Enjoy music Made of Chennai at The Hindu festival on September 14 and 15

Made of Chennai at The Hindu: Carnatic, hip hop, rap, rock, gaana, and folk will present a slice of the city’s diverse culture at The Hindu’s Music and Food festival.

Festivals, almost by definition, ought to be egalitarian and collaborative. Music festivals in particular, since art is a great leveller. In a cultural milieu, it actually doesn’t take much effort to break class and caste barriers. The Hindu’s upcoming 10-act musical event aspires to achieve exactly this by bringing musicians of diverse genres on a single platform

The two-day celebration will explore Chennai’s music ecosystem, which is known for its proclivity to tradition, but is evolving to embrace new settings and sounds. The festival also marks the culmination of The Hindu’s 45-day Made of Chennai campaign to commemorate Madras Day. The campaign was about looking back (385 years) and looking ahead.

At the festival, classical, gaana, hip hop, rap and film songs will give listeners a peek into this city’s distinctive ethos.

Says Badhri Narayanan Seshadri of MMM (Motta Maadi Music) fame, who will be performing at the festival, “Though Chennai is popular across the globe for Carnatic music, there is space here for other genres too. Independent musicians have tapped into it with great success.”

The now nine-member group, which began performing on motta maadi (terrace) for fun, has moved onto the proscenium and now travels around the world. “Wherever we go, we create the atmosphere of a thiruvizha to showcase Tamil music,” says Badhri.

With Chennai’s rasikas becoming more receptive to innovative presentations, Carnatic musicians are looking beyond the repertoire to engage with the art form in exciting ways. Classically-trained playback singer Haricharan, who has been performing with bands for more than a decade, says that though music festivals in Chennai have sealed their place in Carnatic music history, they have, of late,  been sparking future visions. “Musicians seem to be experiencing a new-found freedom as they are stepping out of their comfort zone to create a novel soundscape.

For the past one-year, Haricharan has been performing with the Drums Kumaran Collective. “I put together the collective led by drummer Kumaran. They are all excellent musicians. I have been recording with them. I have already released three songs and there are more to come. Though we are now working on covers, we plan to come up with some originals soon,” says the singer.