Birth of a Song from Maestro - Clippings of Live Recordings!

[crvenky]

Dear fans,
We have been imagining all these days how IR would compose and record a song and what would be the sort of interactions going between him and his team of players. CS Ramasami who had attended many of his recordings those days had managed to record the proceedings way back in 1984/85. He has hosted the clippings here. I request all the IR fans to listen to these carefully (multiple times) and discuss our views here.
Song: Gnana thangame
Film: Raaja Gopuram (1985)
His blog id is: http://isai-alias-raja.blogspot.com/
Let us thank CSR for this invaluable treasure.

Regards

Venkatesh
http://maestromagic.blogspot.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/maestromagic

[prabhudas]

CRV and CSR,
I am yet to listen, but all excited already
thanks,

[rajasaranam]

Thanks CRV and CSR :)

This is indeed a great treasure from you both. I've listened to it once for now and will pour more comments later after a couple of listenings.
BTW the song itself is unheard for me and was a great treat to listen to. and once listening to all the tracks provided here itself has made me hooked to the tune :)
Can somebody provide a decent version[from cassette or CD] of this song in mp3 format :?

[csramasami]

Thank you CRV and Siva ! Thanks to Prabhudas and RajaSaranam for your replies!

Around 300 views :D (even though only 2 replies stating they will return with comments! :roll: ) and I hope most of IR fans and other hubbers have already noticed and listened to this unique audio clips.

Due to some logistic problems, these clips would not be available in the specific links after end of July. :cry: So others can expedite their efforts, in case still they need this. TFMP/RR can think of some way, if they want to continue these clips after July-2006.

Hope to see a few comments on this topic !

Regards

CSR

[vijayr]

CSR, great job of recording and hosting the clippings that are some 20 yrs old. Painstaking work there. Only wish was that the song had been a little more popular or a known one so that I could have related better to the way the instruments are added one by one. Nevertheless it was interesting. I had long back read your IR's replies to the letters your friend sent(in Yahoo club) and was amazed at how the man had the time and patience in his early years to reply to his fans comments and criticisms point by point in his own hadnwriting. (I also thought you were a little concerned about making them public at that time?)

Your writeups are also pretty vivid, gave the feeling of being right there in IR's house when you met him. If you have more information on how the tune evolution/communication takes place between IR and Sundarrajan or between IR and the singer,pl let know. I want to know especially as to how tough semi-classical songs are conceived by IR and how he manages to communicate such tunes to the singers(like say Isai arasi song from Thai Mookambikai or the semi-classicals that Sudha raghunathan sang for IR recently) and how much improvisation do the singers do on their own

[doraip]

CSR,

Thanks very much for posting these marvels. Had a chance to listen to the Gnaana Thangame song. Shows the dedication IR has to his profession spending so much time and attention to each and every bit of the song. It has always been my dream to watch/listen to the live recording of IR which has never happened till date to me. Atleast your tapes served this desire to a large extent. It took me close to 2 hours to listen to all the 20 clippings, but was worth every bit of it. Thanks again.

By the way, Sundarajan's track singing was interesting too. His voice/style resembles IR a lot. Is this the same person who sang the Pottri Paadadi Pennee in Thevar Magan? Can someone confirm please?

[csramasami]

DoraiP

Thanks for the comments. (in fact it was total 26 clips. Hope you had all)

Potripadadi is indeed by Sundararajan, apart from a lot of hummings in various songs.

Regards

CSR

[csramasami]

Dear VijayR

Thanks for the comments,

You are right that when published at yahoo club, I indeed had many reservations. (Even now, with some reservations only I am posting them. Hope, no controversies started).

Purpose of Nyaana thangame, is whether popular or not efforts are always the same.

Communications with IR and his close team-members are perfect (and of course eveolved over the time period) and you can say 1000% which includes Sundararajan. Additional efforts are required mainly for the down the line players and chorus members etc , who routinely changes as per the day's requirememnt.

As far improvisations are concerned even though these are mutual, as you hear in Nyaana Thangame, its mainly from IR. You can say, it may be of 90% IR and 10% others, be it classical, or semi-classical, or any form.

Regards

CSR

[app_engine]

It's a great treat, CSR! Your whole weblog is great and evokes strong nostalgia...

[csramasami]

app_engine:

I feel happy if I could take others also into those similar kind of nostalgic moments! Every one of us are living with such feelings of IR nostalgia. I welcome everybody to come-up with their experiences and record them here.

Can anybody make an attempt to contact all those experts associates like Viji, Sadha, Sashi, etc and record their views for posteriety as a first step?!! Wishful but necessary !

Regards

CSR