The piece is called (or rather I have named it as) 'Talai Vidi' since it is Vidi's (Vidya Shankar) brainchild and he is our 'talai' (head in Tamil) meaning that he is the one directing (read micromanaging) us on this piece. 'Talai Vidi' also means fate in Tamil!
It is based on Raga Harikambhoji scale melody.
Harikambhoji (Sanskrit: हरिकाम्भोजि, Tamil: ஹரிகாம்போஜி) is a sampoorna (i.e. having all the 7 resolvable frequencies) rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 28th Melakarta rāgam (parent scale) in the 72 melakarta rāgam system.
If we take C as the root note, the Harikambhoji scale can be derived as follows:
Ascending: C D E F G A A#
Descending: C A# A G F E D
By the way, this piece was used as an overture to Ilayaragam's debut concert.
Here are some snippets:
Raga Shack crew that participated in this piece:
Rhythm/Lead Guitar: Easwar Swaminathan
Bass Guitar: Krishna Tangirala
Keys: Vidya Shankar
Vocals: TN Arunagiri
Mridangam: Nathan Narayanan
Bamboo Flute: Sridhar Narayanan
Drums: Padmanaban Ramasamy
Trivia: guess who has used this Raga Harikambhoji and 'popularized' it? Yes, it is of course Maestro Ilayaraja. The songs that come to my mind are:
1. Mazhai Varudu from the Tamil movie 'Raja Kaiya Vacha'
2. Aamani Paadave Haayiga from the Telugu movie 'Geetanjali'
If I am in error in assigning the raga to these, please let me know.
Showing posts with label Raga Shack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Raga Shack. Show all posts
May 24, 2009
March 17, 2009
Raga Shack is Born
It was the 15th day of March 2009 - the day when Raga Shack was born. The band aims to bring the best of Western music elements and Indian traditional music together to a maximum number of audience. As the name suggests, the band is open to improvisational music but when it claims a certain Raga is being played, it will strive to stick to the grammar of the melody (Raga) and time signature (Kaala Pramaanam), rhythm and tempo (Laya).
The members of this band just not want to play or sing but aspire to evolve as musicians and come out of the copy-exact mode that many popular light music bands operate in (doing cover versions). A critical part of that evolution process depends upon consistent effort in learning new things and becoming better at those by constant practice, so playing or singing becomes second nature.
Currently, the band has members with the following competencies:
The members of this band just not want to play or sing but aspire to evolve as musicians and come out of the copy-exact mode that many popular light music bands operate in (doing cover versions). A critical part of that evolution process depends upon consistent effort in learning new things and becoming better at those by constant practice, so playing or singing becomes second nature.
Currently, the band has members with the following competencies:
- Bamboo flute - Hindustani/Carnatic
- Indian Classical violin
- Lead/Rhythm guitars
- Bass guitars
- Keyboards
- Western drums
- Indian percussion (Mridangam/Tabla)
- Indian classical vocals
The band members eagerly look forward to great jam sessions, where they would not only internalize their learning but more than that, simply enjoy the Music. Once that happens, raising the audience to the band's wavelength will follow naturally.
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