It has been about a month since I would have normally posted a new episode... a substantial delay. But I finally put together a new episode to keep you company during those long holiday flights, baggage check-in lines, long drives and what have you.
It is a somewhat short episode, so make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you can listen to them all!
This one has a live clip from an older concert with B.U. Ganeshprasad (violin) and Poovalur Srinivasan (mridangam). I also address a couple questions.
Here we are, at the conclusion of our discussion with morsing maestro and innovator, B. Rajashekar. It was wonderful being able to have a close mentor of mine on the show and memorable at the same time.
At the end of our conversation we play a short duet to show you what the morsing sounds as an accompanying instrument without any other percussion instruments.
I am happy to say I was actually able to bring you another episode within my prescribed time span of two weeks! I am very excited to share this discussion with you.
I had a special guest who is a mentor and dear friend, Sri Bangalore B. Rajashekar, who happens to be finishing up a tour of the U.S. with a percussion ensemble. As my title states, he is a master of his instrument, the morsing (also referred to around the world as "Jew's Harp.") It is one of the three main auxiliary percussion instruments used in Carnatic music aside from ghatam and kanjira.
In action (taken from the stage a few years ago in India)
Together with my guru a some years back.
To keep things digestible, I have broken our discussion into two parts. The second one will be released in the next episode.
In case for some reason you are contemplating whether or not to check this out, there is quite a bit of him actually playing and at the end of our discussion we do a short duet together (you can find that in the next episode). The whole thing was really memorable and fun.
We also got to spend some time together:
Enjoy, and feel free to send in feedback/questions.
This is the first in the series of podcasts discussing Indian classical (Carnatic) music, jazz and the role of the saxophone in both of these forms of music. This episode features a demonstration of the raga Bhairavi on the alto saxophone.