Bombay Jayashri @ Bangalore Gayana Samaja

(Photo courtesy Gayathri, http://www.flickr.com/photos/40655946@N00/215706193/)

Smt Bombay Jayashri sang yesterday at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja as a part of its ongoing 38th music conference. She was accompanied by Sri Mysore V Srikanth on the violin, Sri Poongulam Subramaniam on the mridangam and Sri Rajagopalan on the khanjira.

List of songs:

1) mAyAtIta – mAyAmAlavagowla – rUpakam – tAnjOre ponnaiyyA
2) mundu vEnu – darbar – Adi – thyAgarAja
3) smaranE ondE – malayamArutam – Adi – purandaradAsa
4) shankari nIvE – bEgadA – rUpakam – subbarAya sAstri
5) ranjani niranjani – ranjani – Adi – g.n.bAlasubramaniam
6) bhajarE rEchita – kalyAni – misra chApu – muthuswAmi dIkshitar
7) karunAnidhiyE – bouLi – misra chApu – pApanAsam sivan
8) rAgam tAnam pallavi (RTP) – kEdAragowlA – Adi (2 kalai)
pallavi words: “vEnugAna ramanA, jaganmOhana nardhana krishna”
kalpanA swaram in rAgAs kEdAragowla, kAnadA, chandrajyOti and dEvagAndhAri
9) sarvam brahmamayam – darbAri kAnadA – Adi – sadAshiva brahmEndra
10) rAgi tandIra – rEvati – Adi (tisra gati) – purandaradAsa
11) adharam madhuram (viruttam) – yamunAkalyAni
krishnA nI – yamunAkalyAni – misra chApu – vyAsarAya
12) thillAna – dEsh – Adi – lAlgudi g. jayarAman
13) pavamAna (mangalam) – sOwrAshtram & surutti – Adi – thyAgarAja

As usual, Smt Bombay Jayashri sang very well. The main kriti was the kalyAni one “bhajarE rEchita“. Sri T.N. Seshagopalan, who is scheduled to give a lecture demonstration as well as a concert at the same venue today, was there in the first row listening to the concert. He was present there almost till the very end. While in the middle of her detailed kalyAni rAga AlApana, Smt. Jayashri stopped for a few seconds and said: “It is extremely difficult to sing in front of the giant called Sri Seshagopalan sir. I normally keep my eyes closed while singing and even with my eyes closed, I am only able to hear his kalyAni exposition in my mind. I seek your blessings sir”.

The rAgam tAnam pallavi (RTP) in kEdAragowla was rendered very well right from the start of the rAga AlApana. The pallavi line was structured as follows (A = aksharam): vEnugAna started 1.5A after samam and was for 5A (vEnu = 1.5A, gA = 2A, na = 1.5A), ramanA started immediately afterwards and was for 1.5A till the lagu part of the tAlam ended; jaganmOhana started 2.5A after the lagu part ended and was for 3.5A (jagan = 1.5A and mOhana = 2A) , nardhana started immediately afterwards and was for 2A and krishna started after nardhana ended i.e, from samam and was for 1.5A. Total = 1.5A + 5A + 1.5A + 2.5A + 3.5A + 2A = 16A = total akshara count of one Avartanam of the tAlam.

Sri Mysore V Srikanth accompanied very well on the violin, playing the rAga AlApanas and the songs very melodiously. However, the mic volume for violin was set very high and Sri Srikanth was sitting very close to the mic which many a times led to shrill sounds emanating from his violin, especially when he played a string of notes very fast, which were not very pleasant to hear.

Apart from Smt. Bombay Jayashri, who rocked with her music, there was a Goliath sitting in my row who rocked almost all the seats in the row with his movements 🙂 . He was putting the tAlam wrongly but very loudly. For each song, he would put at least 6-7 different tAlams and would suddenly look at the singer and put the correct one. He would again revert back to a few other tAlams before correcting himself again. While he was doing all this, any movement of his would be so strong as to shake almost all the seats in that row. Unfortunately, I was just 2 seats away from the epicenter 😦 . The sad part was also that though whatever he himself did was quite disturbing to others around him, he wouldn’t miss a chance to give a piece of his mind to anybody who even whispered to his/her neighbour about anything, as though conveying to them how much disturbance they are causing to others. Some strange character !!

Today’s concert is by Sri Madurai T.N.Seshagopalan. More details on this and on other concerts in the conference are available here.