Nazakat and Salamat Ali Khan, Jayanthi Kumaresh, C Charulatha, S Ramanathan, Geetha Raja — One: Nazakat and Salamat Ali Khan — Raag Gunkali I am now trying to learn two pieces in the raga Saveri from my music teacher. Saveri has the scale SRMPDS — SNDPMGRS. In the famous Sarusuda varnam, in the initial (mukthayi) swara passage, there a very small descending section without the notes Ni or Ga, so for just that…

T Viswanathan, Kalamandalam Vishnu + Kalamandalam Krishnakumar, Tanjore S Kalyanaraman, RK Shriramkumar + Amritha Murali, TM Krishna — One: T Viswanathan — Ini Enna Pechu Irrukudu? (Raga Sahana, Subbarama Iyer) I’ve written before of the formative role my time at Middlebury College played in my Carnatic music journey and specifically, the Nonesuch-label LPs of Ramnad Krishnan and KV Narayanaswami, and their explanatory liner notes. I discovered much later that these notes were written by great musicians themselves — T Viswanathan…

Doreswamy Iyengar, Amritha Murali, JA Jayanth, Palladam Sanjiva Rao, Kesarbai Kerkar — One: Doreswamy Iyengar — Naama Kusuma (Raga Shri, Thyagaraja) The first week of August was when the communal clashes in Haryana originating in Nuh were on. It had spread to Sohna and Gurgaon, where I live. Things were a bit tense and the pall depressing. Further, I was in the midst of a really busy time at work. I…

RK Suryanarayana, TV Ramprasadh, M Balamuralikrishna, Bharat Sundar, DK Jayaraman — One: RK Suryanarayana — Taanam (Ragamalika) Perhaps the most famous veena player of the 20th century from the Mysore tradition was Doreswamy Iyengar. There was another very highly regarded older contemporary of his from the Rudrapatnam clan — RS Keshavamurthy. Keshavamurthy was a disciple of one of the veena stalwarts of the Mysore court — Veena…

Vijay Siva, Radha + Jayalakshmi, Balasaraswati, Uday Bhawalkar, Sanjay Subrahmanyam — One : Vijay Siva — Meena Nayana (Raga Durbar, Subbaraya Sastri) I am going to pick up from where I left off last week. I had noted how rare Vijay Siva concerts are online, so having found one I ought to leave you with another piece from the concert. I first discovered this song when writing my blogpost on Subbaraya Sastri…

TN Rajarathnam Pillai, Alathur Brothers, Vijay Siva, Vignesh Ishwar, TM Krishna (featuring Bharatanatyam by Suhasini Koulagi) — One: TN Rajarathnam Pillai — Ragam and Pallavi (Raga Bhairavi with ragamalika swaras) Nadaswaram vidwan TN Rajarathnam Pillai is one of those legendary figures of Carnatic music. Rock star status. The man became synonymous with three things — the nadaswaram instrument, the raga Thodi, and almost unbelievably, creative genius itself. He redefined expectations of all three. Arguably, given the centrality of raga-based creative…

Doreswamy Iyengar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagvathar, Aishwarya Vidhya Raghunath + Priya Purushothaman, Malladi Brothers, Kumar Gandharva — One: Doreswamy Iyengar — Sri Ramam (Raga Narayanagowla, Muthuswami Dikshitar) I have mentioned the ‘Home Called of Parvathi’ before. This venue in Mysore seems to have actively hosted many musicians over several decades. From what I gather, it wasn’t so much a proper ‘sabha’ as simply the venue at which a generous and seemingly wealthy patron shared his love of…

T. Brinda, M.S. Subbulakshmi, T.R. Mahalingam T.M. Krishna, K.V. Narayanaswamy — One: T. Brinda — Mamava Pattabhirama (Raga Manirangu, Muthuswami Dikshitar) I have heard multiple renditions of Mamava Pattabhirama over the years, but this one by Brinda from a 1973 concert caught me by the shoulders and didn’t let me go. Largely because of the unusual opening — starting and lingering on the high notes on ‘Mamava’. The tempo is also…

This is the third in an occasional series on the lyrical raw material at the disposal of Muthuswami Dikshitar. …