Artists: Shivamani (Drums), U. Sriniwas (Mandolin) and Steven (Keyboard)
Organized by: Times Pune Festival
Time and Venue: At Poona Club on 23rd January, 7:00 PM
Namaskar!
I am hardly in a position to write a "review" of this beautiful concert which everyone and certainly yours truly enjoyed immensely. It is one of the most memorable concerts I have ever attended. It was flawless, exciting, sublime, having something for everybody - from the novice, to the connoisseur or from the curious kid to the hippy! All this without ever sacrificing either the quality or sanctity of music. Something only a true artist - who has keenly analyzed the audience and put a lot of thought into the content and presentation - can do.
The artists started the concert with Shiva Stuti.
The melodic part of the second piece was in what sounded like raga Gavati (disclaimer for the whole post - to my Hindusthani Sangeet oriented mind). Initial short alaap played by Sriniwas set the mood of the raga followed by a composition set to 16 (or 8) beat rhythmic cycle.
The melodic part of the third piece sounded like Dharmavati (similar but not same as Madhuvanti in Hindusthani Sangeet) set to 8 beat rhythmic cycle.
After this Shivamani played solo for more than one hour using 100s of drums, bells, suitcases - bottles and what not. For somebody like me it is simply impossible to put the experience in words. Shivamani dedicated this solo to A. R. Rehman.
Next there was a short piece for which I could not recognize the raga (or possibly it was not based on a particular raga). The melodic part of this piece was played by Steven on the keyboards - with a lot of speed and energy!
Sriniwas played brief alaap in what sounded similar to raga Jogiya to me followed by the bhajan Raghupati Raghav Rajaram.
The artists wanted to end the concert here but the crowed asked for more. The artists played a short piece with melodic part set to Ahir Bhairav.
The crowed still wanted some more drums - Shivamani played some more using a medley of A. R. Rehman songs (while Steven and U. Sriniwas packed their instruments).
Throughout Sriniwas was superb as expected. Steven also provided excellent support on keyboard!
Hats off to Shivamani!
Warm regards,
Bansuriwala
PS:
Please accept my apology for the delay in this post as well as keeping the concert calendar out of date in spite of many interesting concerts that took place in Pune during last few days. It is not an excuse , this happened since yours truly was on a visit to Ajanta-Ellora.
My attempt at writing down the piece in Gavati (which I think was set to something like a teen-taal) as I recall (malaa umajalela)
| 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 | 9 10 11 12 | 13 14 15 16 |
| - - - - | - - - - | M P n - | P - S, - |
| D - - M | P - - - | G M r - | - ,n - S |
| G - - - | - - - - |
|
|
Similar attempt to document the mukhada of the piece in Dharmavati (set to a taal that sounded like keharwa)
| 1 2 3 4 | 5 6 7 8 |
| P - - m | g - - R |
| S - - - | - - - - |
| m - - - | g R - - |
| S R - - | - - - - |
I never thought that the humble "Nasik Dhol" rhythm could be turned into such a divine concoction... Nuances, variations, textures, soundscapes... all around a simple theme. Only a magician can make this possible... and this one has TWO wands. What better way to sweep away a Pune audience than to weave magic through dhoom-dhoom-tapaak-aa-dhoom-tak.
ReplyDeleteAnd this was just one trick in a magic show of sound and music.
U Sriniwas and Steven were great too... but the man of the hour was He who made a suitcase sing... Sivamani.
Special mention to the sound crew for a flawless setup - did not drop and destroy a single note, scrape, jingle, or boom... also for reacting fast to the artists' needs.