Vande Mataram

Here's a short piece also recorded with my sister couple of weeks back. Its vande mataram in raga Khamas as rendered by four of the best Carnatic musicians of our times. Listen to that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YpxQRVOpdU

Here's our version:

Seattle- Episode 2 :)

Enjoying my summer break with my sister... after albela sajan last time, we recorded this old Kannada song from the 80's today. Beautiful song set primarily in Shuddha sarang/ Brindavana saranga.
Thanks Sumi, for the choice of song.

Do let us know what you thought about this :) And whether you could tell who's who ;)

Here goes...

Song: Theredhidhe mane
Movie: Hosabelaku
Music: Ranga Rao L M
Lyrics: Kuvempu
Singers: Janaki S, Vani Jairam

Download here.

I cannot...

I am writing this on impulse, but I shall go on...

Its all been about screaming out to people what I CAN do. "Listen to me!", "I can sing too!" and about "getting an audience". Bah!
How egotistical.
Some days back, a dear friend from high school- Janani- requested me to sing the song "bhor bhayi" by bade ghulam ali khan. Very enthusiastically, I checked out the youtube link she gave me, of the Delhi 6 version rendered by Shreya Ghoshal. I heard the song and was dazed for a while. Then I heard it again. And then again.
The next day, with a lot of reluctance, I started to try singing it. I am glad I did that, for two reasons: one, it made me realize the greatness of the singers even more, and two, it made me realize, all over again, how grossly inadequate I was. After a whole day of trying to perfect it, I'm left feeling so angry and disappointed with myself. So angry that I want to say out loud, that here is something I CANNOT do.
All this while, I respected Shreya for the golden, silken, flawless voice she had. And that was it. People had often told me that my tone was similar to her's, and having covered some of her songs, I thought I wasn't too far behind. HAHAHAHAHA.
This song- bhor bhayi just made my respect for her go up ten times. This girl can SING! Wish I could do half as well as her.
Okay, time I stopped and gave the link to I am talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM2NkPOOd84&feature=related

You know what's worse: the mind knows it all- this is Gujari Thodi- Thodi minus pa (i.e Shubhapantuvarali in Carnatic minus pa); so there's no grounding, M2 to D1 transition is difficult; starting phrase itself is dmdndmgrs at lightning speed. The mind understands it completely. But the vocal chords don't. It is SO annoying.

Janani- I'm sorry; I hope there comes a day when I've mastered this song.
On the other hand, sometimes (many a time actually), I feel I should just get into music research and stop singing. Or at least stop till I get somewhere close to where I want to be, with my singing. But no, the Ego won't let me do that. I'll be happy if my ego even lets this post remain to see the next day.

Michael Jackson- RIP

I can't believe a world phenomenon can just end like that. So soon.
MJ brings back a lot of childhood memories. Thanks to my sister, I would listen to a lot of his music as a kid. I still remember lazy Sunday afternoons playing Heal the World or Dangerous or Jam. Often, a bunch of us, neighbour kids would get together and dance to Black or White- trying to do that famous step crisscrossing arms and legs :)
I still love listening to his songs. Wish he had the chance to make that come-back!
The world sure will sorely miss him...
Michael Jackson- RIP.

oru naal oru pozhudhu

This is a relatively rare song, one of Rahman's earliest. Swarnalatha's sublime voice enhances the beauty of this song. I love the way the song meanders on, in a most pleasing, soothing manner.
Having unearthed this song recently, I realized kannaamoochi was not after all Rahman's only nattaikurunji (sorta)!
Ripped off portion of the "interlude" and created a track.
I hope I've done some justice to this lovely song.

Song: oru naal oru pozhudhu
Movie: andhimandhaarai
Music: A.R.Rahman
Lyrics: Vairamuththu
Singer: Swarnalatha

Kurukku Siruththavale

Our own blogger Star -Murali Ramanathan- is back to active blogging :)
After Uyire- my very first duet in this blog, and then kaaththirundhaen, here's another duet with him, a Rahman number again- kurukku chiruththavale. Set in ragam Vaasanthi (with some slips into Mohanam) this is a beautiful rustic/ folkish song and has two of the most beautiful voices- Hariharan and Mahalakshmi.
Here's our version. Hope you like it.

Song: Kurukku Siruththavale
Film: Mudhalvan
Music: A.R.Rahman
Lyrics: Vairamuththu
Singers: Hariharan, Mahalakshmi Iyer

This version mixed by: Murali Ramanathan

Wish this weekend never ended...

So rejuvenated with all the beautiful music that I've been getting to hear in the past three days along with a bunch of good friends...
The Indian Fine Arts Academy, San Diego has been doing a wonderful job of getting some of the best artistes from India to perform here. My first year here, and I thoroughly enjoyed it- felt like home away from home.
The highlights this time were M.S.Gopalakrishnan and Dr.M.Narmada - violin duet, S.Sowmya and Sudha Raghunathan - vocal solo concerts and Ravikiran and Irshad Khan with a jugalbandhi. While they were all fantastic, some particular pieces deserve a special mention in my opinion.
While Narmada's purvikalyani was outstanding, Irshad Khan played a beautiful solo in Rakeshri- one of his own compositions. I loved the choice of raag! The jugalbandhi defied tradition and they chose the unconventional Kharaharapriya/ Kaafi thaat. Needless to say, absolutely brilliant performance (although I wish Irshad Khan rested his hands for a bit more, allowing the others to play :) )
What I liked best about Sowmya was the piece in Varali (Ka va va)- although not a favourite for me, I loved the way she handled it. The swarams were so intelligently structured, alternating between different gathis/ nadais.
The grand finale was Sudha Raghunathan. I don't have to do more than just mention the name to convey anything about how the concert was. Perfect choice of songs/ ragas- most were favourites :) Maathe in Khamas, Shrichakraraja in Shivashakthi, elaboration of Shankarabharanam followed by Swararagasudha, innudayabarade, bhavayami gopalabalam and kurai ondrum illai were the highlights. The last two nearly moved me to tears and left me craving M.S.Subbulakshmi's voice (which I am listening to as I type this). Some songs are immortalized by some people and you don't want to hear them in anyone else's voice. Nevertheless, Sudha of course did an amazing job.
Sigh... all good things come to an end.

Sonnaalum with Karthik Nagarajan

sonnaalum kaetpadhillai is one of those mesmerizing songs that I call "black holes" - once you start listening to it, it just sucks you in deeper and deeper till the point of no return. What a brilliant song with two of TFM's very best voices- Harini and Unnikrishnan. When it comes to female singers in TFM, the two that I simply adore and worship and Chitra and Harini (who to me is "Shreya of the South" ). While I've sung a quite a few of Chitra's songs, I've sung only one of Harini's so far (manam virumbudhae), that too in the good old days when I hadn't started recording digitally. I'm so glad I finally got to do one more.

Welcome Karthik Nagarajan- with whom I've sung this song- to the world of audioblogging. He's an incredibly talented singer I got introduced to, through a common friend. Do visit his blog that he's started recently to listen to some more of his songs.

Many thanks to Swati and Anil.B.S for the karaoke track. Anil had created this track for Swati and Ali who did a beautiful Hindi version of this song sometime back. Do listen to that one too,here.

So here is our version, up for you.
This song goes out especially to my dad- he totally loves this song, lyrics and all, and listens to it with the same involvement that he has while listening to a Carnatic concert :)

Song: sonnaalum kaetpadhillai
Movie: Kadhal Virus
Music: A.R.Rahman (ONE AND ONLY!)
Lyrics: Vairamuththu
Singers: Harini, Unnikrishnan

This version mixed by: Karthik Nagarajan

Jotheyali

Pity that hailing from Bangalore, I haven't done a Kannada song till now... Growing up, Kannada was the second language I learnt and having lived in Bangalore all my life, Kannada holds a special place for me :)
I've finally managed to do a Kannada number now with Jo - Jotheyali. This is a HUGE hit from the 80's and till today, any important function in the city like Rajyotsava day, and this is the song that blares out through loudspeakers. The late Shankar Nag who was the hero in this film still has a huge dedicated fan following and almost every Kannadiga adores him.
I've always loved this song, and long after I got a karaoke track for it (thanks to Madhu), requested Jo to do it thinking his voice would suit the song. I think he has done a great job of it, taking care to get the pronunciations right. Let us know what you think of this one!
(The tune was recycled by Raja recently in a song in the Hindi movie Cheeni Kum-like all the other songs in the movie- called Jaane do na. Hope to record that sometime as well...)

Here goes- Jotheyali- dedicated to all the Kannadigas out there! How I miss home...

Song: Jotheyali
Film: Geetha
Music: Ilaiyaraja
Lyrics: Udayashankar
Singers: SPB, S. Janaki

This version mixed by: Joseph Thomas

E Shwasalo

"M.S.Shankar's Supremes" was a popular light music troupe in Chennai in the 70's and 80's, started by their lead drummer Shankar, and my uncle Devanathan who was the lead singer and accordion player. In 2007 the troupe revived its music and did a couple of shows- after twenty five years or so. One of them was in September 2007 at the Madras Music Academy, for an event put together by the Indian Telugu Association to felicitate veteran Telugu actor Chandra Mohan. I performed with them at the event, and one of the songs given to me was E Shwasalo. I heard the song and decided it was impossible to do it- given Chitra's pitch and the complexity of the swaras at the end. I somehow managed to pull it off there and got some good feedback too. (I imagine though, that people were probably just being nice to me :P)

I find a lot of similarities between this song and ThaththiththOm from Azhagan (what I recorded some three years ago). To start off, its the same team - Keeravani (aka Maragathamani aka M.M.Kreem) and Chitra. Also, both are classical/ raga based and both have very complex swaras at the end and both conclude with slow, soft lines. I have no words for Chitra's singing and this is yet another song that reinforces the belief in me that she is not human! I don't understand how a human voice can have this much breath control and flexibility and ease at such high notes. Like Murali was saying, music directors seem to have used Asha's, Lata's and Chitra's voices like a violin!

I stumbled upon a very good karaoke track for the song recently. Although am not exactly a huge fan of this song, I decided to try recording it just for kicks. So here it is. Obvious disclaimers apply :P
Also, this is my first song in Telugu, a language I don't know, so I apologize for any goof-ups in diction.

Song: E Shwasalo
Movie: Nenunnanu
Music: Keeravani
Lyrics: Sirivennela
Singer: Chitra

Sindhuja Bhakthavatsalam · E Shwasalo-Cover

Rahman- the phenomenon

It feels like yesterday- the fresh sound of a simple, beautiful, innocent melody: "chinna chinna aasai"... What an absolutely fantastic journey it has been!
All this worldwide attention was long due and I'm elated that he's finally got so much of it now!
Although I think Slumdog is certainly not his best (we all know the phenomenal music he's produced earlier in Tamil and Hindi films), I see the Oscars as a sort of cumulative reward for his 15 or so magnificent years in music and stand up to him in awe, admiration and adoration.
Love you, Allah Rakha Rahman!!

Happy Birthday, Ma

Two songs for the occasion.
One, for her and another, composed by her :)

For the love of Khamas... :)
Song: uyirum neeye
Music: A.R. Rahman
Lyrics: Vairamuththu
Singer: Unnikrishnan
Movie: Pavithra



Download here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Song: ariyadhoru karu nisiyil
Composition and lyrics: Vijayalakshmi Bhakthavatsalam
Raagam: Ragamalika (Behag, Sindhubhairavi, Chandrakauns, Simhendramadhyamam, Darbari Kanada)
Thaalam: Khanda Chaapu




Lyrics:

பெஹாக்:

அரியதொரு கரு நிசியில் என் மனக்கண்முன்னே
கரியநிற சிறுவன் வந்து பாட்டொன்று கேட்டான்
யாரை நான் பாட? யார் வந்ததென்றேன் ...
பேரைக்கேள் அதுசொல்வேன், கண்ணன் நான் என்றான்!
ஆலிலையில் படுத்துறங்கும் இடையன் நான் என்றான்
மாலும் நான், மாயன் நான் - என்னை பாடென்றான்

சிந்துபைரவி:

முன்னை வினைதீர்க்கும் முதல்வன் அவன் அறிந்தேன்
பின்னை வினை போக்கிடும் பரமன் என்றுணர்ந்தேன்
இடை ஜாதியில் வளர்ந்த வசுதேவன் மகன் அவன்
குடையாக குன்றெடுத்து மழையினின்று குடி காத்தான்
பேய்முலை நஞ்சுண்டு மாயய் தாயை மாய்த்தான்
வேய்ங்குழலில் கானம் செய்து ஆவினம் மெய் மறக்க செய்தான்

சந்திரகௌன்ஸ்:

கன்றெறிந்து கயவனை கண்டழித்த பாலனவன்
காளிங்க நர்தனத்தால் கடியதொரு விஷம் களைந்தான்
வெண்ணையுண்டு மண்ணையுண்டு அன்னையிடம் கட்டுண்டு
உண்ட வாயில் அண்டம் காட்டி அற்புதம் செய்தான்
பல பெண்டிர் துகில் மறைத்து புளகாங்கிதம் அடைந்தான்
ஒரு பெண்ணின் மானம் காக்க துகில் மிகவே கொடுத்தான்

சிம்மேந்திரமத்யமம்:

தூது சென்று தூயவரை துணை நின்று காத்திட்டான்
தீது செய்த தீயவரை தோல்வியை தழுவச்செய்தான்
வேதாந்தம் தனை உரைத்து விஜயனை வெல்லவைத்தான்
விஷ்வரூபம் காட்டி அவனை ஆட்கொண்டான்
அன்றவன் அவனி காக்க ஆயனாய் அவதரித்தான்
தொன்று தொட்டு இருப்பவன் இன்றென்னை பாடச்சொன்னான்

தர்பாரி கானடா:

விளையாட்டு பிள்ளையாய் வினையெல்லாம் களைந்தவன்
வேதாந்தியாய் நின்றான் வாய்மை வெல்ல வழி சொன்னான்
ஆதி அந்தம் இல்லா ஆண்டவன் இவனே
அண்ட சராசரங்களும் ஐம்பூதங்களும் இவனே
யாதுமாகி நின்றவனை நான் பாடினேன்
காலன் என்னை தீண்டும்போது கடுகி வந்து கரை சேர்ப்பான்
என்னை பாடச்சொன்னவன் கடுகி வந்து கரை சேர்ப்பான்
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ma and Pa, my music is all yours'.

If I were shut in a dark room...

The worst thing to do when you have a deadline approaching is go to bed with headphones on, playing "serious" music. I think the music will put me to sleep in time, but it engulfs me...chasing sleep out of my system...
Anyway, great- here I am, at 1 am craving for more of Harini... (its a pity she doesn't sing as much these days), and came to a realisation: if, some day I'm shut in a dark room with no way out and given a choice of just three songs I can listen to, they'd be: thenral vandhu ennai thodum, poo vaasam purappadum penne and enakkenna aerkanave.

Umm.... really...? Never mind- am in an inescapable Hamsanadham mode now!

Final Solutions- with TSJ

TSJ I guess are not too new to the audio blog world here. They've been making some innovative music and I particularly liked their song "azhage" in Blogswara V3.

Earlier last year, they contacted me for doing a small vocal piece for the background score they were composing for a Mahesh Dattani play called Final Solutions performed by East Indian Follies. The play was staged in Idaho in September 2008.

Do check out their website http://blog.tsjstudio.com/ to hear the music and for more details on the play.
I think they did a great job of it!

Gruhabhedam... again

Here is an AWESOME gruhabhedam demonstrated by Prince Rama Varma:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnq5tdukBeg

Once the concept of gruhabhedam is clear, doing it with linear (monotonic) ragas is fairly straightforward- say between Mohanam and Hindolam. But here, its two vakra ragas (i.e. with scales where swaras don't exactly monotonically increase or decrease) which is what makes it so special! The "pa ma2 pa ga3 ma1 ga3" phrase of Behag mapped to "ga2 ri2 ga2 sa ri1 sa" of Sindhubhairavi was so revealing!
What's more, the inflections (or "brighas"/ "gamakams") of the swaras match too!

Music is beautiful. Math is beautiful. And the two put together- ah, bliss!

For those interested, here's an earlier post of mine where I'd explained the concept of Gruhabhedam (albeit overly simplified)- http://octaves.blogspot.com/2007/06/carnatic-chills.html

(Note: It was only later that I learnt from Shri.Kumaresh (of Ganesh-Kumaresh) that the word "Shruthibhedam" for such transposes is a misnomer, for it only means what it literally means: change of shruthi, and nothing more)

BlogSwara 5 released!!

BlogSwara has released its fifth volume online!!
This time, I had the fortune of singing two songs:

azhaiththadhu yaaro: Thanks to Vijay S, got to sing a classical based melody again, after kaaththirundhen last year. Raga based songs always hold a special place for me and I so totally enjoyed singing this beautiful number, azhaiththadhu. Thank you, thank you, Vijay S!
Its not too often that you come across people with good orchestration skills plus a good understanding of ragas. Vijay Narayanan has been really supportive in these respects!
I don't have to say much about Jo- a voice that can make almost anything sound good!
Thank you, team- it was great working with you guys!
Here's a small fun video made by Vijay Narayanan - on his experience with the orchestration.




Listen to the song here!

khoye khoye: My first venture into such a genre and it was truly very exciting! Thank you Anup, for trusting I could pull it off! Used to singing classical/ melody based songs usually, this was a very refreshing change for me indeed!
Ajay Chandran's lyrics were what added life to this song- thank you, Ajay!
Many thanks to Nandu and Sam who have been extremely supportive and worked tirelessly to bring the right sound.

Listen to the song here!

I hope you enjoy listening to all songs of BlogSwara V5 as much as we enjoyed making them!

Cheeni Kum

Yet another song where Shreya is at her best. Although I prefer the Tamil original mandram vandha thendralukku from Mouna Ragam any day, I can keep listening to this song just for Shreya's voice! And that is the power of Raja's music- more than 20 years and the tune is still fresh.

Recorded this quite a few months back...
So here goes my version :)

Song: Cheeni Kum
Movie: Cheeni Kum
Music: Ilaiyaraja
Lyrics: Sameer-Manoj Tapadia
Singer: Shreya Ghoshal



Hope you like this. Do drop your comments.

And oh, 5 days to go for BlogSwara-V5!!

BlogSwara V5 - Coming Soon!

The fifth version of BlogSwara is on its way!! Check out the song teasers below!

BlogSwara V5 releases Dec 12th 2008!

I've sung two songs this time - a Tamil duet with Joseph Thomas, "azhaiththadhu yaaro" and a Hindi solo, "khoye khoye".

All of us at BlogSwara are very excited and look forward to your support! We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making our songs!

Akkam Pakkam

After quite a long break, here's a song again...
Akkam pakkam is a beautiful, soothing melody. G.V.Prakash, despite the 'Rahmanic' influences seems to be doing doing a great job. And Sadhana's thamizh is truly commendable in this one!
Here's my version. Do drop in your comments.
Thanks to Rosh for the karaoke track!

Song: Akkam Pakkam
Movie: Kreedam
Music: G.V.Prakash
Singer: Sadhana Sargam
Lyrics: N.Muthuthukumar



Download here.

By the way, get ready for Blogswara 5- soon to be released!

Sleepless in Seattle

After about eight years or more, I finally got to sing with my sister here in Seattle. And the feeling is just awesome :) We decided to sing this beautiful classical based song from Hum Dile De Chuke Sanam- Albela Sajan.
We started recording and it just went on and on and on and into the dead of the night! Nevertheless, it was an absolute fun experience. Love ya, Sumi :)

Here's the song, up for you.

Song: Albela Sajan
Music: Ismail Darbaar
Lyrics: Mehboob
Singers: Ustaad Sultan Khan, Kavitha Krishnamurthy, Shankar Mahadevan.
Movie: Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam

Download here.