sangeet

Vira - Talvin Singh - Rakesh Chaurasia

'VIRA' means 'Brotherhood', and on this disc it represents a sort of fraternity between two
outstanding soloists, the flute player Rakesh Chaurasia and the inimitable tabla player Talvin
Singh. Both musicians have, in the past, taken their respective instruments into uncharted
territory, so it was only natural that they should play for a duet album like this one. Talvin Singh
has long experimented with sound and despite his training as a classical Indian musician has
sought to find a texture of sound that while remaining true to the classical tradition also reflects
the latest sound technology. In a traditional classical recital, the soloist always has a repetitive
background drone provided by the tanpura (or tamboura.) This provides a kind of background,
or mat against which the solo instruments really stand out. But instead of using a single tanpura,
this recording features a richer background and texture with the use of special keyboard pads.
Rakesh Chaurasia, one of the foremost flute players of his generation, has already worked on
numerous Sona Rupa projects and has also performed with Talvin Singh. But the opportunity of
doing this kind of one-to-one recital with Talvin Singh was one that he welcomed eagerly.
There were no rehearsals, and once the Raags were chosen, the recording was done in a
spontaneous, improvised way in a London studio.

Lata goes R&B!

With Bollywood inching its way closer to Hollywood each day, the music scene too is
changing with international DJ's using Indian classical sounds in their modern re-mixes.
The latest fusion in this trend was the usage of an old Lata song, Thoda Resham Lagta
Hai, Thoda Sheesha Lagta Hai in an international track.

Dr Dre protégé used the song in the single Addictive, which hit no.5 on Billboard Hot
R&B/ Hip-Hop singles chart and no.11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The
speed of the original voice of Lata was increased so it sounded a bit different. The idea
of including a Bollywood track in an R&B song was that of producer DJ Quik, who
under-laid the Hindi track with vocals with a little rapping by artist Rakim.

Samvedna:

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's collection of poems, Samvedna, was recently
released by sitar maestro Pt Ravi Shankar. Ghazal singer Jagjit Singh has rendered the
poems.

At a glittering function held at Siri Fort in New Delhi, the Prime Minister told the
several VIPs present that he would have preferred to continue writing poems instead
of joining politics.

In a reflective mood at the release, away from the din of electioneering, the Prime
Minister said that he felt it would have been good had he not joined politics and had
continued writing poems. The fact that politics had become his profession, however, did
not deter from continuing to try writing poems.

Reminiscing on his poem Jang Na Hone Denge (War would not be allowed) written
years earlier, he said that in the conflict between the poet and the politician, the poet
lost while the politician emerged the victor. The poet only lost but he was not dead. He
would continue writing about life and the present reality. There would be no poems
written for the sake of writing, said Vajpayee.

Tharangini:

Artiste : Sriram Gangadharan

Accompaniments : H. N. Baskar - violin

Poongulam Subramanyam - mridangam

Sethuraman - Kanjira

Oftener than not, one sees that the upcoming artistes who are out to prove their
mettle in the field, provide a greater listening satisfaction than the established ones.
The reason is obvious: they are conservative and less indulgent, and are reigned in by
the relative absence of stature.

A good example of this is this album of Sriram Gangadharan. His voice is clear, deep
and sruti-adherent and he does not seem to have indulged in vocal acrobatics. One
might consider buying this album, if only for two pieces---Nandagopa Balakrishna
(Panthuvarali) and Mamakaapara (Thodi). Interestingly, Sriram seems to have sung
the former keeping Jesudas in mind and the latter, remembering GNB. The styles are
clearly visible.

A word of praise needs to be made for H N Baskar's lovely support on the violin. His
raga rentions are a beauty.

An album of padams:

Bombay based Carnatic vocalist and Bharatanatyam dancer VasumathiBadrinathan
has recently released two carnatic music albums, titled 'Tamil Padams' and 'Swara
Dhwani'.

'Tamil Padams' is an exclusive collection of old time classic padams in Tamil and
'Swara Dhwani' a traditional Carnatic repertoire.

The albums have been released in cassette and CD format by BMG Crescendo (India)
Pvt Ltd.

Vasumathi says that Padams are musical compositions used mainly in classical South
Indian dance but also belong to the Carnatic music repertoire. They generally explore
the nayaka-nayika bhava (hero-heroine relationship) and hence provide a great scope
for delineation through dance