Child prodigy to maestro —( U Shrinivas) - Page 3

The mandolin is a small plucked stringed instrument with a characteristic body shape that might be likened to a half pear, sliced vertically; it

typically has eight strings, although in the mandolin's original heyday during classical music's Renaissance era, there were often six. Usually the body is made up of many small ribs, although it may be carved from a single piece of wood. The mandolin was one of a group of similar stringed instruments that arose in the late sixteenth century, all variously known by the names of mandora, mandola, bandora, bandurria, and others; "mandolin" is a diminutive. The four-string (or four-pair-string) instrument evolved in Naples, Italy, in the eighteenth century, and since then has carried overtones of Italian serenade singing. Popular in many countries, it flourished in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as groups of amateur players joined themselves together in huge mandolin orchestras. The inclusion of the mandolin in some country string bands, and its later rise to prominence as the virtuoso instrument par excellence of bluegrass music, may have been due to the influence of these orchestras.

Music Today launches album by Mandolin Srinivas and sarangi ustad Sultan Khan

KutcheriBuzz Staff / Madras
Music Today launched the album 'Sahavaadhan' which brought two great musicians together - U. Srinivas on the mandolin and Sultan Khan on the sarangi.
At a simple, short function held at a star hotel in Madras, cassettes and CDs of this album were officially released in the midst of the local press.

The mandolin and the sarangi have merged well without losing their identity giving the listeners a beautiful melody. The album has a main piece in Raag Dharmavati, which is similar to the Hindustani raag Malkouns. The artistes have also played four different ragas in between accompanied by Murgabhoopathy on the mridangam and Hanif Khan on the Tabla. The album also features a Sai Bhajan.

Utsad Sultan Khan is the world's most renowned Sarangi player. He is master in both vocal and sarangi. His music is said to have brought the Prince of Wales to tears. Khan has carved a niche for himself by associating with stalwarts like S D Burman, R D Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. He has accompanied greats like Begum Akthar, Rasoolan Bai, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Begum Parveen Sultana, Ustad Zakir Hussain and many more. In complete contrast this ustad has also worked with western icons like the Beatles, Duran Duran and Madonna.

Ustad Sultan Khan comes from a long line of accomplished sarangi players. He is the eighth generation in the line to take up sarangi. In 1974, he joined Beatles George Harrison and Pt Ravi Shankar for the "Dark Horse" world tour. Since then he has been performing all over the world.

"This is not jugalbandhi . . ."

At the Madras launch, though Khan is fluent only in Hindi, he shared his experiences on the making of this album. "If you say this is jugalbandhi, I will say it isn't. If you say it is fusion, I will say it isn't. It is music created by two artistes playing together, " he said. Someone wanted to know if language created a barrier. "How do you expect me to work with Duran Duran and Madonna. We artistes have a different way of communicating and understanding," he said.

Khan seemed to enjoy the tete-a-tete with the media. Srinivas, sitting next to him, may have also found it hard to comprehend what was being said. But he smiled when Khan 'saab' said he liked the young prodigy and had no reservations in playing with someone who is far junior to him! "It is a great honour for me to play with this ustad," responded Srinivas

The two had performed in Bombay a year ago without any rehearsals. A few ideas were exchanged on stage and the artistes set the tone of the show. They liked what they did and Music Today picked up the idea. The company's head for A&R Kalyani says on the day of the recording they sat down at Srinivas' suburban studio and completed the album in almost 'one take'.

This is Khan's second such album with a Carnatic artiste. The first was done with violinist, M S Gopalakrishnan, who is adept at the Carnatic as well as the Hindustani styles.

South Indian music is identified as the new thrust area by Music Today. Music Today's Venkat Rolla says that Carnatic music took up only 5% of the company's entire repertoire hitherto, but now represents 25% of the total catalogue.

Mandolin Srinivas and Rajesh - Instrumental virtuosity

The Mandolin, with Srinivas's adaptation of it for Carnatic music, has come to stay, much as the violin did a couple of centuries ago. Belying all skeptics, Srinivas has repeatedly proved his detractors wrong, by providing quality instrumental music, riding on his sheer genius. However, his concert at the Music Academy, in tandem with his brother, U Rajesh, on December 23, 2001, was beset with problems of sound balance. For a substantial time into the concert, the sound levels were extremely poor, and the Mandolins were barely audible above their accompaniments. Of course, the artistes could not be blamed for this, as they must have got just enough time to get their instruments and sit on stage, before beginning the concert. There was clearly no time to do even a rudimentary sound check in advance.

The Mandolin duo began with a rare Adi tala varnam in Nata. From then on it was a series of popular items, like Vatapi (Hamsadhwani), Ksheerasagara (Devagandhari), Paraloka sadhaname (Purvikalyani), Sogasuga (Sriranjani), Aparadhamula (Rasali), Nadatanumanisam (Chittaranjani) and Edutanilachite (Sankarabharanam). From a connoisseur's perspective, this offered little variety, as it was a flow of Tyagaraja kriti-s, except for Vatapi early in the concert. There was not much contrast in Tala either, with everything being set in Adi, but for the Sriranjani kriti.
	Over the last few years, one had gained the impression that Srinivas was maturing as a musician. However, this was once again in question during this concert, which was primarily a glitzy affair, as Srinivas chose to play to the gallery. The choice of sangati-s in the kritis and the kalpanaswara segments in each item seemed to be designed with this end in view. It did not fail to elicit the audience's applause either. Rajesh's sound quality seemed better than that of Srinivas, but if one had listened with eyes closed, one could not have made out any difference between the two brothers. Srinivas's Sankarabharanam alapana was pretty good. Rajesh's Sriranjani alapana was an equal match - indeed, it was vintage Srinivas! However, the rendition of all the kriti-s seemed to ignore sahitya, as the instrumental technique was based primarily on swara patterns. This was noticed particularly in the opening Varnam and in the slow paced Ksheerasagara.
S D Sridhar's violin accompaniment was quite poor, especially in bowing technique. At no point of time could he match up with the main artistes, either musically or in creating an aura of glamour. Vellore Ramabhadran (Mridangam), along with T V Vasan (Ghatam) and Selvaganesh (Khanjira) provided very lively and bright percussive support.

Fusion's brave new champion

Sunday, July 15, 2001

Music is his soul. And doing something new his passion. When both met, the outcome was an unorthodox convergence - Carnatic music on Mandolin. When he first played his mesmerising music on this fast instrument, the classical fraternity sat up and took note. Today, he is taking the fusion music road. U. Shrinivas recalls the beginning and talks about his new ventures to Saptarshi Bhattacharya. HE IS a household name in the Carnatic music milieu. Over the years, U. Shrinivas has carved out a niche for himself as having the rare distinction of being a die-hard classical instrumentalist with a variation that goes well with all styles of music. Adapting the fast-paced stringed instrument to the slow and demanding notes of Indian classical music was no mean task. Yet, he did it in style. ''I took up the mandolin at the age of six and my first guide was my father U. Sathyanarayana. Later, I was also trained by the renowned vocalist R. Subburaju,'' Shrinivas says. Popularising Carnatic music worldwide is one of his goals. Concerting around the world, he has met and performed with renowned musicians of the West, often of distinctively different styles. Dream, an album in which Shrinivas performed alongside Michael Brook on the guitar and Nigel Kennedy on the violin, sold well. His performance with the Brazilian musician Nana Vasconcelos was also received well among music lovers.''Music should not be restrictive. There should be a conscious effort to do new things, always,'' he says. This search for the new and different has brought him closer to Fusion, a form of music which still remains a grey area. As they say, music should flow from the heart and transcend all barriers. Fusion is one such area of music which knows no barriers. ''Though I am oriented more towards classical music right from childhood, I always wanted to experiment with newer forms of music,'' says Shrinivas. After the West Berlin Jazzfest in 1986 where he got noticed worldwide as a child prodigy, there was no looking back. Opportunities came and he went on grabbing each, playing his heart out. A few weeks ago, Sahavaadhan, a jugalbandi of two alien stringed instruments featuring Shrinivas with Ustad Sultan Khan on the Sarangi, was released. Recalling the events during recording of the album at the Sathyasai Chandrasekara studios, he says the whole of the recording was over in a single take. ''It is my first jugalbandi album. It's a great experience and both of us played with full freedom and vigour and spontaneity.'' About Ustad Sultan Khan, he only had words of reverence. ''It is hard to find such great souls, he is so kind hearted, humble and simple. All I have is respect for him,'' he adds. And where did the inspiration come from? ''Well, Khan-saab inspired me a lot. I can't imagine how fast he plays and picks up the tempo and mood. He always plays with enthusiasm,'' Shrinivas replies. So what is in store for music buffs in the coming months? Quite a lot. Mandolin Shrinivas, as he is more popularly known, has teamed up with John McLaughlin, the guitar virtuoso of Shakti fame, and promises to roll out a few albums of fusion music. One, named Believer, was released last year. The next is likely to be released shortly, with the compilation of the pieces played by the two maestros in Mumbai sometime ago. The name too is chosen to match the event - Saturday Night In Mumbai. Another album is being planned for release around Christmas this year. The name is not yet final for this one. Yet another feather in his cap is his forthcoming venture with Michael Nyman, a music conductor. Michael won the Oscar for his composition for the film 'Piano'. This venture, the Mandolin maestro says, would fully focus on bringing together Western and Indian classical music on a single platform. ''I am happy that a lot of young talent is coming up in the field of music. There should be more opportunities created to encourage the youngsters,'' Shrinivas adds.

Currently on a Jazz tour with Shakti, he is taking the new genre music through the portals of 20 Jazz-loving cities of the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan. Today (on July 15), he performs at the Royal Festival Hall, London, along with Zakir Hussain, Selva Ganesh, John McLaughlin and the accompanying band. The tour ends mid-August with performances at Miazaki, Tokyo and Chiba in Japan.

whoa...ill read up later but the music i listened to was amaZAzing, simply superb...thx Chalavanth

whoa...ill read up later but the music i listened to was amaZAzing, simply superb...thx Chalavanth

WOw thank you Dolly and everyone for their input. 👏 👏 👏 read bits and pieces will print so can read it fully 😛

U.S. Srinivas (Mandolin)

Gananayakam
- Raga Poornashadjam (Rudrapriya) - Adi (7:85)

DIKSHITAR MASTERPIECES

Srinivas (Mandolin)

Gananayakam
- Raga Poornashadjam (Rudrapriya )