Guess the artist

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Do we have this topic/game on the forum? I couldn't find one. Anyway, to set the ball rolling, here's a piece of music - a nice kalyani. Guesses, anyone?
http://www.mediafire.com/?yl3r2x8n8hgbyg9

Let's play!

[srikant1987]

Sounds like a Carnatic musician who doesn't normally play flute ... (though there is a slight chance it's the exact opposite )

I give up! Can't really tell flautists! Can try violinists and to some extent vainikas ...

[vasanthakokilam]

That sounds like 1 kattai flute.. mentioning it in case that gives a clue to anyone! It started off more like yamuna kalyani.. it may be just me! Given a low katti flute for a non-thukkada raga, one wild guess is this is an HM flutist trying to play kalyani in CM bANi? ( that would fit the latter scenario of Srikant )

[keerthi]

Is it T. Vishwa?

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

It is Raj Narayan. Recorded it surreptitiously - he does not get the time to practise regularly these days due to enormous work pressure, and when he does, he likes to play in a really relaxed manner, to offset the work stress!
He always likes to play 1-kattai since it is close to the male voice. Sounds more soothing too.

Keerthi, strange you ask 'is it T.Vishwa' - many people have told him that his style is a bit like Vishwa.

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Here is a Todi by Raj Narayan for your listening pleasure:http://www.mediafire.com/file/bj1j5bm9i ... a-Todi.mp3

Here is another clip of a superb veena - guess who? Keerthi - please don't answer, you know it!
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ikos4888n ... -tanam.mp3

I know part of the answer, but would really like to know the complete answer.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

I have enjoyed the kambodhi piece immensely!

Regarding the veena artist - I might be right in my guess but it would not be fair for me to give out the name, because, recently I have had some communication with Keerthi where he mentioned about a certain vidushi.
If I am right in my guess, I am thinking of this vidushi ................ who is not much recognized in the mainstream music circles.

[vasanthakokilam]

It is Raj Narayan. Recorded it surreptitiously

Good work Radhika. Raj Narayan's Kalyani sounds very relaxed and quite enjoyable. I can feel the 'it is just him and his music' vibe very much and it is so rare to get to listen to that. Vishranthi all the way!! Thanks very much.

[srikant1987]

That is a lovely kAmbhOji! Dhanammal style, but can't tell who! I have heard recordings of K G Vijayakrishnan and Padma Varadan of styles derived from hers ... but wish I had heard Smt Padma live. AND to listen to KGV live at the earliest! There aren't many records of these people lying around. ;(

But it would have much more enjoyable if the shruti could be heard better.

O K A Y! http://www.hindu.com/fr/2008/11/07/stor ... 620200.htm

I've heard of this Vidushi's name (since IIT Madras Music Club had a concert of it last November), but the "left hand/right hand" comment suggests she could belong to the Dhanam veena school too.

Since she's a co-resident of Bangalore with Smt Radhika Raj Narayan, I will guess it's she! (I've never heard her live or recorded though!)

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

All wrong, friends! It is written on the original spool tape donated to us by a friend, as 'kalyana krishna bhagavathar'!
Which is why, I said 'I know half the answer' . My question - MA Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar or MK?
Keerthi says there are hardly any recordings of MK available. I am very curious to listen to his recordings.

But this kambodhi - superb. The vistaaram at every point, and the soukhyam! How long he takes to reach taara shadjam - approaches, goes back, teases, exhausts all variations on the previous notes, till he finally touches the shadjam. Just great.
Would anyone know whether it is MK or MA? I did listen to other recordings of MAK, but somehow the style does not really match.

[srikant1987]

Sreeni Rajarao sir,

Who were you thinking it was?

[vasanthakokilam]

R-R, just searched around and found bits and pieces of info that may help.. Mohan Santhanam's mother's guru is MAK. You can check with her through Mohan Santhanam's web site. (http://www.mohansanthanam.com/)

MAK was employed at Central College of Carnatic Music, Chennai along with Smt. T.Brinda, Tirupambaram Swaminatha Pillai, Mayavaram Krishna Iyer. So he belongs to that generation.
MKK seems to be MAK's son (?).
MKK got the sangeetha natak award in 1992 for veena. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangeet_Na ... demi_Award ).

veena teacher Mrs. Lalitha Venkatraman's guru is KKB, I assume it is MKKKB. (http://www.ragavani.com/AboutUs.html ). A quick email to her will reveal the mystery, I suppose. ( [email protected] )

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Vasanthakokilam,
It is the other way around - the M K Kalyana Krishan Bhagavathar (also popularly nicknamed 'thalaiyaatti KK bhagavathar) I am referring to, lived earlier and may have been an uncle or something of M A K. He was based in Kerala and was one of the teachers of the late Vidwan Trivandrum Venkatraman. Maybe MAK's son was /is ALSO MKK, to compound the confusion!
I am looking for recordings of this earlier MKK and was quite excited at the possibility that this may be one. Hopes are fading now, though, since almost everyone I ask says there are not many recordings of MKK available.

Another upload clip coming soon!

[srikant1987]

He was based in Kerala and was one of the teachers of the late Vidwan Trivandrum Venkatraman.

Hmm. Microscopically, TRV's playing shows practically no signs of this style! If M_K came to be TRV's guru before KSN, then it's really strange ... also, unlike the violin or the flute, I personally find some different styles of veena playing appealing, and like KS as well as TRV as well as (now) M_K.

So I do like the Dhanam-like M_K style and don't understand why TRV should have changed so totally into KSN's style.

[keerthi]

Radhika is right. MKK was MAK's uncle.

MAK was the one at Central college, and has played duets with dEvakoTTai narAyaNa Iyengar at mysore, despite them having diametrically opposite styles. MAK also sang, and popularised several of swAti tirunAl's songs.

MAK's son is a MKK, probably the MKKKK you refer to, that got the sangeet natak prize last decade.


srikant, the dhanammal special issue of shruti has an article by her grandson, the grand raconteur T.Sankaran, where he says that MKK was the only vainika that dhanam had explicitly praised and admired.

MKK too, was entranced by dhanammal's playing, and there is a story of his missing a temple visit, while he sat lost in her music, at Trivandrum.

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

So maybe, just maybe, this is that MKK? The Kambodhi is so so beautiful. And MAK's style doesn't match! Hope it is the old MKK (cross fingers and toes!)

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Would Sri Rama Varma know? Or Iyer Bros?

[srikant1987]

Rama Varma's loyalties seem to be more with BMK.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Sreeni Rajarao sir,

Who were you thinking it was?

Srikant,
I was thinking of Smt. Harini, Rallapalli Anantha Krishna Sharma's daughter. I learned recently that she plays veena also besides being a vocalist.

Sreeni Rajarao

[srikant1987]

The vainika isn't playing kAmbhoji. He is just spending some time with an old friend.

Can such magic ever happen with vocal music?

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

So true! But is that not the essence of not Indian classical music? All ragas should be ideally performed like a conversation between the performer and the instrument / raga itself / gaana devata, or even another performer, where the 'words' and ideas are in the form of the music.

Here is another link. Guess who?

http://www.mediafire.com/?7qt2aasaiayo2jc

[bilahari]

What a beautiful and touching kAmbOji! Thank you, Radhika! I love the usage of NNPM in the middle...it was indeed an intimate conversation between the artiste and the raga, as Srikant has pointed out.

[CRama]

That veena of MKKalyanakrishna bhagavathar was fantastic. I have heard many Navarathri concerts in radio of him in the 70s. But I did not record. Now I am searching for them I am not getting. I regret now. MAKalyanakrishna Bhagavathar used to sing vocal concert in Navarathri Mandapam. I do not have him either.

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

CRama: Have you heard the older MK Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar? Does this recording sound like his playing?

Rasikas - any guesses for the link I posted on Saturday?

[CRama]

I have heard MKK many times, but I was not matured enough to understand his style etc and I do not have any recordings also. I was more interested in vocal music only at that time. Forumite Sivaramakrishnan may be able to confirm. I have told him to post .

[kalyani_ragam]

That veena of MKKalyanakrishna bhagavathar was fantastic. I have heard many Navarathri concerts in radio of him in the 70s. But I did not record. Now I am searching for them I am not getting. I regret now. MAKalyanakrishna Bhagavathar used to sing vocal concert in Navarathri Mandapam. I do not have him either.

There are about 6 concerts with meof this artists. Two vocal (one in shanmugananda hall and one navarathri mandapam with PMI) and 4 veena concerts. One of the veena concerts was a radio recording in Srilanka given to me by his lady disciples based in Australia now (who was kind enough to send me all the way by courier seeing my interest in this artist in some forum (sangeetham !!).

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

kalyani_ragam, are you referring to MA Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar (who used to perform vocal concerts and veena concerts also), or the OLDER M K Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar (NOT M A Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar's son, but his UNCLE)?
If indeed you have 6 concerts of the older ('thalaiyaati')Kalyana krishna Bhagavathar, these are treasures, since most people are of the view that there are very few recordings in existence of this vidwan.
You could listen to the clip I have uploaded and compare with your own recordings.

[srikant1987]

R-R,

Yet to open it! The "week" has just begun, so give a little more time. =)

[kalyani_ragam]

kalyani_ragam, are you referring to MA Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar (who used to perform vocal concerts and veena concerts also), or the OLDER M K Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar (NOT M A Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar's son, but his UNCLE)?
If indeed you have 6 concerts of the older ('thalaiyaati')Kalyana krishna Bhagavathar, these are treasures, since most people are of the view that there are very few recordings in existence of this vidwan.
You could listen to the clip I have uploaded and compare with your own recordings.

M A Kalyanakrishna Bhagwathar (Senior). MDR's cousin ?

[Sivaramakrishnan]

To put in frankly, if I were asked to identify the Veena artist without giving any clue, I would have failed.

The thing is very easy now: the Kambodhi Ragam-Tanam is by M A Kalyanakrishna Bhagavathar. As CRama has noted the very same M A K used to give vocal concert at Trivandrum Navaratri Mandapam in the 70's. With Pgt Mani Iyer a couple of times, if I remember correct. M A K, the Vainika Gayaka, has not played Veena at the Manadapam.

There are AIR recordings of MAK's Veena with his daughter Muthlakshmi Ranganathan. Chennai AIR could help.


Vainika M K Kalyanakrishna Bhagavatar, Palace Vidwan of Travancore and a native of Palghat District, regularly played Veena at the Manadapam and his was a vintage style markedly different from the rest. Though called 'Thalaiyaatti bhagavatar', he seldom 'thalaiyaattied' to any other style(!) - such was his puritan and steadfast approach to his way. His was not the Travancore Bani and adopted a very elaborate raga aalapana technique with unique 'short frilled' gamakas. As a 'Mandapam enthusiast', I had the fortune of being a part of the 'Mandapam dais' to keep Taala for the Vidwan during his later years.


All India Radio Trivandrum must be having MKK's Veena in their archives.

[srikant1987]

R-R,

For your third track, a flautist friend of mine guessed it to be Dr N Ramani, but that would be too obvious!

I have another guess, but there are indications that go totally against it ... so I'll just wait.

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Thank you, Sivaramakrishnan. I somehow thought it sounded different form his other recordings available on the internet. Anyhow, the kambodhi is fabulous.
OK, Srikant1987, the answer is T Vishwa. The item itself is a dead giveaway!
So what was your guess?

[keerthi]

I have always been terrible at identifying artistes, but with Vishwa, his style in Alapanas normally has helped me identify him correctly. Can't use that here.

Any idea who the violinist is? At some points, it almost sounds like another flute, and there is a perfect pATAntaram match. Could it be abhirAmasundari ?

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Keerthi: I have no idea about the violinist. I think this was taken from a radio broadcast. and we don't have the entire broadcast. Just 1 or 2 pieces.

One more clip for identification:
http://www.mediafire.com/?fpqw4al5aeatq47

Who do you think this is? I know the answer this time!

[srikant1987]

I know the answer this time!

Unfortunately, Media Player knew it too. =|

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

ayyo!

[Radhika-Rajnarayan]

Anyhow, isn't it great? The synchronisation is superb.