listen to their Detroit concert.  Each major city had a small group of music lovers. There was VK. Viswanathan, Sankaran and Nagarajan in New York; Sundaram, Balu and Chellappa in Cleveland; C.M. Venkatachalam in Detroit; Ananthanarayanan in San Diego; and Venkatraman in Toronto.  Each was itching to listen to Carnatic music programs. Through Sony TC 560 (auto reverse, Scotch 203 tapes) etc, some of us were willing to make copies of these Ramani and Lalgudi concerts and did not mind a 300 or 400 miles trip to collect even a badly recorded concert of them or of some veteran musician’s vintage concerts of the bygone days.

The very next year (1972), when I went to India to celebrate my sister’s marriage to Narayanan, I went to meet both Lalgudi and Ramani.  In Lalgudi’s house, they were busy doing some Thiruppugazh prayers and he was to quickly catch a train for a concert next day in Andhra Pradesh.  When I met with Ramani, he was excited to talk to me about his Chicago visits and also about meeting my friend Narayanan and talked about the lunch he had with Narayanan.  Ramani wanted me with Usha  to join him for lunch next week in his house.  He was staying on the open roof terrace of some house in Mylapore which was just covered with thatch and partitioned with korai sheets.  Usha and I were deeply touched by his hospitality amidst clear poverty.  He openly said with feelings and with a great sense of gratitude that it was the Jugalbandi with Lalgudi that made all the difference to his musical life and provided a real economic uplift.  He told us that he would be  moving to his own house  being newly built  soon.   At that time, I asked him to suggest some suitable music party for my sister’s marriage reception.  I told him my financial limitations.  When I casually mentioned that my friend Narayanan was marrying my sister Daya, he simply said that he himself will play for the reception on one condition.  He would not accept even a token honorarium from us.

He is one of those rarest of musicians with a true love for music loving friends.

Later, when I attended Thiruvayyaru Tyagaraja Utsavam, I was expecting the Pancharatna Kritis first.  To my surprise, Ramani’s solo Chetulara in Bhairavi simply filled the Utsavam with tranquility.  This was the inspiration years later to implement an instrumental Chetulara group during Day 1 of the Utsavam prior to the Pancharatnam group performance.   To date, Ramani’s Chetulara lives on through this tradition.

Although Ramani has visited USA many times for many concert tours, and performed under different organizations, I very much wanted him to perform with Srimushnam Raja Rao for CTU. We had to wait a long time. In 2007, the concert of Ramani with Nagai Muralidharan and Srimushnam Raja Rao at CTU is a musical treasure for all of us.

More recently, I met Ramani and his wife for the last time at my niece’s wedding in Chennai. To this day, no musician can match Ramani for the souseelyam and soulabhyam. This purist of purists is living in my house through his many music concerts with Lalgudi, with MSG, with KVN with Chowrasia and many others.

We  have lost one of the greatest flutist, a musical purist and above all a great man with simplicity and modesty.  I will miss this great musician and his live music. .

T.E.S. Raghavan

Apr 2015

Flute Maestro Sri T.S.Sankaran – A great musician

I came to know of Flute maestro Sri T.S. Sankaran when he first came to Chicago as a visiting artist under Natyakalalaya Dance school of Chicago.  Earlier in his career, he decided to move to New Delhi. Being a direct disciple of flute maestro T.R. Mahalingam, he was greatly  respected for his scholarship and musical skills by the Carnatic music lovers  of Delhi.

During fall season, he was invited by Hema Rajagopalan for many music and dance programs conducted by Natyakalalaya and over the years he became virtually a family member of Rajagopalans.

In 1981-82 he came to attend Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam and pay his homage to the saint by a unique Nagumomu in Abheri.

I always looked for the first opportunity to know from him more about great musicians and Nadaswara vidwans of bygone days.  Being fully immersed in the Tanjore music traditions, he had lots to share with me on many anecdotes and historical details  about Thiruvayyaru Tyagaraja Utsavam and its evolution.

He used to pinpoint clearly subtle restrictions on the usage of certain notes in ragas and would argue vehemently to defend the vadi-samvadi traditions of Hindustani music that has been neglected by many Carnatic musicians.  What appealed to me most was his utter simplicity and modesty.  Luckily he has passed on some of the rarest  kritis of Saint Tyagaraja to his grandson and to some ace students in the New Delhi area.

T.E.S. Raghavan

Chairman

Mar 2015

Suguna Purushothaman – A true torch bearer of our musical heritage

In our society women carry the tradition and conservatism even more than men and music is no exception.   We are able to preserve some music traditions only thanks to great women musicians in our society .

Suguna Purushothaman who recently passed away has left a permanent mark on our musical traditions and even more than many other musicians, she has been a true torch bearer of her  musical heritage as passed on to her by her great teachers,  Musiri Subramanya Iyer and Chemmangudi Srinivasa Iyer.

Even at their highest levels, the older generation of female vocalists often kept  their creativity quite  subservient to the strict grammar passed on to them by their great teachers.  Suguna Purushothaman was one such vocalist, preserving the musical heritage of her great teacher Musiri Subramanya Iyer.  While externally keeping to the beats with full visibility to the audience is the normal practice of  Carnatic musicians, synchronizing a kriti in two distinct beats , one with the left hand and another with the right hand showing the two distinct jathis and the common merge at specific spots of the musical phrases are great intellectual feats that were often attempted only  by the veteran musicians of the bygone days .  Perhaps the expansive tala patterns of thavil solos during temple festivals of the bygone days encouraged many veteran vocalists from Tanjore district to experiment with complex laya patterns that are quite unique to Carnatic music.   Musicians like Mudikondan Venkatrama Iyer  would sing a kriti in Simha Nandana Talam ( his prime disciple Sangeetha Kalanidhi R. Vedavalli used to demonstrate them at lecture demonstrations in the past).  In more recent years I was stunned by a composition in Kalyani raga in praise of Kanchi Periyaval sung by Srivanchiyam Ramachandra Iyer in the complex Simha Nandana Talam at an Indian Fine Arts December season program.

However, very few musicians have willingly and successfully transferred what they possessed as advanced  knowledge to the next generation of musicians.  I can proudly say that Suguna Purushothaman is a true exception.  She found that her prime disciple K. Gayathri is one who can absorb her knowledge and she willingly transferred her Tala skills using both hands with two different talas to K. Gayathri who actually demonstrated this in one of our  CTU concerts.

I regret that we never had the right opportunity to have Suguna Purushothaman perform at CTU.  There is no doubt that music lovers here would have gained so much from her classicism and knowledge.

Dr. T.E.S.Raghavan

Chairman

Dec 2014

Nedunuri Krishnamurthy – An Orthodox Musical Legend

Carnatic music is continuously losing some of the greatest musicians each year and with a saddened heart, I come to know that Sangeetha Kalanidhi Sri Nedunuri Krishnamurthy passed away in Vishakapatnam after a serious cancer attack.

Dr Sripada Pinakapani was one of the legendary musician-musicologist. Apparently like Sri Rangaramanuja Iyengar of Kriti Mani Malai, Dr Pinakapani was keen on listening to the music of Veenai Danammal and her rich repertoire of Padam music of bygone days. He was keen on nurturing an authentic and musically orthodox school around him and he was lucky to spot Sri Nedunuri Krishnamurthy as a superb classical and truly orthodox master student. When Nedunuri came to Madras music season to perform, the first one to notice his classicism was our legendary violinist Sri. Lalgudi Jayaraman. He found that Sri Nedunuri Krishnamurthy is not just an orthodox musician, but in fact a very orthodox person in every sense and the two found in each other the right chemistry for an excellent concert team. Sri Nedunuri and Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman have some similarities in their styles. Their creative aspects are strictly within the grammar of the just past generation of legendary musicians like Ariyakkudi and so on. In addition to this, Nedunuri was one of the very first Andhra musicians who was willing to accept the greatness of Tamil composer Sri Papanasam Sivan which in all honesty was quite unusual for Andhra musicians. His expansive alapana in Shanmughapriya followed by Papanasam Sivan’s immortal composition Saravana Bhava Enum was a major part of many of his concerts all over India with Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman. While Voleti Venkateswarulu from Andhra tried to integrate his creative talents in both Carnatic and Hindustani music, Sri Nedunuri found great value in team efforts and a willingness to accept Tamil compositions that he felt as deep and effective for audiences across India.

Simultaneously he was trying to carve out new path for his creative urge. While Annamacharya’s music was floating in Andhra area in sporadic forms with folk tunes, and devotees of Lord Venkateswara treated them with religious respect, he found that it was a fertile poetic format of a more authentic Telugu poetic form, that could be molded to higher level forms of Carnatic kritis.

Like Ariyakkudi composed the musical format for Thiruppavai, he was keen on giving such an authentic Carnatic classical structure to Annamacharya’s poetic outpourings in the unique tradition of Saint Tyagaraja. Having mastered the sangathi format of several compositions of Saint Tyagaraja , and knowing the inner meaning of Annamacharya’s bhakti laden poems, he chose more than 100 among the large number of poems of Annamacharya and set them to Kriti format in many pracheena ragas like Mukhari, Bhowli , Shankharabharanam , Madhyamavati etc. in lilting music set to kriti format.

While Ariyakkudi’s Thiruppavai set to music as compositions were later popularized by Smt. M.L. Vasantha Kumari and many temples reverberate with that music all over Tamil Nadu during the month of Margazhi, the poems of Annamacharya set to music by Sri Nedunuri was later popularized by Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi and needless to say, it has become an eternal part of morning music all over many temples in Andhra Pradesh and notably at Thirupathi. At a popular level Sri Nedunuri’s version is also sung by Sri Balakrishna Prasad as part of Annamacharya foundation in Thirupathi area. This fundamental contribution will stay eternal in Carnatic music and even in light music circles.

No Carnatic concert is complete without one or two pieces from the lilting Annamacharya compositions.
Often ignorant music lovers get confused between the poet’s contribution and the music set to the poem. We will not know in what tunes the original poet composed the poem.

In this connection I would like to make some personal remarks:

In 1976-78 time Sri Nedunuri Garu visited USA and I attended the concert at Oak Park, IL near my apartment.

After the concert, I asked him, “How come you chose to sing many of the Annamacharya Kritis as sung in the LP record by MS Subbulakshmi”?

He politely answered- “Raghavan Garu- Don’t you think, that the person who set those poems to music has the right to sing them?”

I was shocked and apologized profusely to this great musician for my query. In more recent times Dr. Sonty Sriram who runs the Annamacharya foundation brought Nedunuri Garu and honored him and released some CD’s on Annamacharya. In the private party at Dr. Sonty’s house when I talked to Nedunuri Garu, I came to know that the original poems were set to music by the poet himself in approximately 60 tunes and we still do not know the original tunes.

I again queried him, “how come you did not bring out the Kritis with music notations?” He said,” he has them in Telugu script. “I only made one comment. It would spread much faster among music loving people across the four language speaking South Indian states if only the book is produced in either Devanagari or in Roman script.

Nedunuri Garu is not just a performing musician but also a superb teacher for talented musicians. Like Ariyakkudi’s bani was carried on for another generation by Sri KV Narayanswamy, the bani of Nedunuri is currently being carried on for the next generation by his disciples Sri Malladi Brothers. CTU is proud to say that his contribution to music is spread through the many concerts we arranged here in Chicago of Malladi Brothers and one feels Sri Nedunuri and his music is very much alive when we listen to his prime disciples.

Dr. T.E. S. Raghavan

Chairman

Sep 2014

Mandolin U. Srinivas – A true prodigy

It is a great shock to all Indian music lovers and to Carnatic music lovers in particular about the sudden demise of U. Srinivas the Mandolin prodigy.

It is possible for a musically motivated student to reach a higher music level by sheer perseverance, dedication and a teacher willing to part with his or her knowledge and committed parents who choose to evolve their life exclusively around their children. Many of our professional musicians can be certainly classified as achievers this way. Prodigies like Mandolin Srinivas or Flute Mahalingam are in a different category.  They are like Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, or for that matter, Tamil Poet Subramania Bharati. They are God sent and often they seem to pass away leaving a permanent vacuum for years to come.

I casually attended one of his earliest concerts at Sastri Hall perhaps in 1979 or 1982.  Virtually every lady attending the program identified with him as one’s own son electrifying the audience with Viriboni in unimaginable speed, followed by majestic Hamsadhwani and melting Hamsanadam in tremendous speed.

I had tears in my eyes watching a young boy and listening to a true genius. May be he was seven or eight   years old then. The instrument was new to me and realized its unique advantage for a young boy with musical genius. He could move his tender fingers in all directions in split second and was able to create cascades of gamakas with little effort.

Amidst very little demand for any solo instrumental music, his was an exception across the Madras music circles during all music seasons.

For the first time in Chicago Ameer Khusro Society rose like a meteor. It was actually one man’s creation, one Mr. Habeeb Ahmad (sp?) who overnight brought some of the outstanding musicians from India and organized music festivals across USA for nearly 3 or 4 years. He treated it purely as a business venture and the city was suddenly witnessing a grand Hindustani & Carnatic music festival.  Other great performers in this list included  great musicians like Pandit Jasraj, Rajan and Sajan Misra, Amjad Ali Khan,  KV Narayanaswamy to name a few.   Mandolin’s performance was scheduled to start at 2:00 PM.

We were all excited to know that Mandolin Srinivas will be performing here in Chicago.  I called all of my music loving friends from Madison and Milwaukee and other neighboring areas in the same proximity and families of ST Raos, West Bend Subramaniams, Swamys, and Sakti etc.  Some graduate students stayed overnight with us to listen to the genius.

I had a sudden call from Mr. Habeeb Ahmad. He needed my help to communicate to the audience that the concert could be delayed due to the delayed arrival of the artists.  Srinivas called me from O’Hare.   He said that Mr. Habeeb Ahmad wanted to take them directly to the concert hall as he was committed to music lovers.  They were traveling from Syracuse by a late night flight and had not even taken bath or done with morning ablutions. All that Srinivas wanted was to take a bath and do his prayers to Lord Hanuman before he will go to concert stage.  When we asked him about lunch arrangements apparently, they could have a quick snack at McDonald’s on the way to the concert hall in Naperville!! I told Mr. Habeeb Ahmed that if he can drop the artists in my house, we will bring the artists and he could directly deal with the audience waiting for the concert. There was sizeable audience right at my house in Villa Park, anxiously waiting to have a glimpse of this prodigy and share a few words with him.  He had a quick bath and went to our bedroom with his instrument and asked for a match box. He lighted agarbatti before a small photo of Lord Hanuman and played the first few lines of Viriboni in super speed and electrified all of us down stairs listening to this rehearsal cum prayer.  He was ready to leave for the hall. All he wanted before the concert was just a can of Coke!! We saw the child in him with his minimal needs and utter simplicity.  We saw the prodigy in action right from the Varnam piece and the hall was packed with music lovers. Madison Swaminathan said it will be his duty to somehow arrange his programs at Madison. For the next three or four years, Swaminthan would arrange Mandolin’s program via the University of Wisconsin with help of some music lovers. Needless to say, we were always part of those activities in those early years. He was accompanied by Kanyakumari on violin and Srimushnam Raja Rao on Mridnagam. His Shanmukha Priya, Arabhi, Bahudari, Hameer Kalyani are all musical gems.

As with many talented young instrumentalists from India, he was more and more to be seen in USA performing many fusion concerts across USA with people like L. Subramaniam, Mc Laughlin, Zakhir Hussain and Gazal singers like Hariharan or Shankar Mahadevan. He was quite at ease to distinguish such programs with an authentic Carnatic music program.  When professional musicians are at ease with both popular and classical pieces, money finally dictates where they go and many authentic classical music organizations were unable to match their market price of fusion music for this talent. As recent as two years back we missed one such opportunity to organize his program under CTU. Luckily we joined with HTGC to run a program of his a few years back.

In a sense people like Mandolin Srinivas, Balamurali Krishna, Lalgudi Jayaraman, Ramani or MSG have played an indirect role in the growth of CTU. Many of the CTU volunteers in those days were so deeply attached to their music that they will travel 300 miles just to listen to their music concert in another Midwest city.

It is a pity that somehow the greatest prodigies are not properly recognized by Indian government or by the prestigious music societies. They all deserve much greater recognition from the Government of India.  Alas Mandolin is no more with us!

Dr. T.E.S.Raghavan

Chairman

Feb 2014

R.K.Srikantan – One of the greatest doyens of Carnatic Music

It is with deep sadness and heartfelt regret that I announce the loss of one of the greatest doyens of Carnatic music.
Sangeeta Kalanidhi, Padmabhushan, Sri. R.K. Srikantan passed away on Monday Feb 17, 2014, only one day after celebrating his 94th birthday.

Mysore has been the home of many outstanding Vainika Vidwans like Veenai Seshanna and Veenai Subbhanna and many others. Indeed, Karnataka continues to nurture many brilliant young instrumentalists in violin and flute even today. There are also vocalists from Karnataka who are emerging as outstanding theoreticians and book authors on music and dance. However, based on the sheer melody and voice culture and authentic renditions, Sri R.K Srikantan has been the unique and unquestioned monarch among the vocalists of Karnataka.

When I was young, I used to be truly tempted by only a few male vocalists for their melodious voices. In All India Radio, Maharajapuram Santhanam and Sri. R.K. Srikantan were the two artists whose 45 minutes programs I would never miss. I remember our co-tenant one Mr. Thirumalachari , who was working for Lactogen Company, bought a new radio. He also subscribed for the Vanoli (a magazine containing the monthly program for that month). I would always look through the Vanoli for the timings for these two persons. Needless to say, I certainly listened to people like GNB, Ariyakkudi, and Chembai who were given the night time slots. However, Srikantan’s rich voice was certainly attractive to any music loving person or even a new comer who was only marginally interested in classical music.

In those days, the yard stick by which to evaluate vocalists as performers was whether they could match the vocal skills of GNB. While Maharjapuram Viswanatha Iyer’s musical depth and Ariyakkudi’s mastery and speed of rendering kritis stunned one and all, when it came to looking for a pleasing and capturing voice, GNB, Santhanam and Srikantan belonged to a different class altogether. Unfortunately for many years, Santhanam and Srikantan were not able to dominate the concert scenes unlike Ariyakkudi, Chemmangudi, Madurai Mani Iyer, and Chenmbai. In fact, the two were sought after on the concert stages in more recent years (i.e. the last 25 years).

It was with God’s grace that R.K. Srikantan at 84 or 85 was touring the U.S. and we were fortunate to organize his concert for the Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam. That year, many young talents and local music teachers learned some rare kritis from him under a matching grant program that CTU initiated. Being truly devoted to the music of Saint Tyagaraja, during the concert he refused to sing any Kritis other than Tyagaraja Kritis. If my memory serves me, he sang perhaps one Purandara Dasa Devarnama to appease some Kannada speaking music lovers in the audience. He strongly believed that his music concert was not to be a formal concert but rather a true homage to that immortal composer.

He has trained many vocalists from Karnataka like M.S. Sheela, Satyavati, and his own son Rama Kanth and so on. I am sure the vacuum is not easily filled in Carnatic music, no matter how many new talents emerge.

T.E. S. Raghavan

Oct 2013

T.R. Subramanyam – A musician’s Musician

My first exposure to the music of T.R.Subramanyam (affectionately called TRS by music lovers) was a private concert in New Delhi in 1975. While I initially felt that his swara prastaras were closer to subtle mathematical permutations, I quickly realized that his students were in the audience and as a teacher he was using it also as a platform, a serious classroom trying to communicate the key notes and like vadi-samvadi notes. Besides his students,the audience included lay listeners who were attentively picking up the salient glides of the raga through the emphasized notes. His scholarly concert ended with a beautiful Tillana in raga Brindavani. The portion of the Tillana ” Kanna nin kazhal charanam , Kaarmugil vanna” is still ringing in my ears. The concert was held in the house of a music lover perhaps one Mr. Glaxo Subramaniam of Greater Kailash, if my memory is correct. The concert lasted virtually for four hours. I felt that he should have been greatly inspired by the music of GNB. Later I came to know that he was a direct disciple of Musiri and was a professor at Delhi University.

His first performance in Chicago for the Chicago Tyagaraja Utsavam was held in 1988. Unlike many other musicians who loved to sing for audience and build up language networking through kritis and titbits and popular ragamalikas in all languages, he, like veteran musician Sri R.K.Srikantan, had a deep sense of respect for the purpose and goal of the utsavam and was very keen on strictly adhering to Tyagaraja Kritis at the Utsavam. He tried to bring out the genius composer’s own creation, raga Karaharapriya, a true gift to Carnatic music. He was virtually in great emotions when he rendered the kriti Chakkani raja . Later he mentioned that Pakkala Nilapaḍi, Mitri Bhāgyame, Rāmā nī samāna, Naḍaci Naḍaci and Rama nīyata are all gems of Saint Tyagaraja with different colors and luster. It is a strange feeling that while so many compositions were composed by the saint, in this raga, we don’t find even one composition from Deekshitar or Shyama Sastri on the same raga who were indeed his contemporaries. My last meeting of TRS was at a condolence meeting for violinist M.S. Gopalakrishnan.

While many on the dais were taking advantage of the condolence meeting, people like TRS, Prince Rama Verma, and violinist Ganesh, to name a few were in a pensive mood , perhaps thinking about the great loss to Carnatic music.

His serious attempt to bring out the historical perspectives of the strength and weaknesses of both great composers and their sishya paramparas were achieved through a remarkable, though controversial thesis by one Dr. Radha Venkatachalam under his able guidance. Through her, he was able to indirectly spell out his observations on great composers, and great performers of bygone days. The other person who ventured boldly was Sri Rangaramanuja Iyengar, though his magnum opus works in Tamil (Krutimanimaalai in four volumes) and in his books, The History of South Indian Music and in the book, The Musings of a Musician.

Over the years I have met a few Delhi based students of TRS who have so much respect for him as a teacher. Apparently, knowing fully the musical limitations of students will not give up his efforts to impart higher musical skills and ghamaka subtleties that are special to certain kritis. Many music lovers and his students will feel the loss of such a great musician, teacher, and a critical scholar.

T.E.S.Raghavan
President

Jul 2013

Sri Nookala Satyanarayana – a renowned musician

I came to know through Mr. Kolachina ( CTU C-Sruti Pancharatnam group) that the renowned musician from the state of Andhra Pradesh, Mahamahopadhyaya, Padmabhooshan Sri Nookala Satyanarayana passed away.

He was one of the earliest persons to train students into Carnatic music in United States. Sri Nookala Satyanarayana Garu spent longer periods in Pittsburgh training students into the basics of our system and also training the musically gifted students into developing raga alapana and swaraprastaram. The S.V. temple at Pittsburgh released many cassettes of his Carnatic music lessons at different levels. His recording of Nauka Charitram, the unique opera of Saint Tyagaraja with the renowned Andhra musician Srirangam Gopalaratnam is one of those rare cassettes where he sings many of the padhyams and choornikas that are integral part of this opera. He was a direct disciple of the renowned veteran musician of Andhra, and also a professor of Medicine, Dr. Sripada Pinakapani.

I came to know from Mr. Kolachina that Satyanarayana Garu was also a disciple of Sri Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu Garu. His family and many students across the US and India will truly miss a great teacher, scholar, performing musician, and musicologist.

T.E.S. Raghavan

President

Apr 2013

Violin Maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman – Loss Irreplaceable

Our Indian classical music has lost just in a short span of five months , two of its greatest violinists, soloists, and masters of two distinct musical heritage. For over six decades they dominated our musical platforms initially as accompanying artists with a galaxy of veteran musicians, creative musicians and later as soloists and instrumental duelists. We lost our affectionate M.S.Gopalakrishnan and now our affectionate Lalgudi Jayaraman.

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.

Jan 2013

M.S. Gopalakrishnan – a Violinist’s Violinist

Sri M.S. Gopalakrishnan, the violin maestero, genius and the Nada Upasaka was hospitalized for a few days and passed away around 2 AM IST on 3rd Jan 2013. Even in the last few minutes, he was very conscious and all the time he was using his right hand as though he was using the violin bow and was using the left hand as though he was keeping the gamakams. Who can replace our beloved MSG? I will try to meet his family suvived by wife, daughter Narmada and another daughter and son. I will send the details once I get the particulars.

Playing and listening to his renditions of Sri Saraswathy in Arabhi or Mokshamugalada in Saramati is the least we can do to pay homage to that great soul, Nada Upasaka and the true instrumentalist’s instrumentalist and violinist’s violonist.

In grief,

T.E.S. Raghavan.