T.R.Mahalingam - Mali (Flute)

srkris · Post by **srkris** » 23 Apr 2006, 23:41

Mali with Rukmini and Madurai Krishna Iyengar at Kerala Fine Arts, Ernakulam

ninjathegreat · Post by **ninjathegreat** » 16 May 2006, 20:43

Well, without posting the music, can I request someone who has the mali concert with thavil accompaniment - posted long, long ago, and probably deleted now - to post the songlist? There are 11 tracks, and I'm having difficulty identifying some (most) of them... I think the musicans/accomanyists were as follows:

Flute - Mali and Hyderabad Srinivasan
Thavil - Valangaiman Shanmughasundaram
Mridangam - Tanjore Upendran

Thanks!

Niranjan

param · Post by **param** » 20 May 2006, 16:45

check these links

http://www.sawf.org/audio/khamaj/mali_samba.ram

http://www.sruti.com/sepoct2k/trmali.jpg

http://www.hinduonnet.com/folio/fo9912/99120062.jpg

http://www.sawf.org/newedit/edit09032001/mali.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/~maniiyer/pict ... mali1a.jpg

thathwamasi · Post by **thathwamasi** » 15 Aug 2006, 10:22

Mali often dubbed as "never before-never after phenomenon" has just changed the idea of flute playing in the carnatic minds. People still have evergreen memories of tossing coins to see whether Mali would come or not. And after he comes, will he play or not?..But once he starts playing, its a different experience.

http://www.sangeethapriya.org/Downloads ... _purna.mp3

Try this track...Amazing expression of the raga. Moves you to tears.

http://rapidshare.de/files/29442847/End ... u.mp3.html

This is a concert held in trichy. Accompanied by TN Krishnan and Ramabadran I suppose. Time line would be late 50's. Pardon the recording quality. Its amazing how Mali could play just a kirtanai with so much variety.

thathwamasi · Post by **thathwamasi** » 15 Aug 2006, 11:12

Here is one more

http://rapidshare.de/files/29445718/Ham ... m.mp3.html

This has a very soulful rendition of Hamsanadham raagam. Timelines/accompaniments unknown.

kumaran.nadesan · Post by **kumaran.nadesan** » 14 Sep 2006, 14:05

A 10 min clip of a documentary on Flute Mali was recently posted on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OUSsOVtAnU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glBlMa3zFQM

sundaram · Post by **sundaram** » 28 Sep 2006, 14:10

I would like to know if Lalgudi Jayaraman has ever accompanied Mali. If so, is such a concert available to be downloaded?

Sundaram

flutemali · Post by **flutemali** » 04 Oct 2006, 10:18

hello,
if anybody has mali's concerts at town hall, Bangalore please let me kw. it is one of the best concerts by the legend

Dattatri

maamoondi · Post by **maamoondi** » 04 Oct 2006, 11:13

For downloading audio and video files of Mali and other vidwans such as Sheikh Chinnamoulana, MMI, S. Rajam, etc. try http://www.vidwan.com

flutemali · Post by **flutemali** » 08 Oct 2006, 12:10

http://www.vidwan.com this website does not open at all. there is some error. it displays an error message.

drshrikaanth · Post by **drshrikaanth** » 08 Oct 2006, 13:15

It is www.vidvan.com

flutemali · Post by **flutemali** » 08 Oct 2006, 15:58

thanks a lot.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 09 Oct 2006, 03:09

The Mali program at youtube is in four parts. Very nice.

flutemali · Post by **flutemali** » 15 Oct 2006, 16:07

www.vidvan.com has 1 concert of mali. not many recordings are available.
does anybody kw whr to find more of his recordings.
please help

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 10 Nov 2006, 23:15

Today in the hindu , an outstanding article was published featuring Flute MAli. The article says MAli's fear stemmed more from not being able to meet the stringent standards he set for himself.

Interestingly I found a great square cut master liking MAli too...read on...

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2006/11/10/stor ... 680300.htm

meena · Post by **meena** » 10 Nov 2006, 23:23

rajesh

thanks for the article.

gdg · Post by **gdg** » 11 Nov 2006, 20:59

I happened to listen to some of his concerts over AIR in the later years and couldn't believe it was the same master about whom people were raving about. How such a decline in self expression came about?

kumaran.nadesan · Post by **kumaran.nadesan** » 12 Nov 2006, 03:06

Can someone please identify the third man in the first image posted in the thread? I believe he plays the morsing.

thathwamasi · Post by **thathwamasi** » 18 Jan 2007, 00:47

Coolji!!! Pls could you post the Anandabhairavi pallavi played by Mali. Lets begin analysing some good mali. Nothing makes my day like a good Mali piece. Let me start posting some exquisite Mali stuff from tomorrow. Thanks.
T

thathwamasi · Post by **thathwamasi** » 18 Jan 2007, 00:48

kumaran.nadesan wrote:Can someone please identify the third man in the first image posted in the thread? I believe he plays the morsing.

Sir..I think thats Pudukottai Mahadevan..a regular in Mali's concerts.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 18 Jan 2007, 10:34

: http://rapidshare.com/files/12200878/01 ... m.mp3.html

from a concert ,where he was accompanied by Dwaram Mangathayaru-UKS-Upendran

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 24 Jan 2007, 07:40

http://rapidshare.com/files/13023446/mo ... i.mp3.html

Man.This artist is unbelievable !!
What an alapana in Mohana..

thathwamasi · Post by **thathwamasi** » 24 Jan 2007, 09:00

COOLJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII........ What a Mohanam...how did u pull this outta your hat...It was awesome..thanks a ton...

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 24 Jan 2007, 09:02

Well
One has to start wearing Soda Glasses , first .I Guess !

Then stoop a bit , to peer into the spool ..

divakar · Post by **divakar** » 24 Jan 2007, 14:34

that was very nice clip of mohana.
thank you very much Kji for sharing it.

kaapi · Post by **kaapi** » 24 Jan 2007, 19:10

Kji,
Rapidshare is not allowing me to download. I will be extremely grateful if you can please upload to some other site at your convenience.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 25 Jan 2007, 10:33

kaapi
I will do it tomorrow(if nobody else does it by then)
divakar
I must thank thatwamasi's(member here) Dad for the work he has done in unscrambling the concerts of mali and picking up these gems.You can certainly expect more of these inspired moments.
BTW here is a short video clip of thatwamasi playing the flute-many years ago.
Sam- your brother is here on the Mridangam.
http://rapidshare.com/files/13160937/TH ... I.MPG.html

thathwamasi · Post by **thathwamasi** » 25 Jan 2007, 11:54

Kaapi - Here it is

http://www.rogepost.com/n/8061551290

divakar · Post by **divakar** » 25 Jan 2007, 14:26

thathwamasi
convey my thanks to your father for providing the nice pieces from mali's concerts and sharing with Kji.

ramakriya · Post by **ramakriya** » 25 Jan 2007, 22:58

tattavamasi,

that was a nice vara rAga laya!
Why don't you upload something more recent?

Coolkarni avare,

dhanyavAdagaLu.

-Ramakriya

thathwamasi · Post by **thathwamasi** » 25 Jan 2007, 23:41

ramakriya

Thanks. Unfortunately, I don't have any recent recordings of mine.

Coolkarni Sir,

Thanks so much.

kaapi · Post by **kaapi** » 28 Jan 2007, 16:57

tattavamasi,
Thanks for posting to a downloadable site immediately.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 25 Feb 2007, 09:19

http://www.badongo.com/file/2310721
hypnotising mohana in the company of M Chandru.

Suji Ram · Post by **Suji Ram** » 27 Feb 2007, 05:01

coolkarni wrote:http://www.badongo.com/file/2310721
hypnotising mohana in the company of M Chandru.

Nice play between the two between 8-10 minutes..

divakar · Post by **divakar** » 27 Mar 2007, 09:58

just posted today the above links

pgaiyar · Post by **pgaiyar** » 03 Apr 2007, 16:51

To:Thathwamasi, Sir: Can you please upload the Mali's Hamsanadham posted by you earlier?.

Regards

P. G. Aiyar

vijayagopal · Post by **vijayagopal** » 04 Apr 2007, 14:57

I had the good fotune of meeting Mali sir many times and discussing at length many things, thanks to Late N.S.Srinivasan, afore mentioned Hyderabad Srinivasan.
Regarding Mali's music, there can not be any other opinion than heavenly.

Mali the man, was such a fun loving, light hearted kind soul.
He called me his friend. My Goodness!

He was staying in a Hotel in Hyderabad.
Incidentally Chourasia also came there.
Next morning when I went there, there was a " Dont disturb" notice hanging on the door.
I was to see him under any circumstance and barged in.
He said the board is " not for you! It is for that Chourasia fellow!"
I dont know if I am right in sharing thses things.
I asked him what brings the best joy to him.
He jokingly said, " If the concert is cancelled after the advance is given!. He also said the cancellation should be not because of him, but on some other account.
A receptionist at this hotel came to identify him and promptly requested him to teach playing flute.
Mali sir accepted!
That evening he asked me " Do you know who is my latest disciple" and narrated the matter.
It never happened that the boy learnt anything from him.

I offered to write a book aboutMali Sir.
He accepted the proposal.
Alas,It was never to happen.
When Srinivasan wrote an article about his Guru for Shruti, he asked me also to write some lines as a box item.
I did write it. Srinivasan liked it.
The magazine people never printed it.
Mali Sir was a great man. then a great musician.

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 04 Apr 2007, 15:18

Alas,It was never to happen.

Please write the book here , on this thread..
We will love it.

meena · Post by **meena** » 04 Apr 2007, 23:26

vijayagopal
I second kji !

Look fwd. to some good read

meena · Post by **meena** » 04 Jun 2007, 05:34

Deleted

coolkarni · Post by **coolkarni** » 04 Jun 2007, 08:41

http://www.sendspace.com/file/sw8kmn

RTP-Simhendra Madhyama.mp3

mahakavi · Post by **mahakavi** » 04 Jun 2007, 09:13

It is quite a poignant story---that eccentric genius.
Didn't he bring it (whatever that "it" is) onto himself? Perhaps a masochist-- a genius gone wild and self-destructive!

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 09 Jun 2007, 10:15

I had known & visited with Sri.Flute.Mali (often)who was the most misunderstood Genius of our times. He was very normal if you approached him in a genuine fashion. Actually when I was a demonstrator at Presidency College making 85 Rs/Month salary & a real nobody (tho' being here as a scientist-NASA, LOS ALAMOS LABS etc people would not say such things now!)) once when I visited him he played Ninnuvina just for me at his apt-he used to live near Hamilton Bridge at that time -immediately after a non-show at music academy! He was a very sensitive person & all the useless drivel talk about him affected him to such an extent one concert he had 12 persons on stage & he turned & played the request to each person facing him. This meant he was mostly showing his back to the audience most of the time. Of course they were talking about his consuming alcohol even when he was drinking water.But the music&magic was such no one left! A Divinely inspired Artist....Recently the class of '57(Physics) in Presidency College had a Reunion in which I was asked to speak about my highlights there & I said the highlight was when I managed to arrange a cricket match in Marina grounds for Mali in which except me & him everyone else was either a Ranjitrophy player or at least University player. Most Misunderstood Genius in my life time. Let us realise we were lucky enough to meet & experience probably the BEST using any criterion like "the man who knew infinity" RAMANUJAN! VKV

mahakavi · Post by **mahakavi** » 09 Jun 2007, 19:15

>>the BEST using any criterion like "the man who knew infinity" RAMANUJAN! VKV<<

No qualms there, vkv43034!

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 10 Jun 2007, 02:28

Mali revolutionized the instrument(flute) & changed the way it was played with his blowing techniques & the way the holes were used as well as the music with his innovations! thats why.of course number theory is numbers & flute is flute..... vkv

pjguru · Post by **pjguru** » 15 Apr 2008, 10:34

Is there a reason why Mali preferred to play mostly compositions of Saint Thyagaraja? I have not come across many recordings of Mali with compositions from either Dikshitar or Shyama Shastri. If any of you have come across such renditions of Mali please post the link.

PJ

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 15 Apr 2008, 11:22

I can only speculate or guess why he played mostly Thyagaraja compositions. To my knowledge he also played a smaller number of compositions of Thyagaraja repeatedly. While I am not aware of anyone asking him why he did not render the other trinity compositions more I am aware of his being asked why he played only a smaller number of compositions. The answer by way of an analogy with Madurai Mani Iyer when he was asked why he chose to sing Vataphi Ganapathim SO MANY TIMES his reply was (paraphrasing): I am trying to render ot perfectly at least once! Mali was very research oriented & studied EVERY aspect of anything he did reg. music. His tendency was to study, try & explore EVERY technical aspect of the music. So as a reserch scientist myself I can relate to exploring in depth everything he chose to play because insights as well as breakthroughs & innovations usually happen the hard way! That is extensive exploration. In Mali's case his genius as well as technical abilities were far above ordinary mortals & the fact he rendered fewer compositions in my view did not matter. Also the fact the compositions unless rendered Vocally can never reach ALL the nuances of language etc which ultimately makes the difference in context, meaning etc more meaningful might have played a role why he decided to play fewer number etc. Just guesses on my part. It would be nice to know why he chose that route! vkv

pjguru · Post by **pjguru** » 16 Apr 2008, 00:28

Thanks for your perspective. Your observation that he played a small set of Thyagaraja compositions repeatedly is spot on. Then again, both of our observations may be just a manifestation of the small sample set of his recordings that are available to us that it may not be correct to jump into the conclusion.

One of my observations has been that Mali spends a lot of time in his concerts playing the raaga and swara prastharams - where he is a master and in a league of his own. This is also where a musician can showcase his talent. When he is rendering the composition he is usually playing in the 'mandra sthayi' giving the lead to the violinist. Since Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri kritis are heavy compositions unlike Thyagaraja's compositions which are rich in bhava, it is possible that he choose the compositions with more 'bhava' (and hence amenable to his playing in mandra sthayi) than compositions that are heavy on technicalities. These are just my opinions, which might well be wrong!

If someone who has had the opportunity to closely interact and attend his concerts can give their opinion it would be very nice and instructive. Also, if someone can list the Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri kritis that he has rendered it would be very informative.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 16 Apr 2008, 01:28

Dear pjguru,
I AM VERY MUCH INTERESTED IN POURSUING YOUR VERY RELEVENT OBSERVATIONS TO THE NEXT LEVEL. I AM ALREADY COMMITTED TO VARIOUS PROJECTS THO' MY HEART IS IN THE AREA YOU HAVE POINTED OUT.
i AM WILLING TO COPY ALL THE Mali concerts & mail them to you- the ones I have -if you are interested in pursuing this further. Do you live in USA or where do you live? I come to India every year: jan& feb for sure. Lets discuss thru' email: mine is: [email protected]

Thanks for your perspective. Your observation that he played a small set of Thyagaraja compositions repeatedly is spot on. Then again, both of our observations may be just a manifestation of the small sample set of his recordings that are available to us that it may not be correct to jump into the conclusion. ...I CAN DEFINITELY ASSERT- BASED ON MY PERSONAL INTERACTIONS WITH HIM- THAT HE WAS FULLY CONVERSANT& KNEW FAR MORE THAN HE PRESENTED JUSDT LIKE ARIYAKUDI& MMI FOR VARIOUS VERY GOOD REASONS.

One of my observations has been that Mali spends a lot of time in his concerts playing the raaga and swara prastharams - where he is a master and in a league of his own. This is also where a musician can showcase his talent.
TRUE BUT COULD IT BE BEC HE FELT INSTRUMENTAL CAN NEVER EQUAL VOICE WHEN IT CAME TO COMPOSITIONS. MOST OF THE AUDIENCES ARE NOT LIKELY TO KNOW THE NUANCES OF THE COMPOSITIONS?
When he is rendering the composition he is usually playing in the 'mandra sthayi' giving the lead to the violinist.
HE MIGHT HAVE FELT ONE CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH REG. COMPOSITIONDS FOR REASON STATED ABOVE?

Since Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri kritis are heavy compositions unlike Thyagaraja's compositions which are rich in bhava, it is possible that he choose the compositions with more 'bhava' (and hence amenable to his playing in mandra sthayi) than compositions that are heavy on technicalities.
IT'S OBVIOUS THYAGARAJA WAS A DIFFERENT COMPOSER IN THAT HE COULD COMBINE BHAVA, MUSIC, AS WELL AS TECHNICALITIES LIKE MMI. INCIDENTALLY WHEN MALI WAS ASKED AS TO WHOM ONE SHD LISTEN TO HE RIGHTAWAY SAIS IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC HE SAID GO LISTEN TO MMI! MAY BE THERE IS A CLUE HERE SOMEWHERE?
These are just my opinions, which might well be wrong!
IT IS BETTER TO BE WRONG THAN SAY ANYTHING THAT COULD BE RIGHT?

If someone who has had the opportunity to closely interact and attend his concerts can give their opinion it would be very nice and instructive. Also, if someone can list the Dikshitar and Shyama Shastri kritis that he has rendered it would be very informa.....
PL SEE MY STATEMENT IN FIRST PART. VKV

pjguru · Post by **pjguru** » 16 Apr 2008, 04:45

Dear Sir,

I'm really gratefull to you for sharing your thoughts and offering your help in pursuing this inquiry further. I would be very glad to be a part of this. It is very generous of you to share your collection of Mali renderings with me. Right now I'm based in USA pursuing my graduate studies. Thanks for your contact information. I shall contact you personally. Also, for the benefit of other enthusiasts we can post relevant information that we gather during the process here in this forum.