![]() Once the song ended, the piano seemed to hover around the scale for a while with the flute adding a few silky touches. It was one of the softer songs of the event, the chorus adding a neat western flavour to the song. Succeeding this was a rendition of Mahakavi Bharathiyar’s ‘Maalai Pozhudhu’ a composition about love wherein Embar Kannan and Navneeth Sundar on the violin and the grand piano respectively, accentuated the beauty of the minor scale. Jayashri demonstrated perfect enunciation and great versatility to sing in both styles of music and with such dexterity that, at the time it was almost impossible to tell which school of music she really belonged to! ![]() Jayashri followed it up with ‘Jhanak Jhanak Paayal Baaje’ in a Hindustani style accompanied by the tabla, the bansuri and Navneeth Sundar, previously on the grand piano, now on the harmonium. ![]() There was a shade of reverb that made the Bansuri sound very ambient and distant. This was immediately followed by a short soothing alaap in ‘Darbaari’ by the excellent Navin Iyer on the Bansuri. J Vaidyanathan on the mridangam joined in for the trio’s rendition of Papanasam Sivan’s ‘Sri Valli Devasenapathe’ in a completely Carnatic style. Vidushi Bombay Jayashri spoke briefly about the existence of music in and around us – a mother’s lullaby and our heartbeats – before singing a beautiful alaap in Raga Natabhairavi (Aeolian mode is the closest analogy in Western Music) and being aptly complemented on the violin by the brilliant Embar Kannan. The perfect song to start a journey through the beautiful, boundless and magical entity that is music! The song, as Jayashri explained, urges the spirit to reach out beyond boundaries. Then Sai Shravanam began with 7-4 or a Mishra Chapu beat on the tabla which was followed by the flute, grand piano, violin, mridangam and the chorus in raga Janasa Mohini which Jayashri followed up with a surreal rendition of ‘O Nanna Chethana’ by MahaKavi Dr. The audience waited with bated breath for the artistes to start as the electronic tamburas hummed to occupy the impatient silence. ![]() Right on the dot! The artistes made their entries professionally through a well co-ordinated routine although I could sense that the venue, now completely packed, had their eyes fixed at the centre of the stage where eventually Jayashri took her seat. The event further proved its class by starting at 8:00 p.m. Even before the event started, it felt classy! I spotted Jnanpith awardee, writer-actor-director Girish Karnad and also Padmashri recipient and director-extraordinaire MS Sathyu who had also designed the stage and the lighting for the event. ![]() I reached the Brigade MLR Convention Centre only to find myself dwarfed by an elite crowd moving thereabouts. I had also realized that conception and direction for the whole event was led by Jayashri herself. Despite being aware of her numerous cross-cultural collaborations, I had to see for myself how Jayashri would perform music in its most global sense. When I first heard about Bhoomija’s debut event ‘Listening to Life: A Journey of a Raga’, I felt it would be anything but a conventional Carnatic Kutcheri. Even to this day, she possesses an aura of a beautiful river during her kutcheries – humble, broad-minded and always in a state of flow. When I was a child, it did not take long for me to fall irreversibly in love with the beautiful, soul-stirring voice of Bombay Jayashri. ![]()
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