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Samaya - Kala Ramnath & Ganesh Iyer . |
Kala Ramnath - Violin
Ganesh Iyer - Violin
Vijay Ghate - Tabla
Patri Satish Kumar - Mridangam
Tracks
Raga Ahir Bhairav/Chakra Vaham
1 Alap 20.35
2 Madhya Teentaal/Adi 13.28
3 Drut Teentaal 7.36
Raga Dharmavathi/Madhuvanti-
Raga Mela (Garland of Ragas)
4 Alap 2.57
5 Gat Ektaal 12.14
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With the richness of raga and tala lying at the heart of both the Hindustani music of the North Indian sub-continent and the Carnatic music of the South, it is surprising that collaborative projects involving musicians from these two distinct, but related styles have been largely an area of unexplored territory to date.
North Indian musician Kala Ramnath and South Indian Ganesh Iyer are at the forefront of a new generation of talented instrumentalists looking to broaden their musical horizons by happily exploring the treasures of each other's traditions.
As Violinists, they play one of the few instruments widely used in both the North and South parts of India, but as this recording demonstrates, there is a rare lyricism and an emotional depth in their music that transcends musical borders.
Kala Ramnath has gained worldwide acclaim for her ability to make the violin 'sing'. Her breathtaking performances have served to boost the status of violin to new levels in Indian music. Up until recent times, the violin was more commonly a feature of South Indian Music recitals, mostly employed as an accompaniment to vocalists. Through Kala's efforts, solo violin has now become a welcome feature of all the major North Indian music festivals, including the thirteen-day Saptak Festival in Ahmedabad, where she has become a regular favourite. Over the span of her career, Kala has successfully developed a distinctive playing style of her own, embracing the essence of vocal music (gayaki) by capturing all the depth and emotion of the human voice.
Kala's natural ability has been nurtured by an illustrious family of both North and South Indian violinists, boasting a musical heritage stretching back over seven generations. Her aunt is Dr.N.Rajam from whom she took formative training, and other family members include Prof T.N. Krishnan, a violin maestro who has enjoyed a prolific musical career spanning over sixty years.
Kala began her musical journey in 1969 at the age of just two. Her grandfather A. Narayana Iyer first recognised her talents, and took the step of introducing her to both Hindustani and Carnatic music. Attracted by the ornate and romantic Hindustani khayal vocal form, Kala chose North Indian music, a style of playing which she felt could give the soloist wider improvisatory scope to elaborate on the raag. Kala's music has in recent years matured and been refined under the guidance of one of India's singing legends, Pandit Jasraj, who saw in her the potential to create a unique playing style inspired by the Mewati vocal gharana.
In recent times, Kala has been experimenting with several types of genres of music, both within the traditions of Indian Classical music and crossovers to other types of music. Her duets with Sanjeev Abhankar, Rupak Kulkarni and Purbayan Chatterjee are testament to the fact that the art of jugalbandi is alive and kicking.
Her musical finesse has led to Hollywood knocking on her door, with Kala's violin appearing on Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar nominated "Blood Diamond".
Born in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Ganesh Iyer had already played more than 100 stage concerts with his younger brother Kumaresh before reaching his teens.
Together they became the youngest violinists to receive A grade status awarded by All India Radio, receiving glowing accolades from reviewers and critics along the way. Ganesh quickly grew a reputation for powerful, precise displays of virtuosity on the violin.
His father and guru, Shri Rajagopalan, an excellent artiste in his own right, laid solid foundations to his playing, leading practice sessions that lasted up to eight hours in his formative years. Mindful of the plethora of excellent Carnatic violin players of the time, their father knew that the two brothers would have to come up with something unique to gain recognition, and encouraged them to explore the dimensions of their musical creativity and to evolve a distinct style of playing. Focussing on a career of solo playing rather than accompaniment (the norm for most Carnatic violinists), Ganesh was always guided by the philosophy that music is not only for the intellect but also for the soul. His original thillana compositions, a lively rhythmic form based on the syllables of the percussion, similar to the tarana of the North, have become highly appreciated in concerts. Furthermore, leading dancers have adapted many of his compositions into their concert repertoire. His playing, generally recognized to be a true blend of tradition and creativity, has led him to collaborate with the likes of John McLaughlin, Trilok Gurtu and George Brooks over the years. He also teamed up with Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell as a member of the innovative Tabla Beat Science Project.
Vijay Ghate is one of the most outstanding tabla players in the modern era of North Indian music. As an eminent disciple of renowned educator Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, he is equally comfortable as a soloist as well as an accompanist to instrumentalists, vocalists and Kathak dancers, having a huge stock of repertoire, and a capacity to improvise and to play spontaneously according to the situation. As a soloist, he brings to the stage a distinctive vibrant energy, which enhances both his creativity and technical acumen. For his solo repertoire Vijay draws on compositions and inspiration from all of the traditional six gharanas (playing styles) in his performance.
Patri Satish Kumar is one of the most popular Mridangam accompanists on the circuit. His gurus are some of the great mridangam players of the modern era including Andhra, Sri Ramachandramurthy, V.A.Swami and V.Narasimhan. His mother Padmavathy, a renowned violinist, first inspired him to enter the world of percussion. He is an adaptable player equally at ease with Classical, Fusion or Jazz styles. He is a regular accompanist of Flautist Shashank and Violinists Ganesh and Kumaresh.
THE MUSIC
Ahir Bhairav is a morning raga (raag) of the North Indian tradition emanating a profound spiritual depth. ChakraVaham is the South Indian equivalent raga with the same tonal make up. North Indian ragas tend to place emphasis on specific notes, with Vadi and Samvadi swaras heading a hierarchy of notes, defining the melodic personality of raga. To the backdrop of the tanpura drone, Kala and Ganesh begin with the introductory Alap, improvising around melodic phrases elegantly capturing the essence of the raga, starting in the lower register and gradually ascending into the higher octave. In the Carnatic tradition the alapana serves to give a hint of the impending composition. This part of the recital is free from any rhythmic pulse.
The composition, or Pallavi is set to a cycle of 8 beats on the mridangam which is translated onto the tabla as the sixteen beat rhythmic cycle called teentaal. During the composition, Kala improvises to the accompaniment of the North Indian tabla played by Vijay Ghate, while Ganesh is accompanied by Patri Satish Kumar on the South Indian barrel-shaped mridangam.
Ragam Thanam Pallavi is a form of singing in Carnatic music, which allows the musicians to improvise with great freedom. It is one of the most complete aspects of classical music, demonstrating the depth of knowledge of the musician. It incorporates tanam, the rhythmic rendering of the notes of the raga; neraval, the mathematical elaboration of the notes; kalpanaswara, the improvised combinations of the raga notes and tani avartanam in which the percussionist is allowed to demonstrate his, or her skills. The word Pallavi is made up of three significant syllables; pa is derived from padam which means word or phrase; lla comes from layam which means poetry or rhythm; vi is from vinyasam which means imagination. Chakravaham as become a lesser performed raga in the Carnatic repertoire in recent times, though there are many kritis in this raga composed by South Indian legends Thyagaraja and Muthuswami Dikshitar.
Raga Dharmavathi, or Madhuvanti is the starting point for some magical improvised passages by both violinists leading into a garland of ragas (ragamalika) which includes Ananda Bhairavi, Kuntalavarali and Sindu Bhairavi, all skillfully weaved into in each other. These compositions are set to the lilting Tisra nadai (3 beats) on the mridangam, or Ektaal (12 beats) as it is played by Vijay Ghate. The composition rounds off with extraordinary rhythmic dialogue between tabla and mridangam in an electrifying feast of percussion.
Notes: © John Ball
John Ball is a practicing musician and musicologist based at the University of Sheffield, UK
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