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Nagaswaram – Ancient & Auspicious

No auspicious ceremony in the south ever starts without a few strains of the traditional ‘Nagaswaram’. Think of the instrument and the first person who comes to mind is the great vidwan Sheik Chinna Maulana. One of the champions of this instrument, Sheik was the only muslim maestro of carnatic music to be honoured with the Sangeetha Kalanidhi. He was not just the Bismillah khan of the south but also as noted music critics said ‘The pied piper of the gods’. The current CD is a wonderful collection from the rare old Doordarshan and Prasar Bharathi archives. Sheikh opens with ‘Gyaana vinayakane’ in ghambira nata and ushers in the auspiciousness, festivity and celebrations. This album has some of the most memorable tracks played by the maestro. The other tracks to check out for are Muthuswamy dikshitar’s composition ‘Amba neelayatakshi’ in Neelambari ragam and Swati thirunal’s ‘Bhaja bhaja manasa’ in Sindhu bhairavi.

BEST TRACK TO LOOK OUT FOR : The maestro’s rendering of Muthuswamy dikshitar’s ‘Akhilandeshwari’ in Dwaijayavanti raagam is one of the finest ever. This CD is a must have in every music lovers collection.

 

 

Music Courtesy: Sri Saibaba cassette centre, Malleshwaram, Bangalore. Phone: 080- 2344-134.

 

Raga Ragam – a Hindustani & Carnatic duet

If you have grown up on a staple diet of classical jugalabandis of the earlier maestros who hailed from both Hindustani and Carnatic forms, you will thoroughly enjoy this album. A wonderful album created by Jayanthi kumeresh on the veena and Gaurav Mazumdar on the sitar is a good for a light evening listening. The album contains three ragas and the selection has been very sensible one. The album opens with a short fifteen minute melodious Raga Kalavati which is a traditional carnatic ragam adapted as one of Hindustani’s favourites. The longest track in the album however is the good old Raag Yaman or Kalyani in Carnatic. Both Jayanti and Gaurav show their scholarship in their respective fields in this raga.

BEST TRACK TO LOOK OUT FOR : The album ends with the good old bhajan ‘Vaishnava Janato’. Jayanti kumaresh makes the bhajan sound very interesting and different with her veena in a carnatic style in the aalapam.

 

 

Bhakti Manjari – The 13 forms of Bhakti

One of the most explored themes in carnatic classical music and yet eternally ambiguous is the theme of devotion or ‘Bhakti’. The current album is a three CD set where T.M.Krishna who belongs to the younger generation of the new band of musicians making a serious effort to keep the art forms sustaining. Though he might not be all that great a vocalist on stage performances,his recordings are often better and bearable. He cleverly chooses classical compositions by great maestros like the divine trinity, subramanya bharathi, Kshetragna, gopalakrishna bharathi and more that revolve around the thirteen classical forms of devotion like Sravanam, Keerthanam, Padasevanam so on and so forth. The 1st CD has a wonderful Tyagaraja’s composition ‘Sri rama paadama’ in Amritavaahini raagam and Adi talam. Through the length of this live recording; Krishna manages to flex his vocal chords in a rather impressive way.

BEST TRACK TO LOOK OUT FOR: The third CD contains poet saint Purandhara dasa’s famous composition ‘Jagadho dhaarana’ in Kapi raagam. Krishna’s reach and clarity of voice and pronounciation is commendable here.

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