Date: 11th Dec 2019 / 17:30 Hrs
Venue: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore
Team: Ensemble from Vikku Vinayak Ram
Vikku Vinayakram
is, today, as popular as he was decades ago. He is one who has kept pace with
the modern times and adapted himself very well. What sets him apart is that he
is open to experimentation always. When I saw an ensemble from him in the
programme calendar, my feet automatically marched towards it.
True to form, he didn’t disappoint. The show was
aptly titled “Three generations” and comprised only percussion instruments including
drums, ghatam, mridangam, morsing etc. Vikku’s sons Selvaganesh and
Umashankar were there on stage along with Swaminathan, son of Selvaganesh. Selvaganesh,
himself, is a brilliant percussionist himself. He is also part of the quintet Remember
Shakti that brings elements of Jazz with our traditional music
consisting of English guitarist John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain (tabla), U.
Srinivas (deceased) (mandolin), Shankar Mahadevan (vocals), and V. Selvaganesh.
They believe music or sound originated from Shiva’s Damaru. They started
with a piece called “Shiva Thandavam” consisting of series of
beats resonating to neatly clipped words that invoked Maha Periyava and
Shiva’s blessings. They moved on to Guru Vandanam and followed up
with various snippets. One, he called it as 7 and ½ beats!
Swaminathan is blessed with a great voice that resonated with the beats
neatly. Most of them were their own compositions. The beauty is that the entire
family could easily switch from Ghatam, vocal, drum and mridangam, a purely
multi-faceted team.
Selvaganesh is the one who anchored the show, talked about their interests
and mentioned that this was their first concert of this season. He gave a brief
lecture on each of the song and explained its beauty. An able drummer himself,
he could easily have been a vocalist had he wanted. With Vikku sitting at one
side, the ghatam and mridangam on his right and kanjira & morsing on the
left, beautifully complemented each other. The music of the left and right
halves was so distinct they brought out the beauties of the instruments. Here is a sample.
Towards the end, Selvaganesh said how any sound, breathing or walking or
anything can be understood using percussion. To illustrate, he and Swaminathan
mimicked a train, differentiated from A/C and non-A/C coaches, let the train
pass through various tunnels as well as halting at a junction etc. to the
delight of all.
A pure delight indeed. What a talented group it is.
Overall: ***
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