Jayanthi Kumaresh tells stories through the veena
The Hindu
Veena exponent Jayanthi Kumaresh’s new series attempts to catch listeners young
An insolent lion roams about in the forest roaring majestically — in Nattai. A peacock dances to the onset of the monsoon in Amritavarshini. A cuckoo tweets a song in Varamu. A grasshopper jumps about on a mound of hay in Kadanakuthuhalam. And Jayanthi Kumaresh tells little children stories, her fingers flitting gracefully over the frets of her veena. Creativity explodes in different ways. While Carnatic musicians of yesteryear gave room to their creative instincts by letting themselves spontaneously present new phrases of notes in a raga or by evolving their own distinctive style (bani), musicians of the current age don’t seem content with that. They try multiple outlets. For instance, fusion: Carnatic jazz (Madras String Quartet) or Carnatic rock (Harish Sivaramakrishnan’s Agam band). Some simply entwine their traditional music with a ‘non-Carnatic’ instrument, like the piano. So, there are numerous strings in the lute, and Jayanthi Kumaresh has added her own to them. For some years now, the artiste has been delivering music via Cup O’Carnatic, a sort of a short-form exposition wrapped in pedagogy. And now, she has brought in a kiddie version of the same concept, and that is where you encounter lions, peacocks, cuckoos and grasshoppers.More Related News