Musings of a runner: The fusion route to Indian classical music

Intro

This blog as might be apparent from the title has to do with running, biking and basically other outdoor individualistic sports, sometimes extreme, such as rock climbing . But don't be surprised if you find articles on work, personal life, music and even philosophy, this blog is an exception in this aspect in the blogosphere of running blogs and I am trying to revamp the blog to make it more runner friendly. You might want to look at the sidebar titled 'categorised', which as is obvious, categorizes my posts into different areas of interest.
The other thing that might interest many people is a section on 'running videos' and 'general videos' on the side bar, which I keep updating now and then.
I plan to bring in more posts on running and biking, with some added colour, so as to make them 'complete'. That's about it for now.
As a post-note, I have run a half-marathon, but I am yet to attempt a marathon, which through some concerted effort and time should happen in the future, but that ofcourse is not the culmination of this blog, it would on the contrary be something to jumpstart this blog onto new vistas.

Friday, November 24, 2006

The fusion route to Indian classical music

Indian classical music can be broadly classified as Hindustani and Carnatic. One is popular in the north and the other in the south. But they complement each other very well, as can be seen from fusion albums of the two genres of classical Indian music.
One such fusion is the "Remembering Shakti" live performance, which has five greats coming together:
John Mcloughlin - Of the famous Al Di Meola, Paco De Lucia and John Mcloughlin guitar trio
Mandolin Srinivas - Unmatched god and my role model for carnatic music on the mandolin
Zakhir Hussain - The tabla God. Period.
V Selvaganesh - A Percussionist who plays the mridangam, ghatam and Kanjira equally well.. I have seen him perform at the IIT bombay Mood Indigo cul fest and he was awesome.
Shankar Mahadevan (vocal) - Shankar Mahadevan needs no real introduction, as he has sung popular numbers in movies like Dil Chahta Hai, etc and is also popular down south.

There are many songs on the youtube from this performance, but I recommend the following song for a first intro to classical Indian carnatic music:
Giriraja Sutha
Giriraja sutha is a popular carnatic song and is set in the Bangala Raaga and the song is composed by the composition genius Thyagaraja.
Another recommended port of entry is the song Thaye Yashoda set in Thodi Raaga from the movie Morning Raga. Find the video Here.

Here's an instrumental piece where Srinivas and John complement each other very well.
Another instrumental , where the players interact and tease the music, albeit in a pleasing manner.
Remembering Shakti on youtube search.
For those interested in further exploration of Carnatic on Mandolin or for that matter any thing Indian classical, here are some sources for classical Indian music:
Kannada Audio
Music India Online

A final note: The cousin of carnatic on mandolin is carnatic on guitar. And a good exponent for the same, is Prasanna. Here are a few of his videos: Thodi, 2

P.S. If you have come thus far, you might as well watch this one. It resembles dance from Dream