Disqus - Latest Comments for sarigama

Re: Happy New Year!

sarigama — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:18:58 -0000

As always Sanjay, it is a joy to read your blog and continually get glimpses of the world of carnatic music. Please keep writing.

By the way, I have been addicted to your Ayyappan Temple CD - I especially love "Ellam Sivan Cheyal.... Madanenjame" in vasantha - many thanks to you and your fellow musicians for making our lives richer with your music.

Here's wishing you Joy and Peace in 2009, and many many concerts, preferably all held in Southern California :-)

Re: The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 8 - Happy Deepavali!

sarigama — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:25:03 -0000

Very nice. Enjoyed the anecdotes from Varma. And Sriram's always fun to listen to, with his question about the acoustic pots, for instance.

What's the intrigue regarding why Madurai Mani and Chembai were never invited? Is it too terrible to be shared with us non-music listeners?

I say three cheers for Sanjay's mortgage, if it will force him to visit the US more often :-)

Re: The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 7 - Answering some questions

sarigama — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:25:27 -0000

Very enjoyable episode Sanjay. I think you should just make Q&A sessions a regular feature - every seven episodes, maybe?

Regarding how carnatic music's popularity can be increased, I think its essential that music be taught in schools. Reading and sports have great entertainment value when we are grown ups but our enjoyment of both is enhanced by the exposure we have to it regularly while growing up.

Music should not be considered an extra-curricular activity in schools. Senior artists like you should convince the people who set education policy for the state that 1. music education is necessary, and 2. carnatic music is not the music of snobs and elites. Once the ministry of education in Tamil Nadu can be convinced that music education is as important as history and geography (if not more), they will require that all schools teach music.

Re: The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 6 - Chat with Charubala of Charsur Digital Workstation Part 2

sarigama — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:07:15 -0000

Yes, I think that's exactly what it was. I've never heard it before. Did the sama sapa sada match the words when you heard it? If that's what's happening there, it's very clever.

Re: The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 6 - Chat with Charubala of Charsur Digital Workstation Part 2

sarigama — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:55:00 -0000

Nice concert today Sanjay.

In your RTP today, samanama sabapathe sadashiva etc, it sounded like the 3 words started with the notes
sa ma for samanama
sa pa for sabapathe
sa da for sadashiva.

Is this correct?

Also, you did a song right after Adum Chidambaramo. It started with the word Brindavanam. What ragam was that?

The Chakkani raja margamu was very lively and quite enjoyable. I felt the neelambari song would have been better if it was slower, to bring out the neelambariness of the song, if you know what I mean.

Overall very nice. Can't wait to see your next performance in one or two years...

Re: The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 6 - Chat with Charubala of Charsur Digital Workstation Part 2

sarigama — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:03:29 -0000

Okay, so I went and checked my CD's. Charu is right that the name of the artist is on the spine. But its the spine that sits snugly against the back of the shelf - so its only visible to people with X-ray vision ;-)

About world music and such. I think the artist has to tailor their performance for their audience. For example, I've seen Baaba Maal, a Senegalese singer with a stunning voice be quite versatile based on his audience. For an outdoor audience that stays on its feet and interacts with him, Baaba Maal gives them a high energy rocking performance. Then when he was invited to perform at Royce Hall with its fabulous acoustics, he slowed it down and did some slower numbers which showed off his powerful voice. Both worked very well, and I think he is quite a successful musician.

Aruna Sairam performed at the World Festival of Sacred Music a couple of years ago. She teamed up with some musicians around the world and tried her best to bring out the power of carnatic music. She picked Kalinga Narthana Thillana, which has always been a crowd pleaser, but at the Royce Hall it fell flat. A big part of the problem was that she was accompanied by a drummer who did not know carnatic music. He tried his best, but it just didnt sound right. She was then followed up by some whirling dervishes I think, which of course got the audience very excited. But kudos to her for stepping out of her comfort zone and trying something new.

Carnatic music is not easy on the ear. You only love it after you've heard it enough times - I say this as a person who only started listening to carnatic music 5 years ago. But there are a lot of people who are willing to try out music they are unfamiliar with. Maybe you need to introduce it along with a more accessible form of music like folk music. Imagine a Sanjay Subrahmanyam - Paravai Muniyamma world tour for instance, now THAT would be quite innovative and different!

Re: Concert at Delhi - A surprise comment from an old timer!

sarigama — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:39:06 -0000

Sanjay, I bet you're busy with your tour right now, but maybe you could post a few thoughts about your experiences as a musician on the road.

Quite a few of us are salaried workers with desk jobs - it would be very interesting to get insight into the experiences of a traveling artiste.

What do you do when you're between concerts? What do you think of the cities you're visiting? Things like that...

Re: The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 5 - Chat with Charubala of Charsur Digital Workstation Part 1

sarigama — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:04:32 -0000

Good to hear from Charubala, Charsur is one of my favourite labels right now. (The other one is Rajalakshmi Audio, which used to have the typical problem of crumbling jewel case teeth and substandard glue, but which have now switched to cardboard cases and glue that keeps things in place) But no company's production quality is as good as Charsur's. Kudos to them for raising the bar.

I love the Paddhatti, RTP and December season series. Its good that they've decided to change the design for each year's dec season CD's because it makes it much easier to distinguish among the CD's now.

I agree with you though Sanjay, the name of the artist is not easy to find on the CD. I can't find a CD just by reading the spine, I HAVE to pull out the CD from my shelf and look at it. The only ones that don't need that are the RTP CD's because the spine has the name of the Ragam boldly written on it. Or the special ones like Chatursram or The magic of Trinity or whatever.

Re: Vande Mataram!

sarigama — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 10:38:43 -0000

That makes sense, I didn't realize that both of you had the same guru.

May I add to what is probably a very long list of requests already for topics for future podcasts? Can you please do a podcast where you talk about collaboration between vocalists when doing a concert? Then you can treat us to clips of these concerts that you speak of (hint, hint Charsur, hope you're reading this)

If the guru is not the same, I'd guess that this can be a real drain on each artist's time. There's probably a lot of logistics that have to be planned upfront, one would think. What songs are going to be sung, do both artists know that song, what are the different sangatis for that song, how do you take turns with the improvisation and probably a host of other issues have to be resolved.

I bet you can fill an entire podcast with that topic. :-)

Re: Vande Mataram!

sarigama — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:05:59 -0000

Thanks for the tip, sirsub11, I actually have that CD already.

I guess I didn't phrase my question well, I was thinking in terms of a back-and-forth format, where each vocalist would take turns singing.

No worries, your tip would have been very helpful if I didn't have the CD already, so thanks for pointing it out.

Re: Vande Mataram!

sarigama — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:00:18 -0000

Oh is it the Pancharatnam CD? That's quite remarkable because you both are singing the same version of the songs, unlike the cacophany I usually hear at Thyagaraja Aradhanas where everyone has learnt a *slightly* different version of the kritis.

Did you have to practice many times together to be that in-sync with each other?

To tell you the truth, whenever I listen to it, I actually felt sorry for you. It seems to me that your voice was not as able to hit the very high and very low notes the way Unni's was. He's very lucky to have such a good voice, and he's probably a very good musician as well, but for some reason I just don't feel any kind of response to his singing. As a lay person, its based on no technical issues, just that some musicians move me and others don't.

What do you think about collaboration among vocalists? Is there any way to make that happen in interesting ways without restraining each vocalist's creativity?

Re: Vande Mataram!

sarigama — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:41:57 -0000

Happy Independence Day to everyone.

Good to see this youtube clip again for Independence day. Sowmya's my other favourite in the group, would love to see the two of you collaborate on something together. It seems to me like carnatic music does not lend itself to having mutiple vocalists, except for those duos with "Sisters" or "Brothers" in their name.

Have you ever recorded a CD or performed a concert with another vocalist?

Re: Charsur Arts Foundation officially launched

sarigama — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:55:17 -0000

Charsur is on the right track. There are many people who simply cannot go to many concerts due to limitations of time and geography, but would happily pay to hear a recording, especially if the quality of the recording is going to be consistently good.

In addition, I think most people want to do the right thing - which includes paying what's owed for services or goods. Vendors like Charsur should facilitate these good intentions by making the buying experience quick and painless and as close to one-click shopping as possible.

Congratulations on your student's concert. You must be so proud. How many of your students have done their own concerts? And where on earth do you find the time to teach?

Re: The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 4 - Violin accompaniment and other stuff

sarigama — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:11:06 -0000

My favourite podcast yet Sanjay. Such a wealth of information in it.

Now that you've given all those "weird" ragams a name - "vivadi" ragams, its easy to find all kinds of interesting stuff about it on the web. Its exciting to hear that Nagai Muralidharan is really interested in those ragams as well, hope he's the one accompanying you on your US tour this fall.

And when you played music and pointed out aspects of it, that was the best part.

One small note about the harmoniusness of carnatic music versus western music - in jazz, there is a lot of improvisation, and there it can be even more inharmonious, because there may be no "lead artist", they will play as equals, and each will do slightly different things while keeping track of what the other one is doing. And the end result is a beautiful thing while being almost completely inharmonious. Especially if you go see it live.

In that regard, the time lag in carnatic music is a pretty minor issue, because the accompanist is required to adhere very closely to the main artist, and that in itself always draws the attention of the listener back to what the main artist is doing.

Its only in western *classical* music that everything is in perfect sync. Every single note to be played by each musician has already been laid out, including which parts are to be played softly and which to be played loudly. That is beautiful too, but then there is no element of surprise, imho.

Re: AKC Natarajan to get Sangita Kalanidhi this year

sarigama — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:09:25 -0000

Thanks for the trips down memory lane Sanjay. Can almost visualize the scene where all the older musicians ask the young tech-savvy whippersnapper(you) to go and manage the coffee making contraption.

Good to hear that musicians who play "unconventional" instruments are not left out from awards and accolades.

After years of growing up listening to nadaswaram in passing at numerous weddings, and frankly finding it quite unlikeable, it was a pleasant surprise to listen to Sheik Chinna Moulana. He's amazing. Now I guess I have to find some CD's of AKC next time I get a chance.

Re: A little more on Abheri

sarigama — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:31:41 -0000

Thank you Sanjay. I guess I was just unlucky in my choice of two songs for comparison. I'll pick another two and continue to play spot-the-difference.

Also, will listen to the chatusram version of the "Abheri" until I can hear nagumomu.

Re: A little more on Abheri

sarigama — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:32:41 -0000

Alas Sanjay, I have been trying to figure out the difference between Abheri and Karnataka Devagandhari, and failing miserably. I am not very familiar with either ragam, but I really like Nagumomu.

First I tried listening to your paluku tenela talli in Abheri (from the chatusram CD). It was beautiful, but I couldn't hear Nagumomu when I listened to it (I admit I can't recognize the actual notes, I only recognize patterns in the music).

Then I listened to you singing the same song in Karnataka Devagandhari (from the latest downloaded CD). But to me both versions of paluku tenela talli sounded identical. I can't tell the difference at all.

If you have any suggestions for spotting the difference between the two, I'm all ears. In the meantime, I'll go back and listen to the two songs back-to-back repeatedly until I hear the difference...

Re: The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 3 - On Semmangudi with Sriram V

sarigama — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:41:59 -0000

What a nice surprise. We got a new podcast in the middle of the week! What's next, daily podcasts?

Great idea to have guests on - Sriram's opinions on things were fun to listen to. Look forward to seeing who your future guests will be. I wish I could speak like Sriram - he is a very careful speaker and he's still very spontaneous and eloquent. You, on the other hand, just say whatever you're thinking, it looks like - you may be just as spontaneous and eloquent as Sriram, but you probably get stuck more often with foot-in-mouth, no? ;-)

I must agree with others, though, this episode could definitely use a litte more music. The semmangudi recording was beautiful - thanks for that.

A request - please have other musicians on your show, and illustrate musical concepts to us. Or have a good old-fashioned brawl over something like whether a ragam should be sung with D1 or D2!

Re: Karnata/Karnataka Devagandhari

sarigama — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:42:20 -0000

You know what would be invaluable - a Sanjay Chudamani - a compilation of what you believe each ragam's lakshana is.

Or even better - if someone knowldgeable about music moderated a Raga Lakshana wiki server or some other knowlege base. And if all these steeped-in-carnatic-music people commenting here could collect their knowledge in one place that is indexed and searchable, and a few mouse clicks away. That would be teh awesome!

Re: My concerts available for download - TTD, Chennai May 2008

sarigama — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:34:36 -0000

Good of you to take it in the right spirit.

Loved your concert - my favourite was the mohanam, but I also loved jaya jaya padmanabha as always. Everything was excellent, so hard to pick the best. Oh the hindustani was excellent too. Thank you for a great listening experience.

Re: The first radio programme

sarigama — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:55:51 -0000

Keep writing Sanjay, you write well, and its great to hear about little tidbits of you starting out your life in the world of music.

I wonder, when did you know for certain that you wanted to be a full-time musician? Or did it all just happen gradually? Unlike IT or medicine, where one gets the degree and then starts practising the craft they were trained in, it seems like a lot of musicians have degrees in something other than music. And a lot of people with degrees in music don't necessarily go on to become musicians.

Re: My concerts available for download - TTD, Chennai May 2008

sarigama — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:22:30 -0000

Sanjay, this is a great idea to to share the rewards with your accompanists equally. Its about time, and hopefully others will follow your example. Also, good of Charsur to come up with this idea to give us access to the music so soon after it was performed.

Here is some feedback I got from someone who tried to order this concert at Charsur. I thought I'd pass it on, since in this day and age, its important for commercial websites to pay attention to the user experience. Hope you are able to pass it on to Charsur and they pay attention to user feedback.

1. The confirmation email for the order does not show up for over two hours after the order is placed. Considering there is no human sitting and shipping the order, there is no need to wait so long. It should all be automated.

2. When the confirmation email shows up, it allocates a 24 hour window during which downloads will be valid. This makes sense only if the confirmation email shows up as soon as I place the order. Otherwise I could just miss the email and miss my 24 hour opportunity.

3. Registration asks for too much information, for instance it asks for delivery address even though there will be no physical CD delivered. Also, even if you order through paypal, it asks for your credit card address.

4. Even if you pay for an entire album, the system asks you to download one track at a time.

5. Downloads failed repeatedly and had to be retried many times before they succeeded

6. The server crashed repeatedly and you had to relogin to the website multiple times

7. Track names do not have the song name in them - they are named 1, 2, 3....

8. No filetype is provided for the tracks, you had to figure out that it was mp3

9. Sound quality is not as good as the physical Charsur CD's

The person who gave me this feedback said: "I might put up with stuff like this for Sanjay's music, but I definitely won't do it for anyone else"

Re: The music competitions

sarigama — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:02:05 -0000

Hey! Reetigowlai!

The reason I can recognize it is because of your Janani Ninuvina. There are some songs that I feel certain singers OWN. Its theirs, and if I hear any other singer singing it, its just inferior to this other version of the song that's playing in my head. Janani Ninuvina, in my opinion is yours. So its funny to hear you talking about being unfamiliar with that ragam.

Re: The Sanjay Subrahmanyan Show - Episode 2 - Creativity

sarigama — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:24:20 -0000

Thank you Sanjay for your generosity and kindness to those of us just getting to know carnatic music. As you indicated in your podcast, there are some of us who did not grow up with carnatic music, and are just learning it and appreciating its many layers as our carnatic music vocabulary increases.

Besides using AIR to familiarize yourself, another way for grownups to learn carnatic music is to have one's kids learn it! As they go through the learning process, the parents can just pick up things through osmosis.

The second section, where you played the neraval by Madurai Mani was great. More of that kind of stuff please! And music listening tips are definitely much appreciated.

It's good to return from vacation and ease back into the daily grind by listening to this enjoyable podcast.

Re: Growing up in a rasika household - (4) My first MS concert

sarigama — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:49:46 -0000

Its still pretty impressive regardless of the fudge factor. And of course, the tragedy was that you didn't even get tickets to see MS after all.

I can't even imagine what would encourage my son to practise something 100 times in one day. And the child is quite the carnatic music fan - he loves to listen more than practise though.